Social Security Payment Dates: Law Shields Early COLA Check

Social Security payment dates for the rest of 2026 put the first checks carrying the new 3.6% raise on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2026, 20 days after the stopgap law funding the federal government expires on Friday, Dec. 11. The Social Security Administration says about 7.3 million Supplemental Security Income recipients get their increased payments that day, and its payment rules move the January check for people paid on the 3rd of the month to the same date. The stopgap itself already covers that check. Section 111(b) of the law lets mandatory payments due on or about the first of the month keep going out for 30 days past Dec. 11, which reaches the January payments SSA sends on Dec. 31.

What SSA Announced on Oct. 14

In its Oct. 14 announcement, SSA said benefits for about 76 million people will rise 3.6% in 2027, with nearly 72 million Social Security beneficiaries seeing the increase beginning in January and increased SSI payments beginning Dec. 31. The average retirement benefit rises about $75 a month. SSA's 2027 fact sheet puts the average retired worker at $2,170 after the increase, up from $2,095, and the average disabled worker at $1,701, up from $1,642.

The federal SSI payment standard rises to $1,029 a month for an individual, from $994, and to $1,544 for a couple, from $1,491. The SSI resource limits stay at $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple. People who enroll in paperless notices by Nov. 18 can read their COLA notice online in late November, SSA said; others get it by mail in December. TradeFlock's earlier estimate of the 2027 COLA was 3.5%.

The Remaining Social Security Payment Dates for 2026

SSA's 2026 payment schedule pays most beneficiaries on the second, third or fourth Wednesday of the month, by birth date. People who started benefits before May 1997, or who get both Social Security and SSI, are paid on the 3rd. SSI is paid on the 1st. When a date falls on a weekend or federal holiday, the money goes out the business day before.

That produces these dates for the rest of the year. October payments for birthdays on the 11th through 20th went out Wednesday, Oct. 21, and those for the 21st through 31st follow on Wednesday, Oct. 28. November's SSI payment arrives Friday, Oct. 30, because Nov. 1 is a Sunday, so SSI recipients get nothing in November. The 3rd of the month group is paid Tuesday, Nov. 3, which is Election Day. Veterans Day on Wednesday, Nov. 11, moves the 1st through 10th birthday group to Tuesday, Nov. 10. The other November dates are Nov. 18 and Nov. 25.

December brings SSI on Tuesday, Dec. 1, the 3rd of the month group on Thursday, Dec. 3, and Wednesday payments on Dec. 9, Dec. 16 and Dec. 23. Then comes Dec. 31. New Year's Day is a federal holiday, and Jan. 3, 2027 is a Sunday, so both the January SSI payment and the January payment for the 3rd of the month group move to Thursday, Dec. 31. Those are January payments arriving early, not extra money. The birthday groups get their first raised checks on Jan. 13, Jan. 20 and Jan. 27.

Why the Dec. 11 Deadline Does Not Reach the Dec. 31 Check

The government is running on the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, Public Law 119-103, signed Sept. 2. Section 106 makes its funding available through Dec. 11, 2026, unless Congress acts sooner, and the Congressional Research Service overview says a funding gap may begin Dec. 12 without new spending bills or another stopgap.

Section 111(b) carves out the payments that matter here. It reads: "Notwithstanding section 106, obligations for mandatory payments due on or about the first day of any month that begins after October 2026 but not later than 30 days after the date specified in section 106(3) may continue to be made, and funds shall be available for such payments." Thirty days after Dec. 11 is Jan. 10, 2027, so a payment due on or about Jan. 1 falls inside the window. SSI is a mandatory program paid on the 1st, and the January SSI benefit is the one SSA sends early on Dec. 31. CRS summarizes the same provision as letting agencies make required mandatory payments "through the beginning of January 2027."

Social Security retirement, survivor and disability benefits do not depend on that clause. SSA's contingency plan dated Sept. 24, 2025 says they are paid from trust funds with indefinite authority and continue during a lapse. During the shutdown that began Oct. 1, 2025, SSA told the public that Social Security and SSI payments would continue with no change in dates.

TradeFlock's reading is that the law, not just agency practice, covers the first raised checks on Dec. 31. SSA has not published a statement on that specific payment. The clause stops at payments due by early January, so a lapse that ran past Jan. 10 would raise the question again for February SSI.

What the Raise Is Worth After Medicare

For most retirees, the January check will also reflect the 2027 Medicare Part B premium, which is deducted from Social Security and has not been set. SSA said enrollees will see the amount in their online accounts in late November. The Medicare trustees' June projection, covered in TradeFlock's Part B premium forecast, puts the increase at $6.60 a month from $202.90. On that estimate, the average retiree's $75 raise would net about $68 a month, a TradeFlock calculation. Federal offsets of benefits for defaulted student loans, detailed in TradeFlock's guide to student loan garnishment, can reduce some checks further.

The dates to watch: Nov. 18 for paperless COLA notices, late November for the Part B premium, Dec. 11 for funding, Dec. 31 for the first raised payments and Jan. 10, when the stopgap's protection for early month payments ends.

Cover photo: mail sorting room of the former U.S. Post Office at 201 East Patrick Street, Frederick, Maryland, Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS MD,11-FRED,23-9), Library of Congress, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).