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New Social Security Administration reforms under Department of Government Efficiency leadership are unlawful and harmful to vulnerable beneficiaries who rely on the program, a federal lawsuit alleges.
Changes including staff reductions, the elimination of certain offices and new requirements to seek in person services have made it more difficult for individuals with disabilities and older adults to access benefits, according to the claim.

A Social Security Administration (SSA) office in Washington, DC, March 26, 2025. 
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images

A group of disability advocates filed a federal lawsuit against the Social Security Administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency on Wednesday aimed at stopping cuts to the agency’s services.
Recent changes at the Social Security Administration under DOGE — including staff reductions, the elimination of certain offices and new requirements to seek in-person services — have made it more difficult for individuals with disabilities and older adults to access benefits, the lawsuit argues.

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by co-counsels Justice in Aging and Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP.
The plaintiffs include the National Federation of the Blind, the American Association of People with Disabilities, Deaf Equality, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and individual beneficiaries.
“The defendants’ actions are an unprecedented and unconstitutional assault on Social Security benefits, concealed beneath the hollow pretense of bureaucratic ‘reform,'” the complaint states.
In nine weeks, the new administration has “upended” the agency with “sweeping and destabilizing policy changes,” the plaintiffs claim, that have shifted agency functions to local offices while slashing telephone services.
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“The result is a systematic dismantling of SSA’s core functions, leaving millions of beneficiaries without the essential benefits they are legally entitled to,” the lawsuit complaint states.
The “mass restructuring” of the agency is unlawful and violates the Rehabilitation Act and the Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit argues. The changes also violate multiple constitutional provisions, including the First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances, according to the plaintiffs.
With 1.1 million disability claims pending, the recent actions could also be life threatening to individuals who are dying or going bankrupt while waiting for decisions, they allege.
The Social Security Administration did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
“President Trump has made it clear he is committed to making the federal government more efficient,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in an email statement. “He has the authority to manage agency restructuring and workforce reductions, and the administration’s actions are fully compliant with the law.”

Lawsuit alleges reform is ‘administrative vandalism’

People hold signs during a protest against cuts made by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to the Social Security Administration, in White Plains, New York, U.S., March 22, 2025. 
Nathan Layne | Reuters

The Social Security Administration sends monthly checks to around 73 million Social Security and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries.
DOGE, which is not an official government entity, has been tasked with cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” within the federal government. President Donald Trump issued an executive order creating DOGE on Jan. 20, the same day he was inaugurated.
Since then, the Social Security Administration has cut 7,000 employee positions and closed the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and the Office of Transformation. The Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity handled the agency’s equal employment opportunity and civil rights programs. The Office of Transformation was responsible for coordinating customer service-related initiatives like adding the ability to use digital signatures and electronic documents.
The Social Security Administration has also changed its identity proofing policies for claiming benefits and changing direct deposit information that is expected to require more individuals to visit the agency’s offices in person.
The agency has updated its policy, allowing individuals applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare, or Supplemental Security Income who cannot use a personal my Social Security account to complete their claim entirely over the telephone, starting April 14. 
The reforms amount to the dismantling of “core functions of SSA, abandoning millions of Americans to poverty and indignity,” according to the plaintiffs’ complaint.
“What the defendants frame as ‘reform’ is, in truth, administrative vandalism,” the lawsuit states.

Beneficiaries face long waits, overpayment issues

The plaintiffs include seven individuals whose experiences, including long customer service waits and, in some cases, demands to repay large sums to the Social Security Administration, are detailed in the complaint.
One plaintiff, Treva Olivero, who has been legally blind since birth, was informed in March 2024 that she had been overpaid Social Security disability insurance benefits for five or six years, prompting the agency to demand she repay more than $100,000, according to the complaint.
Olivero’s Medicaid coverage was also terminated soon after, which left her without income and health coverage. She has since been in an “ongoing struggle” to have her disability benefits reinstated, while also facing almost $80,000 in medical debt, according to the complaint.

