Social Security payments are landing on Christmas Eve this year, and for millions of Americans that detail matters more than it sounds. The Dec. 24 Social Security check will be the last major retirement, SSDI and survivor payment of 2025, arriving just as holiday expenses peak. This is not an extra check, not a bonus, and not an early COLA bump. It is simply how the Social Security payment schedule lines up this month.
Still, the timing has triggered a surge in searches around “Social Security Christmas Eve payment” and “who gets paid Dec. 24.” The short answer is clear in the first few lines: if your Social Security benefits are tied to a birthday at the end of the month, your money is scheduled for Wednesday, December 24. Everyone else has already been paid earlier in December.
Social Security payment on December 24
The Social Security Administration issues most retirement, SSDI and survivor benefits on a staggered Wednesday system. The exact Wednesday depends on the birth date of the worker whose record the benefit is based on.
December 24, 2025, falls on the fourth Wednesday of the month, which automatically places it in the regular rotation. There is no holiday adjustment here, just the calendar doing its thing.
This means the Dec. 24 payment covers beneficiaries with birthdays late in the month. It also marks the final large-scale Social Security disbursement of 2025, even though one smaller program will still be paid before year-end.
Who exactly gets paid on Christmas Eve
Social Security uses one simple rule: birthdays determine Wednesdays. If your assigned Wednesday is the fourth one, December 24 is your day.
At a glance, the December schedule for standard Wednesday payments looks like this:
- Born on the 1st–10th: paid Wednesday, Dec. 10
- Born on the 11th–20th: paid Wednesday, Dec. 17
- Born on the 21st–31st: paid Wednesday, Dec. 24
This applies to retirement benefits, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and survivor benefits. It does not apply to SSI in the same way.
Is this the last Social Security check of the year?
For most beneficiaries, yes. The Dec. 24 payment is the final retirement-related deposit for 2025. However, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) follows a different rule. January 2026 SSI payments are scheduled to be sent on December 31, 2025, because SSI is paid at the start of the month and New Year’s Day shifts the date.
That payment does not affect retirement or SSDI recipients unless they are also enrolled in SSI.
Does this payment include the 2026 COLA increase?
No. This is one of the most common points of confusion. The 2026 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) does not appear in the December 24 payment. That check reflects 2025 benefit amounts, unchanged. The COLA increase of 2.8% begins with January 2026 benefits, which are paid out in January (or late December only for SSI). Retirement and SSDI recipients will first see the higher amounts with their January deposits.
So while the payment arrives during the holidays, it is not higher than usual.
How Social Security sends payments today
Nearly all Social Security payments are now delivered electronically. Paper checks are no longer standard and are limited to rare situations. Beneficiaries receive their payments in one of two ways. Either through direct deposit into a bank or credit union account, or via the Direct Express debit card, which is designed for people without traditional banking access.
Payment method does not affect the payment date. If your schedule says Dec. 24, that is when the money is released, regardless of how you receive it. The end of December often feels like a cutoff, but Social Security runs on benefit months, not calendar years.
The Christmas Eve payment closes out December benefits. The next deposit, with the COLA increase applied, will arrive in January according to the same birthday-based schedule.