Social Security is completing its shift away from paper checks this year, moving the last remaining beneficiaries who still receive a check in the mail onto direct deposit or a prepaid debit card. The change follows a 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to stop issuing paper checks wherever the law allows, with narrow exceptions for people who can show real hardship in making the switch. For the small share of beneficiaries still being paid by mail, the practical question is no longer whether the change is coming but how to keep a payment arriving without interruption.
The Executive Order Behind This Year’s Deadline
Executive Order 14247 set September 30, 2025, as the date federal law and the order itself required federal benefit payments to move to electronic methods, giving agencies including Social Security a window to finish transitioning the beneficiaries still being paid by paper. Social Security is treating 2026 as the year it completes that work, moving remaining paper-check recipients to direct deposit or the Direct Express prepaid card program rather than cutting off payments.
In its own announcement of the change, the Social Security Administration said paper checks are 16 times more likely than electronic payments to be lost, stolen, altered or returned undeliverable, and noted that the Treasury Department’s cost to print and mail a single check has climbed to $3.07, roughly 20 times the cost of an electronic payment.
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Options for Beneficiaries Without a Bank Account
A beneficiary who does not have a bank or credit union account is not required to open one to comply with the shift. The Direct Express program deposits Social Security or SSI payments onto a prepaid debit card that works like a standard debit card for purchases, bill payments and ATM withdrawals, without requiring a traditional bank relationship.
Signing up for either direct deposit or Direct Express can be done through a personal my Social Security account online, by phone, or in some cases through a bank or credit union that transmits the account information directly to Social Security. The agency has framed the switch as a security improvement as much as an administrative one, given how much more often paper checks are intercepted or altered compared with an electronic deposit.
Requesting the Treasury Hardship Waiver
Beneficiaries who genuinely cannot make the switch, because of a mental health condition, a disability, or living in a remote area without reasonable access to a bank, can request a hardship waiver through the Treasury Department rather than Social Security directly. Treasury’s own guidance on the executive order lays out the hardship criteria and the process for requesting an exception, which allows an approved beneficiary to keep receiving a paper check despite the broader transition.
The waiver is not automatic and is not intended as a general opt-out; it is reserved for beneficiaries who meet the specific hardship categories the order defines. A beneficiary who is simply unfamiliar with online banking, without a qualifying hardship, is still expected to move to direct deposit or the prepaid card option rather than rely on the waiver.
Family members or caregivers who help manage a beneficiary’s finances often end up handling this step, since the switch requires either online account access, a phone call, or paperwork that can be difficult for the person receiving the benefit to complete alone. Starting the process well before a payment is due gives time to fix a rejected bank-account number or a Direct Express enrollment error without missing a scheduled payment altogether.
Beneficiaries who already switched to direct deposit or Direct Express in prior years are not affected by this year’s deadline at all; the transition only reaches the shrinking group still being paid by mail, which the agency has said now represents a small fraction of the total beneficiary population.
Keeping a Payment Method Working After the Paper Check Ends
Moving off a paper check removes one failure point, a check lost or stolen in the mail, but it does not eliminate every way a payment can go wrong. A direct deposit can still be misdirected by an outdated bank account number, and a beneficiary who does not know the payment calendar has no way to tell a routine delay from a real problem.
The Social Security Check Protection Kit is an 18-page kit that pairs the 2026 payment calendar with a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment.
See the calendar and the response plan in The Social Security Check Protection Kit.
This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI tools, then reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