Another plaintiff, Merry Schoch, who received Social Security disability insurance for many years, returned to work to help pay for large medical bills after she was hit by a waste management truck in 2022. She reported her income to the Social Security Administration, and the agency made no changes to her benefit payments, according to the complaint.
Two years later, Schoch stopped working and reported her unemployment to the Social Security Administration. In August 2024, the agency then terminated her benefits and informed Schoch that she owed $30,000 for the disability benefit payments she received while working full time, according to the complaint.
Last September, Schoch was informed she could reapply for benefits. However, she has since struggled to get in touch with the agency over the phone, online and in person. 
Both Olivero and Schoch are members of the National Federation of the Blind, which is also a plaintiff.
The plaintiffs want the court to reverse the Social Security Administration’s recent reforms, including staff reductions, closures of certain offices and policies requiring in-person appointments. More

Concerns about sweeping tariffs on imports are fueling a market sell-off and undermining consumer confidence.
Still there are some moves you can make to regain financial control, according to Jean Chatzky, founder and CEO of HerMoney.
But trying to time the market is almost always a losing bet, most experts say.

As President Donald Trump rolls out sweeping new tariffs on goods imported into the United States, Americans are growing increasingly pessimistic about their financial fate.
Consumers worry that the duties will cause inflation to flare up again, while investors fear that higher prices will mean lower profits and more pain for the battered stock market. 

As of Thursday morning, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 1,200 points, or 2.8%. S&P 500 futures sank 3.4%, and Nasdaq-100 futures lost 4%.
But sharp drops — or sudden spikes — in the market are to be expected, according to Jean Chatzky, CEO of HerMoney.com and host of the podcast HerMoney with Jean Chatzky.
“With these volatile markets, you do not want to time the market,” she said of the old adage. “Timing the market doesn’t work — it’s time in the market.”
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Trade tensions, inflation and concerns about a possible recession have undermined consumer confidence across the board, several studies show.

Still, it’s normal for most Americans to feel unnerved during heightened volatility, Chatzky said.
“There’s very little doubt that consumers are feeling nervous, maybe more nervous than we’ve felt in quite some time,” she said.
Committing to setting money aside in a high-yield savings account, whether by scaling back on dining out or rideshare expenses, will help regain some financial control, Chatzky said.
Top-yielding online savings accounts currently pay 4.4%, on average, well beyond the savings account rates at some of the largest retail banks, which average just 0.41%.
“Taking action is the best way to feel more resilient,” she said.

It’s understandable why some may be hesitant to continue investing, however, when you are investing for the long term, a down market is an opportunity for dollar-cost averaging, which helps smooth out price fluctuations in the market, Chatzky said.
This is also a good time to check your investments to make sure you are still allocated properly and rebalance as needed, so you are not taking on more risk that you are comfortable with, she added.

Timing the market is a losing bet

Talk yourself down from making any sudden financial moves, Chatzky advised.
Trying to time the market is almost always a bad idea, other financial experts also say. That’s because it’s impossible to know when good and bad days will happen.
For example, the 10 best trading days by percentage gain for the S&P 500 over the past three decades all occurred during recessions, often in close proximity to the worst days, according to a Wells Fargo analysis published last year.
And, although stocks go up and down, the S&P 500 index has an average annualized return of more than 10% over the past few decades. More

For most taxpayers, the federal tax deadline is April 15. It’s possible to push that due date to Oct. 15 by filing for an extension.
But you still must pay your taxes by the original due date to avoid racking up penalties and interest.
There are a few options to file your federal tax extension for free, experts say.

Galina Zhigalova | Moment | Getty Images

If you can’t file your taxes by the April 15 deadline, there’s a free, easy way to submit a federal tax extension online, experts say.  
Nearly 1 in 3 American admit that they procrastinate when it comes filing their taxes, according to a January survey of more than 1,000 U.S. filers from IPX1031, an investment property exchange service. In addition, about 25% do not feel prepared to file their taxes, the survey found.

As of March 21, the IRS received roughly 80 million individual returns of the 140 million expected this filing season, the agency’s latest reporting shows.
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Many natural disaster victims have an automatic tax extension, which varies by jurisdiction. Military members serving in a combat zone also have more time to file. 
However, the federal tax deadline for the majority of taxpayers is April 15. It’s possible to push that due date to Oct. 15 by filing for an extension.
But “it’s an extension to file, not an extension to pay,” said Jo Anna Fellon, managing director at financial services firm CBIZ.

“It’s an extension to file, not an extension to pay.”

Anna Fellon

After the tax deadline, you will start incurring the failure-to-pay penalty of 0.5% of your unpaid taxes for each month or partial month that your taxes remain unpaid. The failure-to-pay penalty has a maximum charge of 25% of your unpaid taxes.
That’s cheaper than the failure-to-file penalty, which applies when you don’t submit your return by the deadline. The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of unpaid taxes monthly, also limited to 25%.
But you’ll also owe interest on your unpaid balance, which is currently 7% and accrues daily after April 15.
You can estimate your taxes owed by creating a “pro forma return” — or mock version of your filing — using as many tax forms as possible, Fellon said.

