We’re only three months into President Donald Trump’s second term in office, and he’s already made a lot of changes. If you’re on Social Security, you’ve probably noticed some of them. His administration has already made several changes to the procedures seniors use to apply for benefits or make account changes.
Trump recently made another change in that vein that takes effect in a few months, and it could make getting Social Security checks more complicated for more than 485,000 Americans.
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A move to modernize government payments
In an executive order published on March 25, President Trump announced that later this year, the secretary of the Treasury would stop issuing paper checks for all federal payments, including Social Security benefits. The stated goal is to reduce the risk of mail fraud and trim the government’s costs. The executive order asserts that “maintaining the physical infrastructure and specialized technology for digitizing paper records” cost the U.S. government over $657 million in its fiscal 2024.
This latest order is set to take effect on Sept. 30. After that date, nearly all Social Security payments will be distributed via direct deposit or a debit card. This shouldn’t be an issue for the majority of beneficiaries. More than 99% of Social Security benefits were already being direct deposited into beneficiaries’ bank accounts as of this month.
But according to the Social Security Administration, close to 486,000 Americans still receive paper checks. Some of them may be allowed to continue receiving those physical checks if they don’t have access to banking services or electronic payment systems. But it’s not clear from the initial order how the government will determine who qualifies for an exception, nor is it clear whether beneficiaries will have to apply for it, nor what the procedure for getting such an exception might be.
What this means for your Social Security checks
If you’re currently receiving paper Social Security checks and don’t have a bank account, consider opening one in the next few months if you can. This will ensure you don’t experience any interruptions when the government ends paper check payments on Sept. 30.
Once you’ve set your bank account up, you can create a my Social Security account to enter your account information to switch to direct deposit. You can also call the Social Security Administration or visit a field office to make this change. Under a new Trump administration rule, all direct deposit changes will now only take one business day to process.
If you aren’t able to open a bank account for some reason, contact the Social Security Administration to find out what your next steps should be. You should also keep an eye out for any correspondence from the Social Security Administration as we get closer to Sept. 30. The federal agency should let you know if there are any steps you need to take to consider receiving your checks.
Keeping an eye out for more news is good practice anyway, as several other planned Social Security rule changes have already been delayed or walked back so far this year. There aren’t any indications that something like that will happen in this case, but it won’t hurt to double-check as we approach September.
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