If you’re retired and your birthday falls anywhere between the 11th and the 31st of any month, you’ll get your Social Security money on May 20 and May 27, 2026. Depends on which group you’re in. These are the last two payments of the SSA’s monthly schedule, and they cover tens of millions of people across the U.S.
These deposits land on the third and fourth Wednesdays of the month. That’s part of the staggered system the Social Security Administration put in place back in May 1997 to keep the banking system from getting overwhelmed.
Who gets paid on May 20 and who gets paid on May 27
It’s all based on your birth date. If you were born between the 11th and the 20th, you get your money on the third Wednesday — that’s May 20 this time around. Born between the 21st and the 31st? Then you’re looking at the fourth Wednesday — May 27.
This applies to retirees, people on SSDI (that’s Social Security Disability Insurance), and survivors’ benefits recipients who started getting payments after May 1997. If your benefit is based on someone else’s work record — like spousal benefits — then your payday depends on the main worker’s birthday, not yours.
One big exception: if you started getting benefits before May 1997, or you get both Social Security and SSI at the same time, your payment comes on the 3rd of every month, not on those Wednesday staggered dates.
How much money are we talking about for May?
These payments already include the 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) that the SSA rolled out starting January 2026. That number came from how the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) moved between the third quarter of 2024 and the third quarter of 2025.
According to the SSA’s official fact sheet, the average monthly check for a retired worker in 2026 is $2,071. In 2025, it was $2,015. For a couple where both spouses get benefits, the average is $3,208 per month. A surviving widow or widower gets about $1,919.
For SSDI recipients, the monthly average is $1,630. The maximum possible is $4,152 — but only for people who paid the maximum Social Security tax their whole working life.
What the COLA actually means after Medicare
That $56 monthly bump an average retiree sees doesn’t go straight into everyone’s pocket. If you have Medicare Part B premiums taken out of your check, that premium went up from $185 to $202.90 per month in 2026 — an extra $17.90. So net gain for that group is about $38 a month, not $56.
If you don’t have Medicare Part B deducted from your benefit, you get the full COLA increase.
Your check didn’t show up? Here’s what to do
The SSA says to wait three extra business days before reporting a missing payment. Sometimes banks take their sweet time processing things, and it’s not even the agency’s fault.
If the money still isn’t there after that, call the SSA directly at 1-800-772-1213 (Monday through Friday) or log into your My Social Security account to check the payment status.
If you’re someone who gets Social Security on the 3rd of each month, you already got your May payment — because May 3 was a Saturday. So the SSA moved it up to Friday, May 1, to make sure you had your money when you needed it. That’s standard procedure: when a scheduled payday falls on a weekend or federal holiday, they pay on the previous business day.
Other limits worth knowing for 2026
The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security tax went up this year to $184,500, from $176,100 in 2025. If you’re under full retirement age and still working, you can earn up to $24,480 a year before the SSA starts holding back benefits — $1 for every $2 you go over that limit.
If you’re hitting full retirement age in 2026, the limit is higher: $65,160 a year, with $1 withheld for every $3 you earn above that, until the month you actually turn full retirement age.
