Millions of people in America rely on their monthly social security checks to pay their bills. The amount is usually credited to most people every month. Nevertheless, this July, some people could have found that their payment would be due on July 31 one of those regular beneficiaries were scheduled to be paid in the earlier days of the month.
If you are expecting a check from social security, do not get upset. Here is what exactly is happening, who is experiencing it, and what can be done so that your benefits do not get out of your focus.
What Is the Cause of a Delay in Some of the Social Security Payments?
Normally, the Social Security Administration (SSA) follows a schedule where it disburses payments on Wednesday, and this depends on the day on which you were born. It looks as follows:
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- If one’s birth date is from 1 to 10, a check is usually expected to arrive on the second Wednesday of the month.
- If your birthday is within the 11th and 20th of the month, the new payment will occur on the third Wednesday.
- If you were born from 21 to 31, they send the check on the fourth Wednesday.
For the month of July 2025, these dates were valid:
- July 9
- July 16
- July 23
Yet, a number of those to whom the money is to be paid are expected to receive their checks on or around July 31. Why did the delay occur?
Well, after analyzing the situation, there are two major reasons that caused the delay.
1. SSA’s New Overpayment Policy Is Slowing Things Down
In April, the SSA introduced a new ruling which allows them to take away a maximum of 50% of a person’s benefits per month if he/she was overpaid prior to the new ruling. This means that if the agency thinks they have paid some people more than was their due, although the mistakes were non-intentional, they can still get the money returned to them through the subsequent monthly payout.
There were tens of thousands of recipients who received letters of this kind this spring and who got warnings that the money would start to be deducted 90 days later – exactly at the end of July.
This enforcement is causing the delay in the payouts to a large percentage of the recipients. Under the overpayment policy, those who were experiencing these changes could get wrong results in the payment amount, receive their money later or even get their payments suspended temporarily for the SSA to rectify the issue.
2. Manual Reviews Are Causing Hold-Ups
Whenever there is a problem to be resolved in the process such as, for example, a piece of documentation is absent, the SSA has to analyze the potential of the receipt of a wrongful refund. In other words, it seems that employees have to again, manually check the accounts before money goes out.
As a result, in many instances, the payment dates are moved to the end of the month even, supposed to be the first of the next month.
Are You One of the People Getting Paid on July 31?
Here is a quick primer on the people who may only receive their money after July 23rd of this month:
You might be affected if:
Your benefits have never been changed or disputed, ever since you first started receiving your entitlements
You are notified by SSA that you have been overpaid at any time between April and June 2025
You had asked for a waiver or appealed before
Your direct deposit is new or you have updated your personal data just recently
The benefits that you are getting are not from your own record but that of another person (e.g., spouse benefits)
You were waiting for a one-time payment-related to past periods
You are paid only SSI (those payments were effective July 1)
Your birthday is during the first half of the month, so you have already received the payment
What to Do If Your Payment Is Delayed?
But, if it is August 1 and you are still without money, then it is the time to do the following:
1. Allow 3 working days
First of all, the Social Security Administration (SSA) suggests that you should give it three full working days after your expected payment date before you take the step to reach out. In other words, if your check was supposed to be sent out on July 31, you should consider getting worried only on or after August 5.
2. Examine Your Bank and Routing Information
Visit your SSA account on the Web or simply call your bank to find out what the status of your direct deposits is and if the routing information is still the same as given before.
3. Search for a Message
According to the new over-payment recovery policy, the affected people received notifications by regular post. The letter would have indicated if or how much of the money went into charge of the opposite side or the cash that got withheld. Check during the period between April and July for any mail from the Social Security Administration.
4. Contact SSA or Go in Person to a Field Office
If the check is delayed for a longer period than indicated, call the SSA at 1-800-772-1213 or visit a local Social Security office in person to be seen by one of the representatives.
Do You Understand What This Over-payment Rule Is All About?
Can you explain it in simple language?
It often occurs that the SSA sends out more payments to people than is due to them. The situation is described as such when:
- Someone’s total gets altered
- After a break, a person gets back to work
Previously, the SSA would get back the excess fund at a slow pace but the practice was to credit 10% of the overpaid sum per month only.
Presently, with the recently updated rule that commenced on July 24, 2025, the SSA is entitled to collect the full amount or half of your check- your only option is to ask for a waiver or make a special agreement.
Such an abrupt, sharp rise in the rate has irritated quite a number of the elderly, also some of the disabled, and organizations advocating for the rights of such people. They argue that the penalty for someone else’s fault is just not fair.
Do You Have an Option to Keep Your Payment Unchanged?
Absolutely. If you are pretty sure that there was no mistake made in your case, or if you have no other means to cover your basic needs with 50% of the amount of money received as benefits, you can request that your benefits stop being lower either by a waiver or by arranging payments.
What you need to do is the following:
- Complete Form SSA-632 – This is the “Request for Waiver of Over-payment.”
- Contact SSA via phone or go to the office to deliver it in person.
- Make them understand that it is problematic for you. Please, take it to be that you are one of the low-income people, explain how you pay your monthly bills and the necessity of the essential services of life, and the 50% cut in your benefits will create a serious problem for you.
Your case should be gone over by the SSA before they seize more of your check. Even if you fail to reply, they have the authority to remit the sum to themselves.
Forewarned is Forearmed
Most folks will get their Social Security stipend at the usual time in July with a good chance. The only difference is that some people who have received checks that do not belong to them will not get their checks until the 31st of July, or even later.
On the one hand, it’s good to realize that others are in the same situation as you; on the other, however, there are persons who are really in trouble because of this. The late payments are part of a nationwide drive to tweak up the Social Security Administration’s accounts, though the whole process has been quite painful for those relying solely on the benefits to make ends meet.
If you do not know what to do because you are at sea, the best option is to: access your account on the SSA website, check your email box, and get your money on time or to put forward real and reliable reasons for the delay or absence of the benefit.
Since the Social Security system is being reformed, being aware of the recent events is more of the best practice for securing one’s financial status.
