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The Trump administration will soon stop sending out paper checks for Social Security beneficiaries, as part of an effort to fully modernize federal benefits payments. That means a little over half a million recipients — or 0.8% of all the program’s beneficiaries — must now choose another way to receive their benefits.
There will, however, be some exceptions made. More on that in a minute.
The Social Security Administration announced in mid-July that starting on September 30 it would no longer issue paper checks. In a blog post it said beneficiaries who have been getting paper checks must pick one of two alternatives: Have their benefit payments delivered electronically by direct deposit; or, if they don’t have a bank account, receive their benefit payments on a pre-paid debit card known as Direct Express.
Why the switch? “It’s part of a broader government-wide initiative to modernize payment systems and enhance service delivery,” the SSA blog noted.
Indeed, the US Treasury Department said at the end of May that all federal payments — including Social Security benefits, tax refunds and vendor payments — would be made electronically starting on September 30 in keeping with President Donald Trump’s executive order to transition to all electronic payments by that date.
“Paper checks are increasingly the front door for fraud. Treasury is committed to raising awareness of the growing fraud risks associated with paper checks and providing Americans with the knowledge and tools to fight financial fraud and make informed financial decisions,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Going electronic will also save money. Issuing paper checks costs about 50 cents each, while sending funds electronically costs less than 15 cents, the Social Security Administration said.
But exceptions will be made.
On July 23, Sen. Elizabeth Warren — who sits on the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging as well as the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy — said in a call with reporters that she had met with Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano and asserted that he committed to allowing for some exceptions to be made to the new policy.
“Their plan is to start with people who do have checking accounts, but he made a commitment that no one will be left behind, and the people who still need access to paper checks will have that access to paper checks,” Warren told reporters.
The Social Security Administration hasn’t put out a public statement affirming that. But in an email replying to CNN’s queries, a Social Security spokesperson said, “SSA is proactively contacting those beneficiaries to alert them about the change and the process to enroll in direct deposit or receive Direct Express cards. Where a beneficiary has no other means to receive payment, we will continue to issue paper checks.”
The mandate for federal payments to be made electronically didn’t start with the Trump administration. It’s been a matter of law for years for most payments, although the law has allowed agencies to make exceptions.
At the GoDirect site, there is a section about how recipients who still need to receive a paper check can request a waiver.
But it notes exceptions are granted “only in rare circumstances.” Just three such circumstances are listed: 1) if “electronic payments would impose a hardship due to a mental impairment”; 2) if the benefits recipient “lives in a remote geographic location lacking the infrastructure to support electronic financial transactions”; and 3) if the recipient is age 90 or older.
The page instructs people who want a waiver to contact the Waiver Line at the US Treasury Electronic Payment Solution to request a waiver application at 1-855-290-1545. Or recipients may print out this form and mail it to the address listed at the bottom.
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