In hopes of saving $1 billion over 10 years, the Department of Treasury has decided that new Social Security applicants should be required to receive their checks via direct deposit. This would significantly limit the cost of printing, handling and sending paper checks by mail, according to the Treasury.

For now, all of the seniors out there who already get their Social Security check by mail will continue to do so. But come March 1, 2013, the government plans to eliminate paper checks entirely, our sister site the Consumerist recently reported.

According to the Detroit news, this move could save about 12 million pounds of paper. Each month the Treasury doles out almost $60 billion in Social Security checks to some 55 million people across the country.

Social Security phases out paper checks [Consumerist]
At Social Security, a paperless wave [Detroit news]