The fourth Wednesday of October may have come and gone already, but the Social Security Administration (SSA) is not yet done with its payments this month. The SSA issues two types of benefit checks to its beneficiaries: the regular Social Security benefit which is paid to retirees, survivors, or disabled individuals, and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit which is a type of welfare benefit that is given to those who have little to no other income (often due to having a disability).
The two benefit types follow independent payment structures. The SSI benefit is typically paid to beneficiaries on the first of each month, however, the SSA does often roll out the SSI checks a few days earlier. The regular benefit, on the other hand, follows a more detailed structure where benefits are paid on Wednesdays throughout the month relative to the date of birth of the recipient.
All regular Social Security benefits for the month of October will have already been disbursed as of October 22nd, which is the Wednesday that just passed. One more benefit payment does, however, still remain for this month as per the schedule. Here is what you need to know.
Social Security benefit schedule
There are currently well over 70 million beneficiaries in the Social Security program and likely due to this high volume of recipients, the SSA has structured its payment schedule in a manner that spreads payment days across the month. By planning its schedule this way rather than trying to issue tens of millions of checks on one day, there will likely be less room for error.
The regular Social Security benefit is paid on the second, third, and fourth Wednesday of each month, with the beneficiary’s birth date determining exactly when they will receive their monthly benefit. For the current month of October, benefits were paid on the following dates:
- October 8th, second Wednesday – beneficiaries with birth dates from the 1st to the 10th of their respective birth month
- October 15th, third Wednesday – beneficiaries with birth dates from the 11th to the 20th of their respective birth month
- October 22nd, fourth Wednesday – beneficiaries with birth dates from the 21st to the 31st of their respective birth month
The SSI benefit for October had been paid to beneficiaries on October 1st and as such, all benefits intended for the month of October have now been paid out — but there still remains one more payment en route to the bank accounts of beneficiaries before the month is up.
On October 31st, SSI beneficiaries will receive another SSI check. This payment will be the SSI benefit for the month of November. The SSA is paying the November SSI benefit early because the first of November falls on a weekend. Instead of delaying the November benefit to the next working day in the month, the agency is issuing the SSI check early. As such, there will be no SSI payment for the entirety of the month of November.
COLA announcement
Benefit payments for January 2026 will bring along with it a new increased amount as the COLA increase goes into effect. The COLA is an annual increase implemented across all benefits issued by the SSA in order to account for year over year inflation.
The COLA announcement was previously meant to take place on October 15th, however, due to the federal government shutdown, it has now been pushed back to October 24th. According to estimates from Social Security experts, the 2026 COLA should bring seniors an increase of around 2.7%. Alongside this benefit increase, Medicare premiums are, unfortunately, also projected to face an increase of around 11.6%. This would bring the cost of the premium up from $185 to approximately $206.