Nearly 69 million Americans receive monthly Social Security benefits. Whether you receive retirement, survivor, or disability payments, you may already know that checks are arriving as normally scheduled, and you won't be dipping into your emergency savings to make up the difference. That's because Social Security is a mandatory spending program, with its funds coming from separate trust funds rather than annual spending bills.
In other words, Social Security payments keep rolling, regardless of whether the government is open or not. However, the Social Security Administration (SSA) wants people to know that, while local offices remain open during the shutdown, some services will be reduced or suspended due to staff layoffs.
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Available services
The following list of services will be available, but may require more patience on your part due to fewer available staff. According to the SSA, it will still be able to provide the following services at local Social Security offices:
- Help you apply for benefits
- Assist you in requesting an appeal
- Change your address or direct deposit information
- Accept reports of death
- Verify or change your citizenship status
- Replace a lost or missing Social Security payment
- Issue a critical payment
- Change a representative payee
- Process a change in your living arrangement or income (SSI recipients only)
- Issue new or replacement Social Security cards
Nothing has changed if you have a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) scheduled. Hearing offices remain open for business as usual.
Services likely suspended
Until the government reopens, Social Security offices will not be able to:
- Replace your Medicare card
- Issue a proof of income letter
- Update or correct your earnings record
- Process payee accounting via representative payees
- Handle prerelease agreements for incarcerated individuals
- Answer queries from third parties
- Respond to Freedom of Information Act requests
- Continue IT enhancement activities, public relations, or training
- Process overpayments
Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) announcement
The annual COLA announcement, formerly scheduled for Oct. 15, is expected to be delayed until the government reopens for business. A COLA is an increase in Social Security benefits, intended to help you keep pace with the rising cost of living.
COLAs are determined by measuring inflation through various indices, the most common being the Consumer Price Index. While they're normally announced in October when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its September inflation report, a continuing shutdown would make that impossible, delaying both the report and the COLA announcement.
Experts expect the 2026 COLA to be around 2.7%. The current government shutdown will not affect that increase, because the government data for September has already been collected.
The COLA announcement has been delayed only once before. That delay was in 2013, when the announcement arrived 14 days late. However, there was no effect on the amount Social Security recipients received at the beginning of the new year, when the increase kicked in as expected.
Making the best of a difficult situation
While the SSA plans for situations precisely like a government shutdown, the reality of operating with a workforce suddenly reduced by 10% will affect services.
To help fill the gap, the SSA suggests creating a free my Social Security account if you don't already have one. Many of the services typically taken care of in local offices can be dealt with online through your personalized account.
Chances are, Social Security is part of your overall retirement plan and you want to ensure it's there when you count on it. Once the shutdown ends, the SSA promises to update its official social media accounts on LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook.
