Wednesday, Jan. 27 Is the Last January Social Security Payday, for Beneficiaries Born on the 21st Through the 31st

Three Wednesdays carry January’s Social Security deposits for people with a birthday-based payment date, and Jan. 27 is the third and last of them. That payday belongs to beneficiaries born on the 21st through the 31st of any month, according to the Social Security Administration’s 2027 payment schedule. It is also the first payday for this group that carries the 3.6% cost-of-living increase announced in October.

Jan. 13, Jan. 20 and Jan. 27 Make Up the Birthday-Group Sequence

People who started collecting Social Security in or after May 1997 are paid on the second, third or fourth Wednesday of the month, depending on the day they were born. The SSA schedule lists the January 2027 dates this way: birth dates from the 1st to the 10th are paid Jan. 13, birth dates from the 11th to the 20th are paid Jan. 20, and birth dates from the 21st to the 31st are paid Jan. 27.

The Wednesdays in January 2027 fall on the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th. The sequence starts with the second Wednesday, so Jan. 6 is not a birthday-group payday.

The group is set by day of birth, not by month or year. Someone born on Oct. 25 and someone born on March 31 are both paid on the fourth Wednesday of every month, which makes Jan. 27 the date for both in January. Month by month, the same pattern repeats: the 1st-10th group is paid on the second Wednesday, the 11th-20th group on the third and the 21st-31st group on the fourth.

Two other groups are paid outside that sequence. According to Kiplinger’s rundown of the 2027 schedule, SSI recipients, people who receive both SSI and Social Security, and people who started Social Security before May 1997 are paid early, on Dec. 31, 2026. The reason is that New Year’s Day falls on a Friday holiday. The site covered that early date in a separate story on the two groups paid on Dec. 31.

That leaves the Jan. 27 group as the final stop. A beneficiary born on, say, the 24th or the 31st will not see a deposit in January until the fourth Wednesday, even though everyone else in the first two birthday groups has already been paid.

What the Jan. 27 Check Contains After the 3.6% Cost-of-Living Raise

The Jan. 27 payment is the benefit for January, and it is the first one calculated with the 2027 increase. Social Security announced the adjustment on Oct. 14, according to an SSA bulletin. The 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment begins with January 2027 payments for nearly 72 million Social Security beneficiaries, and the bulletin put the average increase for a retired worker at about $75 a month.

SSA’s cost-of-living page says the raise reaches about 76 million Americans when SSI recipients are counted. About 7.3 million SSI recipients see the larger payments starting Dec. 31, 2026, earlier than the Social Security increase. SSI recipients are therefore not part of the Jan. 27 group unless they also receive Social Security under the birthday schedule.

How much of the 3.6% reaches a given deposit depends on the starting amount. A 3.6% increase on a $1,000 benefit adds $36. On a $2,000 benefit it adds $72. Those two figures are plain arithmetic on the announced percentage, not SSA estimates.

The $75 is an average across all retired workers, so individual increases run above and below it. Dollar amounts differ with each beneficiary’s starting benefit, while the percentage is the same 3.6%.

The site has reported on how the raise lands for different groups, including the average retirement check and the average disability check.

COLA notices go out in late November to most beneficiaries through the Message Center of a my Social Security account, according to the SSA cost-of-living page. Online notices are available to those who created their account by Nov. 18, 2026. Mailed notices also carry the new benefit amount.

The Medicare Part B Deduction Comes Out Before the Deposit

For beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare, the amount that arrives on Jan. 27 can be lower than the raised benefit, because Medicare premiums are commonly taken out of the Social Security check before it is deposited. The standard Part B premium in 2026 is $202.90 a month, according to Medicare.gov. The page says the premium can change each year and may be higher for people with higher incomes.

The 2027 amount had not been announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as of Nov. 6. Kiplinger reported that the figure is projected, based on the Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report, at $209.50 a month, up $6.60 from $202.90, and that CMS usually announces final Part B figures in November. The projection is not the official premium.

SSA’s cost-of-living bulletin says the 2027 premium amount for Medicare enrollees will appear in the Message Center starting in late November. For Medicare beneficiaries, the 2027 benefit amount appears in December through the mailed notice and the Message Center, according to SSA.

If the projection holds, a retired worker who gets the average $75 raise and pays the standard premium would net about $68.40 more a month. That is $75 less $6.60, using the SSA average and the Kiplinger projection together, and it would change if CMS sets a different premium. The notice in a my Social Security account is the place where the exact deposit is listed.

If the Jan. 27 deposit does not arrive, SSA’s schedule advises beneficiaries to allow three additional mailing days before contacting the agency.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: “Social Security Administration Building, Griffin” by Michael Rivera is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.