The ‘easiest way’ to file an extension

There are a few free options to file a tax extension.
For federal taxes, you can complete Form 4868 and mail it to the IRS. But it’s better to file digitally to avoid processing delays amid the agency’s shrinking workforce, experts say. Paper filing can also increase fraud risk, they say.
The “easiest way” is by choosing “extension” when making a payment for 2024, which automatically submits Form 4868, according to Tommy Lucas, a certified financial planner and enrolled agent at Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo in Orlando, Florida.
“It takes all of five minutes,” and you can double-check the transaction via your IRS online account, he said.

IRS Direct Pay
Internal Revenue Service

Alternatively, you can file your extension for free online via IRS Free File, a public-private partnership between the IRS and several tax software companies.   
For the 2025 season, you can use IRS Free File for returns if your adjusted gross income, or AGI, was $84,000 or less in 2024. But there’s no income limit to file an extension, Lucas said.

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The Trump administration’s appeal of a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Government Efficiency from accessing personal data at the Social Security Administration has been denied.
Per the order issued by a federal judge last month, DOGE and its affiliates cannot access agency systems with personally identifiable information and must delete any such data in their possession.

A person holds a sign during a protest against cuts made by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to the Social Security Administration, in White Plains, New York, U.S., March 22, 2025. 
Nathan Layne | Reuters

The Trump administration’s appeal of a temporary restraining order blocking the so-called Department of Government Efficiency from accessing sensitive personal Social Security Administration data has been dismissed.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Tuesday dismissed the government’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The case will proceed in the district court. A motion for a preliminary injunction will be filed later this week, according to national legal organization Democracy Forward.

The temporary restraining order was issued on March 20 by federal Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander and blocks DOGE and related agents and employees from accessing agency systems that contain personally identifiable information.
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That includes information such as Social Security numbers, medical provider information and treatment records, employer and employee payment records, employee earnings, addresses, bank records, and tax information.
DOGE team members were also ordered to delete all nonanonymized personally identifiable information in their possession.
The plaintiffs include unions and retiree advocacy groups, namely the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Alliance for Retired Americans and the American Federation of Teachers. 

“We are pleased the 4th Circuit agreed to let this important case continue in district court,” Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said in a written statement. “Every American retiree must be able to trust that the Social Security Administration will protect their most sensitive and personal data from unwarranted disclosure.”
The Trump administration’s appeal ignored standard legal procedure, according to Democracy Forward. The administration’s efforts to halt the enforcement of the temporary restraining order have also been denied.
“The president will continue to seek all legal remedies available to ensure the will of the American people is executed,” Liz Huston, a White House spokesperson, said via email.

The Social Security Administration did not respond to a request from CNBC for comment.
Immediately after the March 20 temporary restraining order was put in place, Social Security Administration Acting Commissioner Lee Dudek said in press interviews that he may have to shut down the agency since it “applies to almost all SSA employees.”
Dudek was admonished by Hollander, who called that assertion “inaccurate” and said the court order “expressly applies only to SSA employees working on the DOGE agenda.”
Dudek then said that the “clarifying guidance” issued by the court meant he would not shut down the agency. “SSA employees and their work will continue under the [temporary restraining order],” Dudek said in a March 21 statement.

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More than half of credit card borrowers carry debt from month to month, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Credit cards are the No. 1 source of unsecured borrowing, even though interest rates average more than 20%.

Julpo | E+ | Getty Images

Many Americans are paying a hefty price for their credit card debt.
As a primary source of unsecured borrowing, 60% of credit cardholders carry debt from month to month, according to a new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

At the same time, credit card interest rates are “very high,” averaging 23% annually in 2023, the New York Fed found, also making credit cards one of the most expensive ways to borrow money.
“With the vast majority of the American public using credit cards for their purchases, the interest rate that is attached to these products is significant,” said Erica Sandberg, consumer finance expert at CardRates.com. “The more a debt costs, the more stress this puts on an already tight budget.”
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Most credit cards have a variable rate, which means there’s a direct connection to the Federal Reserve’s benchmark. And yet, credit card lenders set annual percentage rates well above the central bank’s key borrowing rate, currently targeted in a range between 4.25% to 4.5%, where it has been since December.
Following the Federal Reserve’s rate hike in 2022 and 2023, the average credit card rate rose from 16.34% to more than 20% today — a significant increase fueled by the Fed’s actions to combat inflation.

