Social Security benefits are getting a 3.2% raise in 2024, which will boost the average payment from $1,848 per month to $1,907. And some seniors will wind up with a lot more than that.
Technically, the Social Security Administration (SSA) applies this increase to your December 2023 benefit, but you don't receive your payments until the month after the month for which they're due, which is why it's not paid until January. Below, I'll show you exactly when to expect that first new-and-improved Social Security benefit.
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You only have to wait a few more weeks
The SSA pays benefits on a predictable schedule. It breaks beneficiaries into three groups based on the day of the month they were born, as shown below:
- 1st to 10th: Second Wednesday of the month
- 11th to 20th: Third Wednesday of the month
- 21st to 31st: Fourth Wednesday of the month
From this, it's pretty simple to calculate when you'll get your first Social Security payment of 2024:
- 1st to 10th: Jan. 10
- 11th to 20th: Jan. 17
- 21st to 31st: Jan. 24
Though it doesn't apply to this upcoming January, it's worth noting that if one of the regularly scheduled payment days falls on a federal holiday, the government will pay that benefit on the first preceding weekday that's not a federal holiday. For example, if Jan. 17 were a holiday, the government would pay benefits to individuals born between the 11th and 20th of a month on Jan. 16.
There's another exception for those who began claiming Social Security before May 1997. Before this date, the SSA paid benefits to everyone on the third of each month. Those who began receiving payments back then remain on this schedule, so they will receive their first payment with the 2024 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) on Jan. 3.
What about SSI?
Supplemental security income (SSI) is a monthly benefit paid to low-income seniors as well as the blind and disabled that's administered by the SSA. Generally, the government pays these benefits on the first of each month. But things are a bit trickier than normal for your first SSI benefit after the COLA.
Jan. 1 is a federal holiday, so the government won't send out any money then. As we discussed above, when this happens, the government pays out benefits on the first non-holiday before the regular payment date. But Dec. 30 and 31 fall on the weekend, so your first SSI payment with your new amount will arrive a little early, on Dec. 29, 2023.
If you have any questions about your upcoming Social Security payments or how much you'll receive from the program next year, you can contact the SSA for more information. You can also create a my Social Security account where you can view your 2024 COLA notice and other key details about your benefit.
