The first round of Social Security payments will be made available to beneficiaries across the US this week. In April, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced it would begin notifying recipients who previously received overpayments.

After sending out overpayment notices, the SSA would allow 90 days for recipients to seek a waiver or lower repayment rate. Then, the agency would begin withholding 50% of recipients’ benefits until the overpayment is repaid (after approximately July 24, at the earliest), reports USA Today.

More than 70 million Americans receive monthly benefits under SSA which provides essential financial support to retirees, people with disabilities and the survivors of deceased workers. Most recipients receive their payments as a single lump sum each month. However, because of the large number of beneficiaries, the distribution of benefits is staggered and not all payments are made on the same day.
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When will you receive social security payments?Some beneficiaries are set to receive payments on July 23, while the next payment date after that falls on August 1, as per the SSA payment calendar. ET logoLive EventsOn July 23, retirement, spousal and survivor benefits will be paid to beneficiaries with a birthday falling between the 21st and 31st of any given calendar month, according to NewsWeek.
While some recipients are scheduled to receive their next payment on July 23, the next payment date will fall on August 1, according to the SSA Payment calendar.
While there might be others who would have noticed an increase in their benefits, which is a result of the Social Security Fairness Act. The act has been introduced for the public sector workers who suffered a reduction in their benefits in the past.
As of July 7, SSA claimed that it had processed over 3.1 million payments to the rightful recipients of the retroactive payment adjustments.

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SSA taking action on overpaymentsThose social security beneficiaries who have been overpaid could have their monthly benefits cut in half beginning in late July. Overpayments can happen when the SSA incorrectly calculates a person’s benefits, for example, or a beneficiary fails to update a change in income. Social Security beneficiaries who have been overpaid in previous payments will face a 50% cut in their monthly benefit checks starting late July.

The SSA has paid about $17 billion to those beneficiaries.Because the SSA pays benefits the month after they are due, some recipients may see the change in their benefit amount in the August 2025 payment, the agency said. Since the act became law on Jan. 5, 2025, the agency has received more than 278,000 new claims from people with pensions from work not covered by Social Security and has processed 92% of these, the SSA said.

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How to pay back if Social Security overpaid you?If you have gotten a notice from the SSA that you received an overpayment, you can repay the overpayment amount by credit card, online bill pay or check. For more information on repayment of overpaid benefits, visit the SSA website.

You can also request a waiver to not repay the overpayment if you believe it was not your fault or if you cannot afford to repay it (or think it is unfair for some other reason), using a form on the SSA website.

How to qualify for social securitySocial Security is a social insurance program originally developed to keep seniors out of poverty and protect Americans who couldn’t work. To collect retirement benefits from Social Security, the current eligibility rules require that you:

Be a legal, permanent resident of the US for at least five years.
Pay payroll taxes through a qualified job for at least 10 years.
Be at least 62 years old.

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So far 2025 has been flush with changes for Social Security recipients, mostly because of the Trump Administration’s ongoing overhaul of the federal government. Beneficiaries might expect an increase in their benefit amounts next year—with current predictions setting the annual Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) at around 2.5 percent. Seniors will also benefit from an upcoming tax break as part of Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful bill’.

As mandated by a Trump executive order signed earlier this year, all federal disbursements—including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), vendor payments, and tax refunds—will be distributed electronically after September 30, 2025.