Tens of millions of Social Security recipients will get their monthly payment in September.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) spreads its regular monthly payments across the month rather than sending all benefits on the same day. In September, payments will begin with Supplemental Security Income (SSI) on September 1, while the final scheduled Social Security payment will be issued on September 23.
The schedule covers retirement, survivor and spousal benefits, while SSI, which is aimed at people with limited income and resources who are aged, blind or have a disability, generally follows a separate timetable.
Personal Finance
September 2026 Social Security Payment Dates
Payments will be made on the following dates:
- Tuesday, September 1: Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients are paid. This is one day earlier than usual because August 1 falls on a weekend.
- Thursday, September 3: Beneficiaries who began receiving Social Security before May 1997, or who receive both Social Security and SSI, are paid.
- Wednesday, September 9: Payments for beneficiaries with birthdays between the 1st and 10th.
- Wednesday, September 16: Payments for beneficiaries with birthdays between the 11th and 20th.
- Wednesday, September 23: Payments for beneficiaries with birthdays between the 21st and 31st.
If a scheduled payment does not arrive, the SSA advises beneficiaries to allow three working days before contacting the agency.
How Much Are Social Security Payments?
The amount each beneficiary receives varies considerably depending on factors including their earnings history and the type of benefit for which they qualify.
The latest SSA data show that 71.3 million people received Social Security benefits in July this year. The average monthly Social Security payment across all beneficiaries was $1,940.08, while retired workers, which is the largest group of recipients, received an average of $2,085.98. Disabled workers received an average of $1,635.27.
Another 7.3 million people received SSI in July, with an average monthly payment of $736.54. Some Americans receive benefits from both programs, meaning the groups should not simply be added together. Overall, 75.7 million people were receiving Social Security, SSI or both that month.
Cost of Living Adjustment
Many Social Security recipients are awaiting the final figure for the annual cost of living adjustment, or COLA, which is due to be announced in October.
The adjustment is designed to help benefits keep pace with inflation and is calculated using the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W. The SSA compares the average CPI-W reading from July, August and September with the average for the same three-month period in the previous year. The percentage increase becomes the following year’s COLA.
Only July’s figure is currently available – 3.4 percent – meaning the size of the 2027 increase remains uncertain. The SSA will announce the official adjustment in October after September’s inflation data is released.
Current forecasts nevertheless point to an increase larger than the 2.8 percent COLA beneficiaries received in 2026. The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a nonpartisan senior advocacy group, now projects a 3.6 percent COLA for 2027, down from its 3.8 percent forecast in June and July. AARP has also lowered its forecast to 3.5 percent, from 3.6 percent previously.
Deon Strickland, a financial adviser and in-house economist at Scholar Advising, told Newsweek he does not expect a dramatic change before the final figure is determined.
“I don’t think the numbers are going to move a lot. The cost-of-living adjustment they saw last year is likely to be within a tenth of what they see this year. Look at the 10-year rate, it’s traded within a very narrow band for three years now. So I don’t think Social Security recipients should be worried about either a sharp increase or a sharp decrease in their COLA.”
Ongoing Concerns Over Social Security Solvency
September’s payments will also arrive as Social Security faces renewed scrutiny over its longer-term finances.
The program marked the 91st anniversary of the Social Security Act in August, and the program is larger than ever before, with around 75 million beneficiaries are expected to receive more than $1.6 trillion in payments this year.
The latest Social Security Trustees report projects that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund (OASI), which pays retirement and survivor benefits, will exhaust its reserves in the fourth quarter of 2032 without action from Congress. Incoming revenue would then be sufficient to cover an estimated 78 percent of scheduled benefits. The combined retirement and disability trust funds are projected to have sufficient reserves until 2034, after which continuing income would cover about 83 percent of scheduled benefits.
A recent analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) found that a typical newly retired dual-income couple could see their annual Social Security payments fall by nearly $17,000 beginning in 2033 if Congress does not address the program’s funding shortfall.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Gray R. Thomas
