I have several friends who are retired. I like hearing what fun things they have lined up to do. And I'm admittedly a little jealous of the flexibility they have to change what's on their schedule in a second with no worries.
But there's one thing that I doubt they'll skip doing on Oct. 24. If you receive Social Security retirement benefits, you probably won't want to miss it, either.
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Better late than never
What's so special about Oct. 24? It's the day the Social Security Administration (SSA) will announce the 2026 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).
This announcement is coming later than it normally would because of the federal government shutdown. When the U.S. Congress failed to reach an agreement on continued funding of government operations, many federal agencies had to implement contingency plans. The U.S. Department of Labor was one of them. Among the steps the DOL took when the shutdown took effect was to suspend releasing economic data created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
If BLS operations had rolled along as usual, the agency would have released September inflation data on Oct. 15, 2025. And if that data had been released, SSA would have had the last piece of information it needed to calculate next year's Social Security COLA. Retirees would have learned the amount of the benefit increase soon after BLS released its inflation numbers. But none of that happened because of the federal government shutdown.
The missing piece of information that SSA needs, by the way, is the September Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). The annual COLA is calculated by determining the percentage difference between the CPI-W for the third quarter of the current year and the CPI-W for the same period in the previous year. The only number SSA doesn't have to complete the COLA calculation is the September CPI-W.
Even though the federal government is shut down, BLS plans to publish its September inflation report at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 24. The agency is making this exception because SSA has to finalize the 2026 COLA by Nov. 1, 2025, to meet statutory deadlines.
Go to the source
What exactly should retirees do on Oct. 24? Go to SSA's Communications Corner webpage. Sometime shortly after BLS releases the September inflation report that morning, SSA will post an announcement about the 2026 COLA on its website.
You should be able to easily find the announcement. It will be a press release with a headline similar to "Social Security Announces N.N Percent Benefit Increase for 2026." You'll learn how much Social Security benefits will increase next year and other relevant information.
Of course, retirees don't have to check SSA's website later this week. The Social Security COLA announcement will be a major story for many media outlets. For example, the team at The Motley Fool will quickly dissect SSA's announcement and inform readers what to expect. However, for anyone who likes to get information directly from the source, SSA's website is the place to go.
What will the 2026 COLA likely be?
If you want an idea of what the 2026 Social Security COLA will likely be, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) developed a statistical model that crunches numbers to generate monthly estimates of the next COLA. The most recent projection is that retirees will receive a 2.7% benefit increase.
How does this estimate stack up against past Social Security COLAs? It's a little higher than the 2.5% increase received this year but lower than the COLAs in the three previous years.
Retirees won't find out another important piece of information on Oct. 24 that impacts how much of their Social Security COLA actually makes it to their bank accounts. I'm referring to the amount of Medicare Part B premiums for 2026.
If you don't like bad news, maybe it's better that you wait to learn this information. In July, the Medicare trustees projected that Part B premiums would jump 11.6% next year. For many retirees, that increase will offset much of their Social Security COLA.
