Social Security and SSI benefits are paid by electronic deposit under federal law, which makes a paper check the exception rather than a choice. The Social Security Administration says Treasury may grant waivers from that electronic payment rule only in narrow situations, and it sends anyone seeking one to a Treasury phone line, 1-855-290-1545. SSA’s…

Social Security now generally expects at least twelve months of medical history, counted back from the date of a claim, when a person between 18 and about 25 applies for disability benefits. The rule is in Social Security Ruling 26-2p, which the agency began applying on October 1, 2026, to new applications and to claims…

A worker born in 1960 or later who starts Social Security retirement benefits at 62 receives 30 percent less each month than the full-retirement-age amount, and the Social Security Administration describes that reduction as permanent. The agency’s age table sets the full retirement age at 67 for everyone born in 1960 or later, which makes…

The cost-of-living adjustment that sets Social Security checks for January has no published number yet. Social Security’s own pages still show only the current 2.8 percent adjustment, and the figure that completes the calculation, September’s inflation reading, is due from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on October 14, 2026. Until then, the January raise cannot…

Some people who received Social Security child’s benefits are still listed as owing overpayments they no longer owe, and the agency’s own watchdog has put a number on how many. The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General estimates that at least 6,980 individuals have such debts sitting unresolved, worth about $38.5 million in…

Three months from now, Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and veterans’ disability checks are due to be recalculated, and the percentage that drives all of it does not exist yet. As of October 2, the next cost-of-living adjustment has not been announced, which leaves millions of households unable to say what January will look like.…

Anyone born in 1960 or later has a full retirement age of 67, which makes 62 the point where Social Security’s reduction is steepest: 60 months of early claiming and a 30 percent smaller benefit. The Social Security Administration’s own example turns a $1,000 benefit into $700. A spouse’s benefit is cut further, by 35…

A federal audit of child’s insurance benefit claims found that Social Security wrongly denied some of them and miscalculated others. In a sample of 100 claims, the agency underpaid 20 claimants a total of $174,477 and overpaid six others $86,887. The inspector general’s office projects that the errors reach well beyond the sample. A sample…

Social Security’s monthly statistical snapshot counts 3,501,000 nondisabled widows and widowers on the rolls, with an average benefit of $1,923.91. The snapshot reflects January 2026 data. Behind that average sits a reduction schedule that starts a survivor’s check at 71.5 percent of the late spouse’s benefit at age 60 and reaches the full amount only…

Social Security’s direct deposit page states the rule in one sentence: federal law mandates that all federal benefit payments, including Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income, be made electronically. The agency adds that Treasury may grant exceptions only in extremely rare circumstances. For beneficiaries who still open a paper check each month, the practical…