Social Security benefit payments are rolled out on Wednesdays throughout the month. Now that the second Wednesday of August is almost here, the first round of benefit payments for the month will soon be sent out. The bad news for some beneficiaries, however, is that they might only receive half of their expected benefit amount.
Beneficiaries could see their benefit for August slashed in half due to the Social Security Administration’s to recoup all overpaid benefits at a withholding rate of 50%, as announced earlier this year. The first round of notices informing beneficiaries who had been overpaid of the withholding rate were sent out on April 25th, with clawbacks scheduled to go into effect as of July 24th. Here is what you need to know about the benefit payments for August.
50% Withholding rate for Social Security benefits
An overpayment of Social Security benefits can happen through the fault of either the beneficiary or the Social Security Administration (SSA). For instance, the SSA could make an error when calculating benefit amounts, or alternatively, the beneficiary could have failed to update the agency regarding any changes to their income.
According to a report from the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General, “from FYs 2015 through 2022, SSA estimates it made nearly $72 billion in improper payments, most of which were overpayments. While this is less than 1 percent of the total benefits paid during that period, at the end of FY 2023, SSA had an uncollected overpayment balance of $23 billion.”
Furthermore, according to the report, “about 75% of the overpayments happened because beneficiaries did not successfully report information to the SSA that negatively affected their benefits.”
In March, the Trump Administration announced a withholding rate of 100%, however, this sparked immediate backlash causing an emergency meeting to be held at the SSA in April. The withholding rate was then dropped to 50% of the benefit amount for those with Title II benefits. Subsequently, notices were sent to the impacted beneficiaries on April 25th.
What to do if you receive a notice of overpayment
Upon receiving the overpayment notice, the beneficiary would have then had 90 days to take action against the notice. The recipient will have the following three options available to them depending on their circumstances:
- Apply for a reconsideration if they believe they had been paid the appropriate amount in the past
- Submit a waiver of repayment if repaying the debt would result in severe financial hardship
- Negotiate a lower rate of withholding
If a beneficiary had received the notice of overpayment but did not take any action regarding it during the 90 day period of grace, the 50% withholding rate will automatically go into effect until their debt is cleared. The 90 day period following the first round of notices that had been sent out on April 25th came to an end on July 24th. Following this, all benefits will be subject to the 50% withholding rate, and according to the SSA’s payment schedule, the benefit payments for August will likely be the first to be impacted.
August benefit payment dates
The Schedule of Social Security Benefit Payments for both 2025 and 2026 are currently available on the SSA website. The date on which regular Social Security benefits are paid out are determined in relation to your date of birth. The payments are rolled out on the second, third, and fourth Wednesday of each month. August benefits will be paid on the following dates:
- Second Wednesday, August 13th – recipients with birth dates from the 1st of the month to the 10th
- Third Wednesday, August 20th – recipients with birth dates from the 11th of the month to the 20th
- Fourth Wednesday, August 27th – recipients with birth dates from the 21st of the month to the 31st