Social Security says it will no longer send paper checks. What you need to know

By Tami Luhby, Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

(CNN) — 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 0.8% of all the program’s beneficiaries — must now choose another way to receive their benefits.

There will, however, be some exceptions made. More on that in a minute.

The Social Security Administration announced in mid-July that starting on September 30 it would no longer issue paper checks. In a blog post it said beneficiaries who have been getting paper checks must pick one of two alternatives: Have their benefit payments delivered electronically by direct deposit; or, if they don’t have a bank account, receive their be