STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — As the year winds down and the holiday season offers an affectionate hello, Social Security recipients might be curious if the most wonderful time of the year will impact their monthly payments.
The good news for November imbursements is that none of them land on Thanksgiving — meaning that they should arrive on time as usual.
The last recipients to get their November checks, as scheduled, are those who are born between the 21st and the 31st of their birth month. Those checks will be issued on Wednesday, Nov. 26.
This check is the second to last for 2025.
It’s also worth noting that there are no more paper checks coming in the mail to thousands of Social Security recipients after President Donald Trump issued a directive to axe paper checks from being a payment method for all government outfits, per his executive order.
That means Americans who receive paper checks from places like the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Education, the IRS, or the Social Security Administration had to shift to electronic payments.
The new policy went into effect at the end of September.
In 2026, a 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment will come into effect — giving Social Security recipients just a bit more money in their monthly checks than in 2025.
According to the Social Security Administration, this COLA will impact roughly 71 million Americans.
The 2026 COLA is higher than its 2025 counterpart, which came out to be 2.5%.
Furthermore, the overall income that can be eligible for the Social Security tax is being raised to $184,500.
This news came later than anticipated due to the longest government shutdown in American history.