The United States Social Security Administration today sends out the first of January’s retirement payments. And not only is it the first of January’s payments, it is also the first of 2024’s payments. This means that this year’s COLA is included in today’s January 3rd check.
So any check you got from Social Security in 2023 will not be repeated in 2024. The COLA causes retirement payments to increase, so this year it could be as high as $4,873. Even so, this amount is the maximum, so not all beneficiaries will be able to reach such a check.
Likewise, only a group of retirees can get today’s payment. And among the requirements we do not find neither the type of retirement nor the amount of the check. These characteristics do not cause us to get our Social Security payment on one day or another, so they do not matter for marking on the calendar the day on which we might receive our retirement benefit.
But in order to determine the day of payment each month, we must take into account both the year of retirement and the day of the birthday. These two pieces of information are fundamental to determine the group of retirees to which we belong, so we must take this into account to organize our family economy and mark the day on which we receive our retirement benefit.
Requirements for getting your Social Security check today
The day of the Social Security payment depends on two main factors. The first is the birthday and the second is the date of retirement. The latter divides retirees into two major groups. In turn, one of these groups is divided into different groups.
The date of retirement causes these groups to split and the exact year that makes the difference is 1997. All retirees prior to that time collect the first of the month’s checks. This means that in order to collect today’s retirement it is necessary to have had the check since before that year.
The rest of the retirees who have a benefit since after 1997 collect on the later days and the group is divided into three different groups. These Social Security beneficiaries receive their payments on the second, third and fourth Wednesday of each month.
In January these days are the 10th, 17th and 24th of the month. So if you have a post-1997 benefit you may get your check for up to 4,873 on one of these days depending on your day of birth.
Although there are several groups the important thing today is to belong to group 1. This is the only way we can get the payment today. At least we will be able to get the payment this week, because to get the payment today it is mandatory to activate Direct Deposit.
If we do not activate this payment method it does not mean that we will not receive the money, but we will get it a few days later. Regardless of the amount we get from Social Security, we will be able to collect it today by fulfilling these two requirements.
