Government Shutdown May Delay 2026 Social Security COLA Announcement

Social Security COLA Announcement 2026: The US federal government shut down on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, causing many people to worry about Social Security. Even tho hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed and many nonessential services like national parks and museums are closed the Social Security payments will keep on going like it does. More than 74 million Americans rely on Social Security and Supplemental Security Income each month so it’s important.

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These programs get funding from payroll taxes and are classified as mandatory spending so, funding does not depend on yearly budget. Medicare benefits also continue because they are managed through the Social Security Administration.

How are Services Affected?

While payments continue some office work will slow down. The COLA is usually calculated using inflation data from the third quarter and announced in early October. Because many employees are furloughed some administrative tasks might be delayed.

About 45,000 Social Security employees will still work to handle urgent needs like applying for benefits, making appointments, reporting missing payments, requesting replacement cards and managing appeals. That is around 90% of the staff though they will work without pay until Congress reopens the government and restores back wages.

Other tasks, like correcting earnings records, verifying benefits, processing overpayments, and handling IT updates, will pause until funding is approved. This could delay the 2026 COLA announcement, but there is no official confirmation yet.

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Medicare will Continue

Essential Medicare functions also keep running. About 3,000 CMS employees, or half the workforce, will work to make sure enrollment, hospital and doctor access, prescription coverage, and treatments continue. Some nonessential tasks homwever, like replacing Medicare cards or updating certain records, may be affected. Beneficiaries needing official documents are encouraged to use online accounts to print forms during the shutdown.