New Yorkers Will Need To Find New Way To Get Paid From The Federal Government

For more than 250 years, the United States Department of the Treasury has managed the people's money, from those who pay taxes to people who rely on the federal government for financial assistance. Since the 17th century, cheques have been used as a method of exchanging money between people and different institutions.

During the last year, the Federal Disbursement Service, the division of the Treasury that issues payments, cut more than 36 million checks in 2024. Of all the payments that FDS made last year, which totaled more than 1.27 billion worth $5.45 trillion, nearly 97% of them were some sort of electronic payments.

Because wire transfers and/or direct deposits make up a large majority of the payments issued by the Fed, the Trump administration is making a significant decision that will impact millions of Americans.

US Treasury Ending Paper Checks For Everyone

According to information released by the federal government, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will cease sending paper checks to Americans as of September 30, 2025.

Over the last few years, the number of checks that have been issued by the Treasury has been falling significantly. In 2021, the Treasury cut nearly 50 million checks, which decreased to 44 million in 2023, and was at 36 million last year.

This, along with the higher potential of theft or checks getting lost, is being cited as the reason paper checks are going away.

With paper checks over 16 times more likely to get lost, stolen, altered, or delayed, we encourage those still receiving paper checks to make the switch today. Electronic payments such as direct deposit are safer than checks, allow quicker access to funds, and have less risk of fraud...
-Linda Chero, Fiscal Service Chief Disbursing Officer with the United States Treasury

Starting October 1st, if you receive any sort of Federal payments like a tax return, Social Security, Veterans, or if you're a government vendor, your payments will need to be made via direct deposit or paid to a federal government-sponsored Direct Express debit card.

After more than 2 centuries of issuing checks, this is a big change for the United States.

What do you think? Should the Fed continue to issue checks to people if they want them?