Social Security Didn't Stop Mailing Checks

The Misbar team has determined that this claim is false. While the majority of Social Security beneficiaries were required to switch to electronic payment in 2013, the law was not pushed due to security concerns and it does not require all to receive their checks electronically. In fact, some beneficiaries still receive their Social Security checks in the mail.

Beneficiaries can apply for a waiver that exempts them from the electronic requirement.

According to a testimony given by Theresa Gruber, a Social Security administration official, a “switch to electronic payment had been mandated by 1996 law that required “all federal payments [to] be made electronically after January 1, 1999, with limited exceptions. Over time and through regulation, Treasury has encouraged more and more beneficiaries to receive their benefit payments electronically.

In December 2010, the U.S. Treasury issued a final ruling requiring Social Security checks to be sent electronically, which took effect in March 2013.

According to official data from the Social Security Administration in September 2020, paper checks were sent to 852,279 people who receive either Social Security or Supplemental Security Income payments, equating to approximately 1.2% of the 72,296,327 people who received payments for the month.

As such, we label the claim that Social Security checks have not been sent by mail since 2013 because of security issues as false.