“Card issuers have determined what the market will bear and are comfortable within this range of interest rates,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
APRs will come down as the central bank reduces rates, but they will still only ease off extremely high levels. With just a few potential quarter-point cuts on deck, APRs aren’t likely to fall much, according to Schulz.

Despite the steep cost, consumers often turn to credit cards, in part because they are more accessible than other types of loans, Schulz said. 
In fact, credit cards are the No. 1 source of unsecured borrowing and Americans’ credit card tab continues to creep higher. In the last year, credit card debt rose to a record $1.21 trillion.

Because credit card lending is unsecured, it is also banks’ riskiest type of lending.
“Lenders adjust interest rates for two primary reasons: cost and risk,” CardRates’ Sandberg said.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s research shows that credit card charge-offs averaged 3.96% of total balances between 2010 and 2023. That compares to only 0.46% and 0.43% for business loans and residential mortgages, respectively.
As a result, roughly 53% of banks’ annual default losses were due to credit card lending, according to the NY Fed research.
“When you offer a product to everyone you are assuming an awful lot of risk,” Schulz said.
Further, “when times get tough they get tough for most everybody,” he added. “That makes it much more challenging for card issuers.”

The best way to pay off debt

The best move for those struggling to pay down revolving credit card debt is to consolidate with a 0% balance transfer card, experts suggest.
“There is enormous competition in the credit card market,” Sandberg said. Because lenders are constantly trying to capture new cardholders, those 0% balance transfer credit card offers are still widely available.
Cards offering 12, 15 or even 24 months with no interest on transferred balances “are basically the best tool in your toolbelt when it comes to knocking down credit card debt,” Schulz said. “Not accruing interest for two years on a balance is pretty hard to argue with.”
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The traditional 60/40 portfolio may “no longer fully represent true diversification,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink writes in a new letter to investors.
Instead, the “future standard portfolio” may move toward 50/30/20 with stocks, bonds and private assets like real estate, infrastructure and private credit, Fink writes.
Here’s what experts say individual investors may want to consider before dabbling in private investments.

Andrew Ross Sorkin speaks with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink during the New York Times DealBook Summit in the Appel Room at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on Nov. 30, 2022.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

It may be time to rethink the traditional 60/40 investment portfolio, according to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.
In a new letter to investors, Fink writes the traditional allocation comprised of 60% stocks and 40% bonds that dates back to the 1950s “may no longer fully represent true diversification.”

“The future standard portfolio may look more like 50/30/20 — stocks, bonds and private assets like real estate, infrastructure and private credit.” Fink writes.
Most professional investors love to talk their book, and Fink is no exception. BlackRock has pursued several recent acquisitions — Global Infrastructure Partners, Preqin and HPS Investment Partners — with the goal of helping to increase investors’ access to private markets.
More from Personal Finance:Why uncertainty makes the stock market go haywireInvestors are ‘miles ahead’ if they avoid 3 things, CIO saysHow investors can ready their portfolios for a recessionThe effort to make it easier to incorporate both public and private investments in a portfolio is analogous to index versus active investments in 2009, Fink said.
Those investment strategies that were then considered separately can now be blended easily at a low cost.
Fink hopes the same will eventually be said for public and private markets.

Yet shopping for private investments now can feel “a bit like buying a house in an unfamiliar neighborhood before Zillow existed, where finding accurate prices was difficult or impossible,” Fink writes.

60/40 portfolio still a ‘great starting point’

After both stocks and bonds saw declines in 2022, some analysts declared the 60/40 portfolio strategy dead. In 2024, however, such a balanced portfolio would have provided a return of about 14%.
“If you want to keep things very simple, the 60/40 portfolio or a target date fund is a great starting point,” said Amy Arnott, portfolio strategist at Morningstar.
If you’re willing to add more complexity, you could consider smaller positions in other asset classes like commodities, private equity or private debt, she said.
However, a 20% allocation in private assets is on the aggressive side, Arnott said.
The total value of private assets globally is about $14.3 trillion, while the public markets are worth about $247 trillion, she said.
For investors who want to keep their asset allocations in line with the market value of various asset classes, that would imply a weighting of about 6% instead of 20%, Arnott said.
Yet a 50/30/20 portfolio is a lot closer to how institutional investors have been allocating their portfolios for years, said Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investments.

