Beneficiaries from the Social Security Administration (SSA) will be pleased to know that not one, not two, but three checks could be hitting their bank accounts during the course of May. This third payment is not a freebie from the agency, however, but rather an early payment to be used for the next month.
Types of Social Security payments
The standard procedure for these payments is that the SSA issues two checks to qualifying beneficiaries each month. The dates of these payments can be found on the SSA’s official payment schedule which can be found on the agency’s website.
The first payment that goes out, usually on the first of the month, each month is the Supplemental Security Income, or SSI. This SSI benefit is paid out to qualifying individuals with little to no other income or resources, which includes adults aged 65 or above, the blind, and disabled individuals. In certain cases, children may also qualify for SSI benefits.
Typically, adults earning above the $2,019 threshold monthly, will not be able to qualify for SSI. Around 7.4 million Americans who live with disabilities or have limited resources receive SSI benefit payments each month. Additionally, around a third of this cohort are also recipients of the traditional Social Security.
The second payment rolled out by the SSA is the traditional Social Security benefit which goes out on the second, third, and fourth Wednesday of each month in relation to the date of birth of the beneficiary. The payment dates for Social Security benefits are as follows: beneficiaries born from the 1st to the 10th of the month will receive their check on the second Wednesday of each month — for May, this will be the 14th. Beneficiaries born between the 11th and 20th of the month will receive their benefit on the third Wednesday of the month, May 21. Lastly, recipients with birth dates from the 21st to the 31st of the month will receive their checks on the fourth Wednesday of the month, May 28.
Additionally, beneficiaries who had been receiving Social Security from prior to May 1997 will be receive their SSI payment on the 1st of the month, with the Social Security payment following on the 3rd. These dates apply to beneficiaries who receive both the SSI and traditional Social Security benefits as well.
Three benefit checks for May
According to the official payment schedule of the SSA, for the month of May, beneficiaries will be receiving three checks: the SSI payment for May which would have already been sent out as of the 1st, the traditional Social Security check which will go out on the 14th, 21st, and 28th of May. The third SSA payment for May will be a second SSI check on May 30.
It is crucial for beneficiaries of SSI to know that this second SSI payment on May 30 is the SSI benefit for the month of June, meaning that it is not a bonus payment. As such, absolutely no SSI payments will be made for the entirety of the month of June so beneficiaries should exercise caution when planning out their budgets according to the SSA’s schedule.
The remainder of the SSI payments for 2025, according to the SSA’s official payment schedule, is as follows:
- Thursday, May 1, 2025 (Check for May 2025)
- Friday, May 30, 2025 (Check for June 2025)
- Tuesday, July 1, 2025 (Check for July 2025)
- Friday, Aug. 1, 2025 (Check for August 2025)
- Friday, Aug. 29, 2025 (Check for September 2025)
- Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025 (Check for October 2025)
- Friday, Oct. 31, 2025 (Check for November 2025)
- Monday, Dec. 1, 2025 (Check for December 2025)
- Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025 (Check for January 2026)
The payment distribution dates for May 2025 are also later than in the month than any other month during the year.