Social Security in the United States is paying American citizens up to $5,000 during this month! The SSA (Social Security Administration) has announced an economic help that is crucial for millions of beneficiaries, mostly retirees, disabled people or in a vulnerable situation. So, it’s important to know if you match the requirements for the maximum amount and when this payment will be done.
Social Security has a huge range of benefits that help American citizens deal with their expenses and the cost of living, but you need to be careful if you don’t want to lose them. In case you want to know how you can apply for it and if you are valid for this benefit, you should keep reading!
Social Security Administration
This is a U.S. government agency in charge of managing and distributing Social Security benefits. You could apply for many types of benefits like: retirement payments, disability benefits, survivor benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). These are just to name a few!
In case you are wondering who is funding these programs… it’s you! The SSA collects payroll taxes from workers and employers so that these programs can benefit American people, who depend a lot on them to have monthly financial support.
Can you be a beneficiary?
The SSA is very strict with the requirements to be valid to receive a benefit from the government. They only pay benefits to these groups of people, so let’s check if you belong to one of them:
- Retirees: elderly people who don’t work anymore.
- Disabled people.
- Widowers, widows and families of deceased workers.
- Low income people through the SSI.
Most of these beneficiaries don’t receive any other source of income, therefore, these Social Security monthly payments are essential for their financial stability. That’s why it’s so important to know how, when and how much it’s paid, maybe you are missing the opportunity to receive economic aid.
Here are the dates!
The SSA has an organized and predictable system to make sure every beneficiary receives their payment. The dates when this is done depend on your birth date and if you have applied for a special program such as the SSI. Let’s not waste more time and find out what everybody wants to know (apart from the amounts), the dates!
In general, people born between the 1st and the 10th will receive the payment the second Wednesday on the mont, for those whose birthday is between the 11th and the 20th the will have the money the third Wednesday of the month, and if you are from the group of those born between the 21st and the 31st you will get it the fourth Wednesday of the month.
However, this changes if you are in one of these situations: if you receive only the SSI, then you will be paid on the 1st of each month; if you receive the SSI and benefits for retirement, the date will be on the 3rd of each month; and for those who started receiving benefits before May of 1997, the date is the same, the 3rd.
Receiving the maximum payout: $5,108
I know you are interested in getting information on how you can get this amount of money, but you should know not everybody receives the same amount. In order to obtain $5,108, you must match three specific requirements:
- Have worked for at least 35 years and paying contributions to Social Security.
- Have collected 40 work credits, which is equivalent to 10 years of legal work in the U.S.
- Have waited until being 70 years old to claim your benefits because the SSA pays more to those who delay their retirement.
Higher payments this year
It wasn’t rare that these payments experienced an increment due to the cost of living adjustment (COLA), but this time is because of the passage of a new law from January of 2024: Social Security Fairness Act.
This law removed two rules: WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision) and GPO (Government Pension Offset). These reduces the SSA payments to people who received a pension that wasn’t subject to the SSA tax. This made payments to be higher and beneficiaries to receive retroactive payments from January 2024.
To sum up, you should be informed on every aspect possible from Social Security because you might be missing money that it’s yours. Check all the papers you need to prepare and apply for the benefit you belong to, who knows if you will be receiving these benefits too?