Paper checks are now the exception for federal benefits, and keeping one takes paperwork. The Social Security Administration’s electronic payment page states the rule bluntly: “Federal law mandates that all federal benefit payments – including Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) – be made electronically.” Treasury, not SSA, decides who gets out of it, and for the two hardship grounds an ordinary beneficiary can use, Treasury requires a written certification that is either notarized or filed on a form Treasury prescribes.

Where the notary requirement actually sits in the regulation

The waiver rules are in 31 CFR 208.4. Paragraph (b) says an individual or agency requesting a waiver must “provide, in writing, to Treasury a certification supporting that request,” and that the individual attests to it “before a notary public, or otherwise file[s] the certification in such form that Treasury may prescribe.” A notary is therefore one route, not the only one. Treasury’s own form is the other.

This matters in a household budget because a waiver request can be rejected, and a rejected request leaves the person with the electronic default. A beneficiary with a mental impairment that makes an account unmanageable, or who lives in a place without the infrastructure, would be asking Treasury to accept a written certification, and the regulation does not promise a result.

Anyone who needs to act on this, and who worries about a payment going astray during a change, can look at The Social Security Check Protection Kit, which includes a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment.

Get the first-24-hours plan for a missing benefit payment →

The certification also does not attach to every waiver ground. For individuals, it attaches to the two hardship grounds in paragraph (a)(1):

• Mental impairment, (a)(1)(iv): hardship “because of the individual’s inability to manage an account” due to a mental impairment;
• Remote location, (a)(1)(v): hardship due to living in a remote geographic location “lacking the infrastructure to support electronic financial transactions.”

Other grounds in the section work differently. Paragraph (a)(1)(i) covers people born before May 1, 1921 who were receiving payment by check on March 1, 2013. Paragraph (a)(1)(iii) covers people who are ineligible for a Treasury-sponsored account because of suspension or cancellation, and (a)(1)(ii) covers a type of payment for which Treasury does not offer delivery to such an account. Later paragraphs handle disaster areas, limited to 120 days after a declaration, and several agency-side situations. None of those individual grounds in (a)(1)(i) through (iii) calls for a beneficiary’s notarized statement.

Treasury can say no

A request is not automatically granted. The regulation reserves Treasury’s right to reject any waiver request it receives, and the hardship grounds are written so that a request stands unless Treasury has rejected it. SSA calls the outcome “extremely rare”: “In extremely rare circumstances, Treasury may grant exceptions to the electronic payment mandate.”

Who must act, and what the other routes are

The people this touches are those still on paper who want to remain there, and those whose paper checks stop. Someone who qualifies under the pre-1921 birth date and was on checks as of March 1, 2013 is in a category that needs no hardship certification. For a person in the mental-impairment or remote-location situation, the job is to put the certification in front of Treasury, notarized or on Treasury’s form.

For many households the more practical answer is a different kind of account, since the mandate is about electronic delivery and not about any one product. SSA’s page states the rule and points to Treasury for exceptions; it does not offer a paper-check option of its own.

No deadline appears in the regulation for filing a waiver. The date that counts is the date a paper check would otherwise stop, and that date comes from the paying agency, not from 31 CFR 208.4.

Asking Treasury through SSA’s own channel

SSA’s deposit page gives two free ways to request a waiver. The first is to call Treasury at 1-855-290-1545. The second is to print and fill out a waiver form and return it to the address on the form. Neither route involves SSA deciding the request.

Before calling, gather the benefit type, the ground being claimed (mental impairment or remote location), the supporting facts, and a notary if the notarized route is chosen. Ask Treasury how it wants the certification filed and keep a copy of whatever is sent.

The Social Security Check Protection Kit is an 18-page kit with a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment and the 2026 payment calendar, which can sit beside a waiver request while the paper-check question is open.

Get The Social Security Check Protection Kit for a paper-check benefit →

This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the waiver grounds and certification rules were checked against 31 CFR 208.4 on the eCFR and the Social Security Administration’s deposit page, linked above.