Here’s why some Social Security recipients will see their checks reduced by up to 50%

Hundreds of thousands of Americans could see their next Social Security checks cut by as much as 50% due to a new overpayment recoupment policy.

As of late July, the Social Security Administration will begin withholding up to 50% of monthly benefits from recipients who previously received an overpayment from the agency.

Overpayments typically occur when a recipient fails to update a change in their income that would have resulted in a lower monthly benefit amount.

The agency will continue to withhold up to 50% of the overpaid recipients benefits each month until their overpayment is fully recouped.

After overpayment withholdings were temporarily suspended during the coronavirus pandemic, they were reinstated last year, but at a significantly lower rate of 10%.

In March, the Social Security Administration announced plans to implement a 100% withholding rate, meaning those who were overpaid would not receive any benefits until it was recouped, but the agency changed course in April and settled on the 50% rate.

When will you receive your check?

When recipients receive their monthly benefits varies based on their birthdate.

For those with a birthdate between the 1st and the 10th of the month, benefits are issued on the second Wednesday of each month.

Those with birthdates between the 11th and the 20th receive their checks on the third Wednesday of the month, and those born between the 21st and 31st get theirs on the fourth Wednesday.

That means that in July, some Social Security recipients already received their checks on July 9, with the remaining recipients set to receive them on July 16 or July 23.

However, there are a few exceptions.

Those who have received Social Security benefits since before May 1997 and those who receive both Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income will see their checks come in earlier in the month.

For members of those groups, SSI benefits will be issued on the 1st of each month, with Social Security benefits following a few days later on the 3rd of the month.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) provides a comprehensive schedule of benefit payments for 2025, which is publicly available on the SSA website.

Increased benefits in 2025

Last October, the Social Security Administration announced a 2.5% cost of living adjustment (COLA) for 2025, which resulted in a roughly $50 boost in monthly benefits for the tens of millions of Americans who receive Social Security.

The 2.5% increase was the lowest since 2020, when monthly benefits increased by just 1.3%, but was relatively in line with past increases, with the COLA averaging out at 2.6% over the past two decades.

Cost-of-living adjustments are determined using third-quarter data – July, August and September – from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).

Inflation for those three months is added together, averaged and then compared to the previous year’s third-quarter average, with the percentage difference between the current year and the previous year serving as the COLA rate for the upcoming year.