Apart from retirement and SSDI benefit payments issued by the Social Security Administration, some Americans collect survivors’ benefits on the record of a retired worker who passed away. While for retirement, you must have worked for at least ten years and earned a minimum of 40 work credits, survivors do not need to have worked before.
For example, you can qualify for survivor benefits as a widow or as a dependent child. On certain occasions, apart from widows and children, some parents of deceased workers may qualify for Social Security payments in the United States. Each of them has a different average payment amount. Do not forget that when a retired worker on benefits passes away, the spouse or children may qualify for a lump sum of $255.
$1,566 Social Security payment on July 16
If you have started collecting Social Security survivor benefits after April 30, 1997, your paydays take place on the second, third or fourth Wednesday of the month. Therefore, you are not eligible for the monthly payment on the 3rd.
To arrange the Wednesday paydays, the Administration will check the day of the month when you were born. If it is early in the month, from the 1st to the 10th, you will collect your money on the first Wednesday of the month.
Hence, you must have been born from the 11th to the 20th to collect the Social Security payment for survivors on July 16, 2025. There are just two payment methods.
A paper check or a direct deposit. Remember that paper checks will soon be over. A new law will make all Federal payments electronic. Thus, paper checks will no longer be sent once this executive order takes effect on September 30, 2025.
Survivors on Social Security may get a payment on the 23rd
Those survivors who started collecting benefit payments after April 30, 1997, but who were born from the 21st to the 31st will receive their monthly payment on July 23, 2025.
Remember that any of these payment could take up to 3 mailing days to be in your possession. Sometimes banks and financial institutions take a little longer than expected to process payments.
So, it is best to wait for 3 days or contact your bank before you call the Social Security Administration to report a missing or late payment. The average payment for all survivors, regardless of the payday (July 16 or 23), is $1,566.66.
Children of deceased workers collect $1,139.18 on average from the SSA. Widowed mothers and fathers also have their own average payment amount, and it is $1,314.10.
Nondisabled widow(er)s receive about $1,863.71 on average. So far, it is the group of survivor recipients with the largest payment amount because disabled widow(er)s receive $953.73 on average.
Some people are surprised by the fact that parents of deceased workers receive money from Social Security too. They get about $1,697.90 on average. All these figures were unveiled in June and they are as of May 2025.
