Americans to Get Additional Social Security Payment in May

Some Social Security (SSI) recipients will get a rare second payment next month.

SSI recipients nationwide are usually paid on the first day of the month from the Social Security Administration (SSA), which makes payments to all claimants. But for May only, SSI recipients will receive their payments for June on the final day of the month, May 31. The changed payment also applies to those who receive any Social Security payments and have been claiming since before May 1997, as well as those who claim Social Security retirement benefits but live abroad.

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The Social Security Administration (SSA) pays out monthly benefits to those over the age of 65, individuals with disabilities, and surviving family members of deceased claimants. Claimants are paid on different days of the month depending on the type of benefit they receive and personal information, such as their birthday or where they live.

The payment date change is most likely because the usual payment date of June 1 falls on a Saturday this year. Newsweek has contacted the SSA for clarification and comment via email outside of normal working hours.

Social Security stock image
A stock image of a Social Security card with U.S. Dollars. Recipients of certain benefits will be paid twice in May, whereas they are usually only paid once per month. GETTY

This means that for an individual claiming the maximum SSI amount available per month, they will be paid $943 a day earlier than usual. This figure rises to $1,415 for a couple. For retirees getting an earlier payment, they could receive the maximum of $4,873. However, benefit amounts tend to be lower than this and depend on several factors, including your current or previous income and your marriage status.

All other Social Security payments for retirees under the regular Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) will receive their payments on Wednesdays throughout the month, according to their birth date, in line with the usual schedule of payments.

Those with birthdays that fall between the first and 10th of their birth month will receive their payment on Wednesday, May 8. Claimants who have a birthday between the 11th and 20th will receive their monthly amount on May 15, and anyone born between the 21st and 31st of any month will have their benefits paid on May 22.

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SSI payments being made twice in a single month usually only happens one per year. In December 2023, one payment was made on Friday, December 1, and another on Friday, December 29 for January—three days earlier than usual. This happened because January 1 is a national holiday due to it being the first day of the new year.

SSI benefits are paid to those that are 65 years old with low or no income, or those younger than 65 with a physical or mental disability that has lasted for at least one year.

If unsure about how much they may be receiving each month, SSI recipients can check how much money they should get using SSA's calculator on the administration's website.

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Aliss Higham is a Newsweek reporter based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her focus is reporting on issues across the U.S., including ... Read more

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