By suzanne downing 
The US Department of the Treasury will end most paper checks for federal payments by Sept. 30, under a policy set in motion by President Donald Trump’s executive order signed in March.
Executive Order 14247, “Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account” directs agencies to transition all disbursements to electronic funds transfer methods such as direct deposit, prepaid debit cards, or other digital options.
Treasury officials say the change will cut costs, reduce fraud risks, and speed up payments. Paper checks are currently 16 times more likely than EFT payments to be lost, stolen, altered, or returned as undeliverable.
For Social Security, fewer than 1% of the program’s 68 million beneficiaries still get paper checks, or about 500,000 people nationwide. For IRS tax refunds, around 5 million out of 104 million refunds issued in 2024 were mailed.
Programs impacted include:
- Social Security benefits (retirement, disability, survivors)
- Veterans Affairs payments (disability, pensions, education)
- IRS tax refunds (beginning with 2026 returns)
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- Railroad Retirement benefits
- Federal vendor and intragovernmental payments
Waivers will be rare but possible in limited cases where electronic transfers are infeasible, such as for people without access to banking.
Treasury estimates it costs about 50 cents to issue a paper check compared to less than 15 cents for an EFT.
Suzanne Downing