Social Security update: February direct payment worth $943 goes out in 33 days

Millions of Supplemental Security Income recipients will receive their sole February payment, worth up to $943 for individual filers, in a little over one month.

The payment will be the first of the 2024 calendar year and will be released in 33 days, on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Recipients were given two payments in December and none in January because of a scheduling kink in the Social Security Administration’s calendar.

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The amount each person receives differs depending on whether a recipient is an individual filer, joint filer, or essential person. The amounts have increased by 3.2% compared to 2023.

This year, individual filers will receive up to $943 each month, eligible couples will receive up to $1,415, and essential persons, who live with people receiving SSI payments and provide them with necessary care, will get a monthly payment of $472, according to the SSA.

Not every recipient will receive the maximum payment, but filers can see a personalized estimate through the SSA’s calculator.

SSI payments are given on top of regular Social Security benefits, providing monthly payments to adults and children with blindness or another disability and limited income. To qualify for SSI, a person has to be totally or partially blind or have a “physical or mental condition(s) that very seriously limits their daily activities for a period of 12 months or more or may be expected to result in death.”

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Created in 1974, the SSI program seeks to provide extra assistance to society’s most vulnerable members, including elderly, blind, and disabled people. The program was intended to provide an income floor, which state assistance programs would further supplement.

The program was historic in that it shifted responsibility for determining who received assistance from the states to the federal government, according to a 2011 annual report.