Millions of Americans receiving Social Security benefits this October are in for a sweet surprise.
For more than 70 million Americans who depend on the Social Security Administration for financial assistance — through both retirement checks and disability benefits — they will be paid twice, as November benefits are pushed out early.
The first SSI payment will be sent out on October 1 and is intended for October, while November’s payment will go out on October 31 due to the weekend.
“When the first day of the month falls on the weekend or a federal holiday, you receive your SSI payment on the last business day before the first day of the month. That means you may get two SSI payments in the same month,” the SSA said in a blog post.
The agency continued: “We do this to avoid putting you at a financial disadvantage and make sure that you don’t have to wait beyond the first of the month to get your payment. It does not mean that you are receiving a duplicate payment in the previous month, so you do not need to contact us to report the second payment.”
The SSA says people should wait at least three business days before contacting them if their deposit or check does not come on schedule.
Here are the remaining SSI benefit payment dates for 2025.
- October 1 – SSI benefit for October
- October 31 – SSI benefit for November
- December 1 – SSI benefit for December
- December 31 – SSI benefit for January 2026
Benefit recipients will also learn in October how much their payments will go up for the next year as the SSA sets the annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), which will determine if benefits should be adjusted to account for the cost of food, housing and other expenses.
Any increase will appear on checks starting in January 2026. The Senior Citizens League, which regularly predicts how much the COLA will be, predicted earlier this year that there will be a 2.7 percent adjustment in 2026.
Meanwhile, there has been speculation that the social security retirement age could change under President Donald Trump’s administration, as experts estimate Social Security coffers will start running out of money by 2034, Fox 8 reported.
On Friday, SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano told Fox Business that “everything’s being considered” when asked if he’d consider raising the retirement age from 67.
However, Bisignano later walked back his comments, writing on the SSA’s X account that the Trump administration was not considering raising the retirement age.
“Let me be clear: President Trump and I will always protect, and never cut, Social Security. That’s why we have made many vital reforms, such as cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from the program, to ensure the solvency of Social Security for future generations of Americans,” Bisignano wrote.
“Raising the retirement age is not under consideration,” his statement added.
Meanwhile, according to a recent report, the Trump administration’s changes to the Social Security Administration have hurt many disabled and poor Americans.
The administration has pushed out staff, updated phone systems and tweaked policy at the SSA, creating further difficulties for the poorest Americans, according to Axios.
While the agency has made progress going through a backlog of disability claims, there have been problems at agency field offices. Now, agents are told to keep appointments short, meaning problems often go unresolved, according to the report.
Many of the five million people who receive SSI benefits are among the nation’s most vulnerable. Nearly 900,000 have intellectual disabilities, 800,000 are autistic or have other developmental disorders and another 350,000 have schizophrenia, according to the report.
