--- title: Could the Government Shutdown Delay the Social Security COLA? description: If the government shutdown continues, it may postpone or cancel the Oct. 15 inflation report, pushing back the 2026 COLA announcement. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Julia Glum role: Managing Editor url: https://money.com/author/julia-glum/ bio: Julia Glum joined Money in 2018 and specializes in covering financial trends that affect everyday Americans' wallets. She also writes Dollar Scholar, a weekly newsletter that teaches young adults how to navigate the messy world of money. education: University of Florida at_money_since: 2018 articles: 453 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - Newsweek - International Business Times - CBS News - Good Morning America - WUSA9 - Pix 11 - The New York Times - Mashable - The Washington Post - CNBC - Politico social: - https://x.com/superjulia - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-glum published: '2025-10-03T20:57:36.000Z' modified: '2025-10-03T21:32:32.000Z' section: Retirement tags: - News word_count: 875 canonical: https://money.com/cola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Older woman, with worried expression, looking at a computer screen](https://img.money.com/2025/10/News-Shutdown-Affects-COLA.jpg) The last time the flow of federal jobs data and inflation statistics halted, then-commissioner Erica Groshen remembers being holed up in the Bureau of Labor Statistics headquarters with two colleagues instead of the thousands who normally worked there. It was October 2013. The government had just shut down due to a funding feud over the Affordable Care Act that ultimately lasted 16 days, and the trio was working the phones in an empty office. “People were pretty surprised when they called the BLS and I answered,” Groshen, who’s now a senior economics advisor at Cornell University, tells Money. Twelve years later, the [government is shut down again](https://money.com/government-shutdown-affect-money/) over yet another Affordable Care Act feud, and that means the BLS is behind on key economic data releases. On Friday, the bureau did not publish its highly anticipated jobs report for the month of September. The next major release is the September consumer price index (inflation report), which is scheduled for Oct. 15. Many insiders are worried it could be delayed or skipped altogether. ## Protect your retirement with a Reverse Mortgage ### If you are over 62, a Reverse Mortgage from Longbridge Financial (NMLS# 957935) can help you take care of expenses or even invest in things that will improve your quality of life. Click on your state to learn more. [Learn More](https://money.com/pr/s978d3010185?ap_referrer=%2Fcola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown%2F) During the last shutdown in December 2018 and January 2019, the BLS had the staff and funding to release key economic reports on time. That's not the case this time around. The delay of economic data releases may sound like an intangible political problem, but it could have real-life consequences for everyday Americans. Aside from being the benchmark inflation indicator, the September CPI report is particularly important in determining the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 70 million Social Security recipients. The BLS inflation reports for the months of July, August and September are required to produce the COLA, which is based on a measure called the CPI-W that accompanies each release. If the shutdown continues through the first week of October, it will likely postpone or cancel the Oct. 15 inflation report — which will push back the COLA announcement, according to William Beach, a former BLS commissioner. Put simply: No inflation report, no COLA news. What we do know is that in 2013, the September CPI report was [delayed by two weeks](https://www.bls.gov/bls/updated_release_schedule.htm), ultimately pushing the COLA announcement for the following year back, as well — to Oct. 30. Depending on how long the 2025 shutdown is, the COLA announcement this year could be late, too. The Social Security Administration doesn’t actually do the COLA calculation itself, says Beach, who’s now the executive director of Fiscal Lab on Capitol Hill. He says the BLS calculates the COLA and hands it off to the Social Security Administration, which then typically announces it a few hours later (after it has been certified by the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB). Groshen adds that any time a key economic data release runs off schedule, the BLS can’t simply press publish as soon as staffers get back in the office. The off-schedule publication would need to be approved by OMB first, potentially leading to more delays. The good news, according to Beach, is that all the inflation data needed to calculate the COLA has already been collected. It just needs to be processed. To be clear, the government shutdown won’t affect the actual COLA for 2026, which is [currently estimated to be 2.7%](https://money.com/social-security-cola-prediction-2026/). Only the timing of the *announcement* of the COLA is up in the air. (The distribution of Social Security payments is not affected by government shutdowns anyway.) ## Is a Reverse Mortgage right for you? ### Work with a licensed Finance of America (NMLS# 2285) representative today. [See Rates](https://money.com/pr/n1cf5195670b?ap_referrer=%2Fcola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown%2F) ## When will we know the 2026 COLA? If the COLA announcement is indeed delayed, staffing levels at the BLS could play a role in when we get the official number. Due to sweeping federal workforce cuts, headcount at the BLS is currently down by about 20% from previous administrations, Groshen says. So when the government does re-open, it could take the bureau a while to catch up. Beach confirms there are even fewer people than normal in the office during the ongoing shutdown. Only acting BLS commissioner William Wiatrowski is authorized to work, and "he can’t do anything,” Beach says, like collecting data or publishing reports. In an emailed statement to Money, Wiatrowski says, “I can confirm that I am the only BLS employee on the full-time exemption list during the lapse in appropriation.” He adds that the bureau has “suspended data collection, processing, and dissemination” due to the shutdown and will resume normal operations once funding is restored. When that may be is anyone’s guess. Republicans and Democrats both appear to be digging in their heels, threatening to prolong the third government shutdown under President Donald Trump. And Social Security recipients aren't the only ones watching Washington. Aside from the COLA, the data backlog “presents a real quandary for the Federal Reserve,” Groshen says. The Fed — tasked with maintaining full employment and stable prices — [cut interest rates in September](https://money.com/fed-rate-cut-impact-september-2025/) for the first time in 2025. The BLS data releases scheduled for this month were supposed to be the first pulse check on how the economy reacted to the rate reduction. “This is when the data are most consequential,” Groshen says. “And to be flying blind, intentionally, makes it worse.” ## A Reverse Mortgage can unlock the equity in your home for a more secure retirement ### Work with a licensed Finance of America (NMLS# 2285) representative today. [Get Started](https://money.com/pr/ucc329b181d0?ap_referrer=%2Fcola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown%2F) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/39553/medium_d01d803f-1110-4310-8997-bada342c27e4.webp) Get the most out of your Reverse Mortgage with Finance of America (NMLS# 2285) [Learn More](https://money.com/pr/ed1a928f8683?ap_referrer=%2Fcola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/cola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Retirement", "item": "https://money.com/retirement/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Social Security", "item": "https://money.com/social-security/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Could the Government Shutdown Delay the Social Security COLA?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/cola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/cola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown/", "name": "Could the Government Shutdown Delay the Social Security COLA?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2025-10-03T20:57:36.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/cola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/cola-announcement-delay-government-shutdown/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2025-10-03T21:32:32.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Could the Government Shutdown Delay the Social Security COLA?", "articleSection": "Retirement", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2025/10/News-Shutdown-Affects-COLA.jpg", "width": 2268, "height": 1512, "caption": "News-Shutdown-Affects-COLA" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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