Social Security update: Direct payment worth up to $4,555 goes out to millions in 17 days

Washington Examiner ^ | March 26, 2023 | Asher Notheis

[george76]

In 17 days, millions of retirees will receive the first round of April's Social Security Administration retirement payments, worth up to $4,555.

The first round, for those born between the 1st and 11th of a month, will be released on Wednesday, April 12. Three disbursements are released to retirees each month, but each person only receives one payment that coincides with the 10-day block of the month in which they were born, according to the SSA's schedule.

...

The amount of money each recipient gets depends on the recipient's age at retirement. The highest payment is worth $4,555 per month, and it goes to people who retired at 70. Recipients who retired at 67 receive a maximum check of $3,627, and anyone who retired at 62 gets up to $2,572, according to the SSA.

The second round of payments will be released on April 19, and it will be for those born between the 11th and 20th of a month. The final payment for April will be disbursed on April 26 and will be for people born between the 21st and 31st of a month.

...

The current age of retirement is 67, but people can take early retirement at 62 or delay retirement until 70. People could see a decrease in their payments if Congress does not determine how the program will be funded by 2037. Discussions on the future of Social Security have been ongoing in Congress for years, and a pair of bipartisan senators recently proposed raising the retirement age to 70.

[Kathy in OC]

I have never used police, fire or public schools, and would argue that society as a whole benefits from social security by not having homeless and destitute elderly people, just as society benefits from police, fire, public schools and NASA, even if they don’t use them personally.

[madison10]

We aren’t. We do not get near that, but my husband had to take SS at early.

[adorno]

I have never used police, fire or public schools

That's not how those services work. You don't use them. They're there, and if you don't notice them or need them, then, they're doing a good job.

Social security as a program, is very debatable. It's there if you need it at some point in your older years, but, what I said still applies, where many people pay into the system and never benefit from it, and the only way the system works, is by enough people dying early so that those that get to use it, don't have to worry too much about living in the streets. But then, SS doesn't provide for everything that people need when they can no longer work. SS can be improved if it were not force on people by government, but then, it would have to be a 'mandatory contribution system', that you can use only at retirement age.

[stylin19a]

I was wondering the point of this also...
read it a couple of times and I’m guessing the point is in the last paragraph.
They probably would have gotten a bigger wow if they said how much total went out for the month. Or for each payment cycle in the month.

[stylin19a]

that 85% is an “up to” dollar amount based on earings

https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/taxes.html

Pres. OBama and Congress closed a Bill Clinton signed SS filing scheme.

It still exists for peole born prior to 01/02/1954.
It works best if both spouse are near FRA(full retirement age)

One spouse files for full benefits, the other spouse files a restricted claim.
The restricted claim spouse gets to put their own SS on hold. ( It incurs an additional 8 % a year increase for every year it’s on hold to age 70 - there is no further increase at 70 and later).
Once the restricted spouse turns 70, they can file for benefits under their own SSN.

https://www.thebalancemoney.com/social-security-rules-for-restricted-applications-2388915