Social Security Says 2026 Payments Will Be Adjusted Despite Shutdown

A spokesperson for the agency told The Epoch Times that it will release its highly anticipated 2026 cost-of-living adjustment on Oct. 24.

Blank government checks are run through a printer at the US Treasury printing facility in Philadelphia, Pa., on July 18, 2011. William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

The Social Security Administration said Tuesday that it will release its cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for next year’s payments and confirmed the ongoing government shutdown won’t impact payments being sent out in 2026.

In a statement late last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirmed that the September 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) report will be released on Oct. 24. It added that the release gives the Social Security Administration the capacity “to meet statutory deadlines necessary to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits.”

“No other releases will be rescheduled or produced until the resumption of regular government services,” the BLS added.

A spokesperson for the Social Security agency told The Epoch Times in an Oct. 14 statement that it “will use this release to generate and announce the 2026 cost-of-living adjustment on October 24 as well.”

“Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits for 75 million Americans will be adjusted per the 2026 COLA, beginning January 1, 2026, without any delay due to the current government lapse in appropriation,” a Social Security Administration spokesperson added.

The Social Security Administration calculates the CPI for urban workers for the months of July, August, and September in order to release its COLA for next year’s retirement and disability payments.

The agency announces the COLA soon after the BLS delivers its report for September. The CPI report was originally scheduled for release on Wednesday, Oct. 15

However, due to the ongoing government shutdown, the BLS said that the collection, processing, and publishing of other official economic data remained suspended until regular operations re resumed. The shutdown was initiated on Oct. 1 after members of Congress could not come to an agreement on a stopgap measure to fund the government.

The Senior Citizens League, one of the nation’s biggest seniors groups, last month projected a 2.7 percent COLA raise in 2026, which would lift the average monthly benefit for retirees by $54 to $2,062 from $2,008.

In 2025, tens of millions of Social Security and SSI beneficiaries received a 2.5 percent COLA increase. A 3.2 percent COLA was applied to payments in 2024, while over the past 20 years, the COLA averaged around 2.6 percent, according to the Senior Citizens League.

The rescheduled CPI report will be published just in time for the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29. The Fed resumed easing policy last month, reducing its benchmark overnight interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to the 4-to-4.25 percent range, to aid the labor market.

As of Tuesday, little headway had been made in Congress on reopening the government. Officials in the Trump administration have said that federal layoffs were initiated in the midst of the shutdown, and Vice President JD Vance warned in a Sunday interview that more will be coming.

President Donald Trump announced over the weekend that he was directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “use all available funds to get our Troops PAID.” He then pledged to work with the Democrats—who want to extend certain health care subsidies that are due to expire by the end of the year—on health care if they agree to reopen the government.

Reuters contributed to this report.