How soon do May’s Social Security payments arrive?

(NEXSTAR) – We’re more than halfway through April, which may have you looking ahead to when you’ll receive your May Social Security benefits.

Unlike other months this year, Social Security payments will arrive on a normal schedule in May.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, typically disbursed on the first day of the month, are scheduled to be sent on May 1. (The maximum monthly SSI benefit for eligible individuals in 2026 is $994, or $1,491 if they have an eligible spouse.)

Those who received Social Security before May 1997 can also expect their benefits on May 1. If they receive SSI as well, Social Security will be paid on May 3 instead.

All other Social Security benefits will be paid on Wednesdays based on the recipient’s birthday.

• May 13: Birth dates on 1st through 10th

• May 20: Birth dates on 11th through 20th

• May 27: Birth dates on 21 through 31st

While holidays frequently upend the Social Security payment calendar, Memorial Day won’t impact May payments since it falls on a Monday late in the month.

The next time a holiday interrupts the schedule is in November, when Veterans’ Day falls on the second Wednesday of the month.

Social Security recipients will see a wonky month of payments well before then, however. There will be no SSI payment in August; that month’s benefit will instead be disbursed on July 31, since August 1 falls on a Saturday. Later on, November’s SSI payment will go out on October 30 because the month starts on a Sunday.

Next year’s Social Security COLA project may cause ‘worry’

Around November, Social Security recipients should also know the cost-of-living-adjustment that will be made to next year’s payments.

The Senior Citizen’s League (TSCL), a nonpartisan organization aiming to educate older Americans about laws, rights and financial issues facing their demographic, predicted earlier this month that the upcoming COLA increase could be 2.8%, the same as 2026’s.

TSCL called the projection “meager,” saying it could cause “worry” among Americans.

“The fact is that most senior households already get by on only about 58% as much income as their working-age counterparts, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a middle-class or working-class American who thinks the economy is doing well right now, especially as oil prices rise,” Shannon Benton, the executive director of TSCL, was quoted as saying in a recent press release.

The final COLA adjustment is expected to be announced in the fall.

Nexstar’s Michael Bartiromo contributed to this report.

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