While millions of retired Americans will soon see a 2.5% cost of living increase in their Social Security payments, additional Social Security checks might be in the mail for November, thanks to a calendar quirk.
Typically, Supplemental Security Income recipients receive their checks on the first of each month, but in November, a second check will also come at the end of the month. That’s because of a rule where if the first of the month falls on a holiday or weekend, the checks are delivered the previous weekday.
In December, the first of the month falls on a Sunday, which means checks for the month of December will instead be delivered on Nov. 29, according to the Social Security Administration’s calendar. That doesn’t mean there will be no checks in December, however.
A similar calendar quirk will actually affect check delivery for every month through March, with each start of the month falling on either a holiday or a weekend.
For January, checks will actually be delivered on Dec. 31. For February, checks will be delivered on Jan. 31, and for March, checks will be delivered on Feb. 28.
There will then be no checks delivered in March before things return to normal in April.
Social Security 2025 Cost Of Living Increase
The Social Security Administration on Oct. 10 announced millions of retired Americans will soon see a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment for benefit payments.
The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for retirees, translates to an average increase of more than $50 for retirees every month, agency officials said.
Could The Social Security Cola Estimate Change?
The current 2.5% estimate has about a 17% chance of increasing and a 13% chance of decreasing, according to Johnson’s calculations from last month
The official Social Security cost-of-living adjustment will factor in one more month of government inflation data when it is announced. That data, the consumer price index, will also be released on Thursday.
The Social Security COLA is calculated based on a subset of the consumer price index known as the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W.
Third-quarter CPI-W data for last year is compared with the third quarter for the current year. The percentage increase from last year to this year determines the COLA.
While hurricanes can affect the calculations, Johnson said the effects of Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in the evening on Sept. 26, likely happened too late to be factored into September’s data.
