Social Security benefits will be paid later this month: 2025 check schedule

Social Security recipients will get their benefits payments later than usual in May.

Distribution dates for some 7.4 million people who receive Social Security benefits are later in May than any other month in 2025. The change has to do with a quirk in the calendar.

Typically, Social Security benefits are paid on the second, third and fourth Wednesday of the month based on when you were born. People born on the 1st – 10th of the month are paid on the second Wednesday; 11th-20th paid on the third Wednesday; and 21st-31st on the fourth Wednesday.

In May, the first of the month fell on a Thursday and the first Wednesday of the month on the 7th, pushing the second Wednesday back to the 14th. Other benefits will follow on the 21st and 28th.

People who receive Supplemental Social Security payments – benefits for low-income elderly or people with disabilities – will also see a change this month. SSI is paid on the first of the month and the May benefits went out on schedule May 1. June’s benefits will also be paid in May, arriving on May 30, because June 1 falls on a Sunday.

That means SSI recipients will get two payments in May and none in June.

Beneficiaries who received Social Security before May 1997 or receive both Social Security and SSI have a different schedule. Their SSI is paid on the 1st of the month but their Social Security benefits arrive on the third Wednesday, no matter when their birth date falls.