Here's When Social Security Recipients Can Expect Their First Check In January 2026

Social Security officially announced the COLA rate for 2026, and retirees can expect a bump in their monthly benefits compared to 2025. In fact, seniors will receive an extra extra $56 a month, on average, starting in January. But, when can retirees expect to receive their first Social Security of 2026? That depends on when you they were born, when they retired, and what sort of Social Security payment they're receiving. Those who have been receiving Social Security since May 1997 can expect their benefits payment on January 2. Those who receive Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, will also get their regular Social Security payment on January 2, and their first 2026 SSI payment on January 30.

As for everyone who retired after 1997, they can expect their benefits on a Wednesday. Which Wednesday, however, depends on the day they were born. Retirees born within the first 10 days of any month in the year will receive their payment on January 14. Those with birthdays between day 11 and 20 will receive their benefits on January 21, and those with birthdays between day 21 and 31 will get their benefits transmitted on January 28. As for the rest of the year, dates can be found on the Social Security Administration webpage.

There have been some big Social Security changes for retirees in 2025. For example, paper checks were eliminated in September and replaced with direct deposit to a retirees bank account, per an executive order from President Donald Trump. However, when it comes to when, exactly, those checks are sent out, the SSA continues to follow the same rules set in place back in June 1997, in which retirees are paid in order of their birth date in a month.

With that said, the rules work do differently for today's nonagenarians and centenarians who have been receiving Social Security benefits since, or even before, May 1997. Those retirees continue to get their Social Security benefits in accordance with the old rules in which payments were sent out on the third of every month. If the third of the month is a weekend, the payment is sent on the first of the month.

Those who receive supplemental security income also have a different payment schedule. They can expect to receive SSI on the first of the month, and their regular benefits on the third of the month. Although, because the first of the month falls on a holiday for January 1, and weekends for February 1 and March 1, SSI payments will be sent out the first available weekday, meaning the payment comes towards the end of the previous month. That means the first SSI payment for 2026 is actually scheduled to be sent on December 31, 2025.