Treasury has proposed ending the one exemption from electronic federal payments that depends on a person’s age. The waiver covers people born before May 1, 1921, who were still getting a federal payment by paper check on March 1, 2013. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service published the proposal on April 29, 2026, and the comment period closed on June 15, with no final rule published since.

Who does the age waiver cover?

The waiver dates to a December 22, 2010 final rule that required most federal payments to go out electronically. That rule made anyone born before May 1, 1921, who was still being paid by check on March 1, 2013, exempt automatically. It is the only exemption from electronic federal payments based on age.

Fiscal Service says in the proposed rule, published at 91 Federal Register 23039, that the waiver now has “limited applicability” because the people it protects “would now be over 104 years old.” Its proposal is blunt: “we propose eliminating the waiver category.” For a beneficiary in their late 50s, 60s or 70s, the age waiver never applied and does not now.

The practical question for anyone who still gets a federal check on paper is what exemption, if any, covers them. Age will not, since the waiver is limited to people born before May 1, 1921. Hardship and access exceptions remain, and they are the ones a person on paper would have to use.

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Which waivers would stay?

Treasury’s proposal keeps two individual waivers, both submitted to the agency that pays the person. One is for a mental impairment that makes managing an account a hardship. The other is for people who live where the infrastructure for electronic transfers is lacking.

The proposal also leaves a door open for groups. Agencies could still ask Treasury to approve a waiver for a group of recipients that has a reasonable need for non-electronic payments, and that request could take age into account. Individuals would no longer have an age-based waiver of their own.

Treasury would also drop a separate waiver for people whose Treasury-sponsored account was suspended or cancelled. Fiscal Service says in the proposal that it has had “extremely limited use.”

Why is Treasury doing this now?

The proposal follows Executive Order 14247, signed on March 25, 2025, which told the Treasury Secretary to stop issuing paper checks for federal payments effective September 30, 2025, to the extent the law allows. The order told agencies to move payments to electronic methods and to enroll recipients.

The order also set limits on that. Treasury was to write exceptions for people who do not have access to banking services or electronic payment systems, along with certain emergency and law-enforcement payments. The order says anyone covered by an exception “shall be provided alternative payment options.”

What does this mean for a beneficiary still on paper?

The proposal does not change how most people are paid. It removes a waiver that Treasury says almost no living person can use. The larger shift away from paper came from the executive order, and this rule updates the 2010 framework to match.

Social Security’s direct deposit page is the free official route for anyone still on paper. It states that a current check recipient must switch, and it lists the two ways federal benefits arrive electronically: a deposit into an existing bank account, or a Direct Express debit card.

Enrolment runs through a my Social Security account, Treasury’s Go Direct site, the sign-up line on 1-877-874-6347, or a visit to the bank. The same page says Treasury grants waivers in extremely rare circumstances and gives a separate number, 1-855-290-1545, for a waiver request. Someone who cannot manage an account or lives where electronic banking is out of reach is the person the surviving waivers were written for.

Is the rule final?

No. The April 29 document is a proposed rule, and the Federal Register page lists no final rule. Until Fiscal Service publishes one, the 2010 waiver stays on the books for the few people it still covers.

Acting Fiscal Assistant Secretary Gary Grippo signed the proposal, and Fiscal Service lists Lisa Andre and Frank J. Supik as contacts for questions. What remains open is how the hardship waivers are used in practice, since they, not age, will decide who is still paid by check.

Still getting a federal payment by paper check?

The age waiver covers almost nobody alive today, but the exemption it would close is the last doorway out of a switch that already moved everyone else onto a bank deposit or a Direct Express card. For a household still on paper, that change lands on a payment date, and the first electronic deposit is where a wrong account number or a missed enrolment step shows up.

The Social Security Check Protection Kit is built for exactly that week. It carries the 2026 payment calendar, so the arrival date is known before the switch, and a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment. It also holds an overpayment response worksheet and the three SSA forms that stop or pause collection, SSA-561, SSA-632 and SSA-634.

Get the 2026 payment calendar and the first-24-hours late-payment checklist →

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.