The 60/40 portfolio, which Rosen previously said reached its “expiration date,” hasn’t been used by his firm’s endowment and foundation clients for decades.
There’s a key reason why. Institutional investors need to guarantee a specific return, also while paying for expenses and beating inflation, Rosen said.
While a 50/30/20 allocation may help deliver “truly outsized returns” to the mass retail market, there’s also a “lot of baggage” that comes with that strategy, Rosen said.
There’s a lack of liquidity, which means those holdings aren’t as easily converted to cash, Rosen said.
What’s more, there’s generally a lack of transparency and significantly higher fees, he said.
Prospective investors should be prepared to commit for 10 years to private investments, Arnott said.
And they also need to be aware that measurement issues with asset classes like private equity means past performance data may not be as reliable, she said.
For the average person, the most likely path toward tapping into private equity will be part of a 401(k) plan, Arnott said. So far, not a lot of companies have added private equity to their 401(k) offerings, but that could change, she said.
“We will probably see more plan sponsors adding private equity options to their lineups going forward,” Arnott said.

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Many student loan borrowers are experiencing challenges on their timeline to debt forgiveness.
Here’s what they can do to stay on track for the relief.

Leopatrizi | E+ | Getty Images

Aubrey Bertram was starting to imagine her life without student debt.
Bertram, a staff attorney at Wild Montana, a nonprofit that works on land conservation in the state, had just around two and a half years left of payments before her $247,804 federal student loan balance would be excused under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.

But for many months now, she’s been frozen on her timeline to that relief.
“We’re not getting credit,” said Bertram, 35. “This time has been devastating.”
Bertram took out her loans in law school knowing that she’d work in public service and pursue PSLF.
“That was the only way taking on this debt made any sense,” Bertram said.

Arrows pointing outwards

Aubrey Bertram with her dog, Rex
Courtesy: Aubrey Bertram

Millions of other student loan holders are in the same frustrating limbo now. After Republican-led legal challenges blocked the Biden administration’s new repayment plan in the summer of 2024, the borrowers who enrolled in the program, like Bertram, have found themselves stuck.

Many of those borrowers remain in a forbearance that doesn’t bring them closer to debt forgiveness, while the Trump administration recently revised other student loan repayment plans to no longer conclude in debt cancellation.
Here’s what to know about the current challenges to federal student loan forgiveness, and what you can do about them.

SAVE borrowers are stalled on way to forgiveness

D’Aungilique Jackson, of Fresno, California, holds a “Cancel Student Debt” sign outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after the nation’s high court struck down President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program on Friday, June 30, 2023.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Many federal student loan borrowers who enrolled in the Biden administration-era SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan remain in a forbearance as a result of GOP-led legal challenges to the program. But unlike the Covid-era pause on student loan bills, this forbearance does not give borrowers credit toward debt forgiveness under an income-driven repayment plan or Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
A recent U.S. appeals court decision blocked SAVE, as well as the loan forgiveness component under other income-driven repayment plans.
Historically, at least, IDR plans limit borrowers’ monthly payments to a share of their discretionary income and cancel any remaining debt after a certain period, typically 20 years or 25 years. PSLF, which President George W. Bush signed into law in 2007, allows certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans wiped away after 10 years of payments.
“In the end, we may see borrowers lose over a year of monthly payments to count toward forgiveness,” said Elaine Rubin, director of corporate communications at Edvisors, which helps students navigate college costs and borrowing.
If you’re eager to be back on your way to debt cancellation, you have options, experts say.

You may be able switch out of the now-blocked SAVE plan and into another income-driven repayment plan. The Education Department recently re-opened several IDR plan applications, following a period during which the plans were unavailable. (The Trump administration said it was updating the plans’ applications to make them comply with the recent court order over SAVE.)
The IDR plans open now, according to the Trump administration, are: Income-Based Repayment, Pay As You Earn and Income-Contingent Repayment.
“The caveat on ICR and PAYE is that automatic forgiveness after 20 or 25 years is not available now since the courts have questioned that permissibility under statute,” said Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group for federal student loan servicers.

