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.

As such, the way inflation trends in August will have a huge impact on next year's Social Security raise. Similarly, in mid-August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release its CPI-W data from July. So that should give an even stronger clue as to what might be in store for 2026.

Social Security payments for August will soon be distributed to more than 1.9 million Georgia residents. See the schedule.