The Social Security Administration (SSA) is in charge of paying both the regular Social Security benefits, as well as the SSI, or Supplemental Security Income benefits to millions upon millions of vulnerable Americans each month. The payment dates for both of these benefits are uploaded to the Social Security Administration (SSA) website at least a year in advance, thereby allowing beneficiaries to plan out and adjust their monthly budgets accordingly.
As per the official Schedule of Social Security Benefit Payments, the regular Social Security benefits are rolled out on Wednesdays throughout the month. In particular, these payments are made on the second, third, and fourth Wednesday of each month in relation to the date of birth of the recipient. The payment dates for Social Security benefits are broken up this way likely due to the significant number of beneficiaries. There are currently close to 68 million Social Security recipients as of June according to the SSA’s Monthly Statistical Snapshot.
Furthermore, the monthly SSI benefit payments are generally made on the first of every month, however, minor fluctuations with these dates do often occur but are always marked accordingly on the payment schedule. According to data from the June Statistical Snapshot, there are currently around 7.2 million recipients of the Supplemental Security Income, or the SSI.
For the upcoming month of August, SSI beneficiaries will have by now noticed that there are two SSI payments scheduled for the month, however, this is not an error. Here is what you need to know about the double SSI payment for August.
Double SSI payments for August
The SSA’s official payment schedule indicates that for the upcoming month of August, not one but two SSI payments will me made — one at the beginning of the month as usual, and then a second payment at the end of the month. This is not an error on the schedule, nor is it a bonus benefit for the month of August. Rather, this second SSI payment at the end of August is the SSI benefit to be used for the following month of September.
Whilst SSI payments are generally made on the first of the month, there are often months where the 1st falls on a weekend or holiday meaning that it is not a working day. As such, rather than delaying the payment to the next working day, the SSA opts to make the payment a few days earlier, which usually the last working day of the previous month. In this case, the September SSI payment will be made on August 29th.
By doing this, beneficiaries will have their income for them month as the month begins rather than facing an extra delay. Scheduling payments this way is especially beneficial to the recipients of SSI benefits as the SSA also notes on its payment schedule that, “If you don’t receive your payment on the expected date, please allow three additional mailing days before contacting Social Security.”
Projected shortfall with the Social Security program
The latest annual report from the Social Security Board of Trustees has brought with it some troubling news: the program’s projected shortfall has been moved up a year and if Congress does not intervene soon, the trust funds which are used to pay benefits will be exhausted by 2034 and following this, the remaining revenue would only be able to cover around 81% of scheduled benefits going forward.
Social Security benefits are paid from the Old Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund, whilst SSI benefits are paid from the Disability Insurance (DI) trust fund. The report states that the OASI trust fun will be depleted by 2033 if change is not enacted soon. The DI trust fund will remain fine until 2099, however, the report also included the hypothetical shortfall dates if the OASI and DI trust funds were combined into the OASDI trust fund. If both trust funds were combined, it would be depleted by 2034 at which point the remaining revenue would only be able to cover 81% of scheduled payments.