Federal benefit payments are supposed to arrive electronically, and the Treasury Department’s rule leaves only narrow doors for anyone who wants to keep getting paper. Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service says in plain terms that “all federal benefit payments must now be paid electronically,” either by direct deposit to a bank or credit union account or to a Treasury-sponsored account such as a Direct Express card. The exceptions are written into the federal regulation at 31 CFR Part 208, and only one of them speaks to individual households.
Where the electronic-payment rule comes from
The requirement rests on a federal statute, 31 U.S.C. 3332, which Treasury says generally requires all federal payments other than those under the Internal Revenue Code to go out by direct deposit. The updated rule at 31 CFR Part 208 took effect on March 22, 2024, according to the Fiscal Service’s electronic funds transfer page, last updated March 10, 2026. That page tells recipients still getting checks to enroll at Godirect.gov or by calling the Treasury Electronic Payment Solution Center at 877-874-6347.
The regulation’s own mandate is one sentence long: all federal payments made by an agency shall be made by electronic funds transfer. Everything else in the waiver section is an exception to that sentence.
The question for a household still getting paper is whether a check can continue, and the answer is that it can only continue through a waiver written into the regulation. Eight numbered paragraphs list the waivers, and only one, aimed at individuals, includes hardship grounds that a household can request. Anyone who simply prefers a check, or has no bank account, is not described in any of the eight.
A paper check that stops arriving leaves a household waiting on a hardship request that Treasury can reject, and a missed deposit is the next problem. The Social Security Check Protection Kit includes the 2026 payment calendar, so the day a payment is due is on the page before anyone has to chase one.
Keep the 2026 payment calendar for electronic benefit deposits in the Social Security kit →
The eight waiver paragraphs
Section 208.4(a) lists the waivers in eight numbered paragraphs. Seven of them are written for agencies and special situations, not for a household:
Paragraph 2 covers foreign countries whose infrastructure does not support electronic payment, and paragraph 3 covers foreign-currency payments Treasury cannot make electronically. Paragraph 4 covers disaster areas, for payments within 120 days of a disaster declaration, with longer periods needing Treasury approval. Paragraph 5 covers certain military operations and active-duty calls during a declared war or national emergency. Paragraph 6 covers threats to national security, danger to life or physical safety, or a compromised law enforcement action. Paragraph 7 covers cases where an agency does not expect multiple regular payments to the same recipient within a year. Paragraph 8 covers an urgent need or a single source where the government would be seriously injured, with Treasury approving the agency’s request.
The first paragraph is the one about individuals, and it holds five items. Two of them concern age and the kind of payment: a person born before May 1, 1921, who was being paid by check on March 1, 2013, and payment types that Treasury does not offer to a Treasury-sponsored account. A third covers an account that the Financial Agent has suspended or canceled. The last two are the hardship grounds.
The two hardship grounds
Under paragraph 1, a household can ask for a waiver on two hardship grounds: a mental impairment that prevents managing an account, or living in a remote area that lacks the infrastructure to support electronic transactions. The regulation says the waiver applies if Treasury has not rejected the request.
The process is not informal. Subsection (b) requires an individual requesting a hardship waiver to submit a written certification to Treasury in the form Treasury prescribes, and to attest to it before a notary or file it as Treasury prescribes. Treasury may reject any request. Subsection (c) lets Treasury cancel a waiver for a whole class of cases if the waivers would lead to an unusually large number of payments by paper.
Treasury points people without an account to the FDIC’s #GetBanked site, which offers information on opening one online or at a local institution, and lists Direct Express as an electronic alternative.
Direct Express and the card-prefix phone lines
Treasury’s Direct Express page, updated September 1, 2026, says the card is issued by Fifth Third Bank under a license from Mastercard. Customer service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the number depends on the first digits of the card: cards beginning 5332 use 1-888-741-1115, and cards beginning 5141 use 1-833-347-9777. The enrollment center is 800-333-1795, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday.
The same page says cardholders must receive federal benefits electronically, through direct deposit to a bank or credit union account or on the Direct Express card.
What stays protected once the money lands
Electronic payment also brings a protection that paper does not. Under 31 CFR Part 212, a bank that receives a garnishment order for an account holding Social Security, VA, Railroad Retirement Board or OPM benefits must review the account over a two-month lookback and protect the lesser of the benefits posted in that period or the balance on the day of review. The account holder does not have to claim an exemption first, and the bank is not supposed to freeze the protected amount.
That protection has its own carve-out: when a Notice of Right to Garnish Federal Benefits is attached, the bank follows its customary procedures instead.
Asking for a paper payment through a hardship waiver
The free official route starts at Treasury’s electronic funds transfer page, which lists the Electronic Payment Solution Center number, 877-874-6347, and the rule under which waivers are decided. A caller should say which of the two hardship grounds applies, mental impairment or a remote area without electronic-transaction infrastructure, and ask what Treasury wants to see in the certification.
Keep a record of the call date, the person spoken to and what was sent. If a payment does not arrive on its normal date, that record shows Treasury or the paying agency what was requested. For anyone on a Direct Express card, the phone line that matches the first four digits is the place to report a missing deposit.
The rule itself leaves no ambiguity about the starting point: 31 CFR 208.3 says all federal payments made by an agency shall be made by electronic funds transfer, and eight numbered paragraphs in section 208.4(a) say who is excused.
Eight waivers, and a payment that must arrive electronically
For a household that now depends on a deposit, a late or wrong payment is the practical risk, because the paper check that used to show up is no longer the default. The Social Security Check Protection Kit includes the 2026 payment calendar and a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment, so the steps are in order on the day a deposit fails to land.
Get the first-24-hours plan for a missing benefit deposit in the Social Security kit →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
