Social Security will soon stop sending paper checks: How to prepare

WASHINGTON — The Social Security Administration has announced it will stop sending out physical checks to recipients, moving exclusively to electronic forms of payment.

The change will happen on Sept. 30, according to SSA officials, as part of a government-wide shift under the Trump administration to modernize payment systems.

As of July 2025, about 521,644 people still get their checks by mail. That’s less than one percent of the approximately 68 million people who receive social security benefits in the country.

The government is catching up to a growing trend in American economics, where paper currency is becoming more rare in public. Many businesses, especially small storefronts, say they are “cashless” and exclusively use debit or credit card transactions to do business.

If you’re one of the few people still getting a physical check, there are options going forward.

The federal government said it will proactively send letters to those affected by the change to warn them and encourage them to sign up for a different payment method.

Your next few checks will also include an insert explaining how to transfer over to an electronic payment method.

You can either enroll in direct deposit or direct express.

Direct deposit allows the federal government to transfer social security benefits directly into your bank account, providing the quickest access to them.

A Direct Express card, for those who don’t have a bank account, is a prepaid debit card designed so the federal government can load payments onto it.

Payment information can be updated on your my Social Security account on the SSA’s website.

For more details and to learn how to enroll in direct deposit or obtain a Direct Express card, you can go to ssa.gov/deposit.

It all comes down to money. According to the SSA, each paper check it mails to a Social Security recipient costs about 50 cents, while an electronic transfer is significantly cheaper at around 15 cents per transaction. The government estimates it will save millions of dollars annually by switching to fully electronic payments.

It also makes it harder to steal the money. In its announcement, the SSA claimed paper checks are 16 times more likely to be lost or stolen compared to electronic transfers. While it’s difficult to determine just how many checks go missing each year in the mail, the FBI says that mail check fraud is on the rise, and has been climbing for several years. 

Electronic funds are also transferred almost immediately, meaning a recipient will be able to access their social security benefits much more quickly.