Some Americans will receive two Social Security payments this week, a rare occasion that’s the result of a quirk within the system.
Typically, the Social Security Administration sends out just one payment each week, delivering Social Security checks on the second, third and fourth Wednesdays of every month. Then it pays Supplemental Social Security Income — which provides support for disabled people and older Americans with low incomes — on the primary of the month unless it falls on a weekend or holiday.
Because March 1 coincides with the fourth Wednesday of February, some SSI recipients will receive each payments this week. Meaning roughly 7.4 million SSI recipients will get their March payments on Friday, March 1.
To be clear, the back-to-back deposits don’t mean retirees are receiving extra cash — it’s just an early payment for the next month.
That is slated to occur two more times this 12 months, in August and November, in keeping with a schedule of payments on the Social Security Administration’s website.
Retirees received a modest cost-of-living bump this 12 months, but many have reported struggling to get by as they proceed to battle high inflation that has rapidly eroded their purchasing power.
![A Social Security card sits alongside checks from the U.S. Treasury.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/iStock-1567584031.jpg?w=1024)
A recent survey published by Atticus found that an amazing percentage of seniors collecting Social Security — about 62% — are dissatisfied with the three.2% payment increase they’re receiving in 2024.
In reality, nearly three in five seniors reported struggling financially as the fee of on a regular basis necessities like food, rent and medical care stays uncomfortably high, while about 20% of seniors receiving Social Security plan to hunt employment this 12 months attributable to the small increase.
Retirees reported concerns over rising utility, insurance, heating and food costs.
Greater than 66 million Americans collecting Social Security received the larger payments starting in January.
The payment boost marked a steep decline from 2023, when recipients received an 8.7% bump, the best in 4 many years. Nevertheless, it stays higher than the two.6% average increase recorded over the past twenty years.
A rise of this magnitude raised the common retiree profit of $1,907 by about $59 per thirty days.
The annual Social Security change is calculated based on the consumer price index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Employees, or the CPI-W, from July, August and September.