by SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) beneficiaries are warned to do this if they don’t want to lose their payments or have them suspended if they don’t do this.
In the United States, there are thousands of people who depend on Social Security programs to have monthly financial aid. However, from 2025, this will be stopped because the federal government has announced the government suppression of every payment sent on paper check.
If you are a SSDI beneficiary, you should keep reading to know what you have to do to avoid this situation that could threaten your financial stability.
What’s happening?
The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury have announced an important change that will affect every person who receives the SSDI payment through paper checks.
Save the date because from the 30th of September of 2025, the government will stop sending paper checks by mail for federal payments, yes, the SSDI is included too. Basically, this means that if you want to keep obtaining the benefits, you need to change the payment method to an electronic one before this date.
The reason behind this decision
The government’s aim with this implementation is to promote a modernization plan to improve payment security because there are more chances that paper checks are stolen, lost, or fraudulently altered.
Also, they want to reduce administrative costs from the use of paper since the production, printing, sending,, and processing of every check costs more than $1 per person, whereas electronic transactions cost just a few cents. This way, the government could save hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Who will be affected by this measure?
Currently, it’s estimated that around 494,000 people in the United States still receive their Social Security payments via paper checks. Even though this number has been lowered in the last 10 years, it’s still a significant figure because this is the number of people who could have their SSDI payments suspended.
So, remember! If you don’t do this change before the 30th of September of 2025, you won’t keep receiving SSDI benefits because your payments will be automatically suspended.
This is what you need to do to keep your SSDI payments
I know sometimes online processes can be a bit frustrating, but here are some simple steps you can follow to do this change, from paper check to electronic payment method:
- Access or create an account in the official website called ‘’my Social Security’’: go to https://www.ssa.gov/myaccount/ because this is the safest and fastest way to update all your personal data and your payment method.
- Choose one of these electronic methods: direct deposit to a bank account or credit cooperative, or Direct Express Card.
For the first option, you need specific documents like the name of your bank or cooperative, account number, type of account and routing number.
If you choose the Direct Express Card, you should know this is a prepaid credit card supported by the federal government. Each month your payment will be automatically sent to this card and you can use it for withdrawing money from ATMs, pay at physical stores and online shopping.
Have in mind that any mistake when completing your information could cause delays or even the temporary suspension of the payment.
What’s happening from the 14th of April of 2025?
This is also an important date to take into account because this will be the beginning of having to verify your identity when you want to change your payment method or update bank data. How will you verify it? There are two options:
In case you don’t have access to internet service or you can’t do the digital verification, you will have to do it at an SSA office. However, if you can do the process online, you must use an authentication system to confirm it’s you.
I know it seems too confusing, but this is done to prevent frauds since SSDI benefits help many American citizens every month with their daily expenses. So, don’t wait any longer and change the method!
