In an effort to save money, Federal officials began retiring paper checks in favor of direct deposits and prepaid ‘Direct Express’ debit cards in May, 2011. Since then, the Treasury Department has required all new recipients of payments from federal benefits programs – including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income disability, Veterans Affairs and government pension plans – to sign up for electronic payments. Now, the U.S. Treasury Department will stop issuing paper checks for Social Security and other federal benefit payments and disburse payments instead only in the form of direct deposits to bank or credit union accounts or debit cards. You should keep this in mind with regard to future verification of federal benefits. It will no longer be possible to view Treasury checks as a method of verifying these benefits.