Still, if a borrower enrolled in ICR or PAYE, then switches to IBR, their previous payments made under the other plans will count toward loan forgiveness under IBR, as long as they meet the plan’s other requirements, Buchanan said.
Meanwhile, borrowers in any of the three IDR plans can get credit toward PSLF.
Those who want to be making progress toward debt cancellation should see which plan comes with a monthly payment they can afford. There are several tools available online to help you determine how much your monthly bill would be under different options.
For now, Bertram has decided to stay put in the SAVE forbearance, even though she’s not moving any closer to debt forgiveness. She’s worried she’ll switch into a new repayment plan only to find that program has also been halted or amended.
“You’re constantly being jerked around by political rhetoric,” Bertram said. “I just hope I’m student-debt free before I’m 40.”  More

Over the next six months, all federal departments and agencies will phase out the use of paper checks and switch to electronic payments, according to the White House.
As the U.S. accelerates toward a “check zero” world, here’s how you may be affected.

Checks are printed at the U.S. Treasury Philadelphia Finance Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dennis Brack | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Paper checks were already dying a slow death.
President Donald Trump on March 25 signed an executive order mandating that all federal departments and agencies end their use of paper checks and switch to electronic payments by Sept. 30.

The U.S. Treasury now has about six months to phase out the paper checks it uses for various purposes, including tax refunds and the roughly 456,000 Social Security checks that are mailed monthly.
The executive order will “modernize how the government handles money, switching from old-fashioned paper-based payments to fast, secure electronic payments,” the administration said in a fact sheet on the order.
“Paper-based payments, such as checks and money orders, impose unnecessary costs, delays, and risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies,” the White House said.
Under the order, all government departments and agencies will have to issue disbursements via electronic transfer methods, like direct deposit, debit or credit card payments, digital wallets and real-time transfers.
Consumers will have until then to set up an online bank account or some form of digital payment option, with limited exceptions for those who do not have access to banking services or electronic payment systems.

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Banking groups applauded the move.
“We welcome President Trump’s executive order mandating that the federal government cease issuing paper checks for all disbursements, including government benefits and tax refunds,” Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association said in a statement. “Despite a continued decline in business and consumer use of checks, check fraud has continued to rise.”
Check fraud, mail theft and identity scams have exploded in recent years, according to Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ government group. A 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated that the federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion a year to fraud.
“Checks aren’t safe anymore,” Talcove said. “It’s where the criminal groups are feasting.”
As part of the executive order, payments made to the federal government — such as fees, fines, loans and tax refunds — must also be made electronically.

With significant advancements in security — thanks to authentication, monitoring and data encryption — retailers’ and consumers’ shift to contactless and digital payment methods will only continue to grow, accelerating the move toward a “check zero” world, according to Scott Anchin, vice president of operational risk and payments policy for the Independent Community Bankers of America. 
However, there are still certain groups that rely on paper checks, including some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations such as social security beneficiaries and those who receive rental assistance, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Check writers generally skew older and are likely at the margins of the banking community, according to Anchin. Americans over the age of 55 were most likely to write checks every month, the survey from GoBankingRates found.
But these groups are also most at risk of being targeted by scammers, Talcove said. “The elderly are significantly disadvantaged by the antiquated systems and you have to get them into digital payments.”

The death of checks

Although checks, as we know them today, first originated in the 11th century, they didn’t become mainstream until the early 20th century following the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, according to a historical survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
But back then, “everyday people didn’t have checking accounts, that was for rich people,” Stephen Quinn, professor of economics at Texas Christian University and co-author of the Atlanta Fed’s report, previously told CNBC. “It wasn’t until after World War II that checking accounts were a common thing.”
Postwar prosperity greatly expanded the use of checking accounts to middle-class households, making checks the most widely used noncash payment method in the U.S., according to the Atlanta Fed.
Personal checks continued to gain steam until the mid-1990s, when credit and debit cards largely took over. Since 2000, check-writing has plummeted by nearly 75%, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Despite the rapid decline, “a form of payment with a thousand-year history is unlikely to vanish overnight,” the Atlanta Fed report said.
And yet, today’s young adults are increasingly eschewing the traditional banking and credit infrastructure altogether in favor of peer-to-peer payment apps.
Quinn said his students rely almost exclusively on digital wallet payments such as Apple Pay, Venmo and Zelle — hardly anyone carries cash, and it’s likely that few even know how to write a check.
Mobile payment apps have become de facto bank accounts even though, unlike banks or credit unions, these financial services are not FDIC-insured.
Still, there remains a place for personal checks, Quinn said.
“The paper check might linger where it began, at the high end — for large one-off payments,” he said, such as charitable donations or real estate transactions. “In this way, checks might hold on for some time.”
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