When will Social Security COLA 2026 increases be announced?: The date is finally set.

Every year, the Social Security Administration calculates how inflation affects the cost of living and then adjusts benefits for the nearly 74 million Americans depending on those benefits to survive.

This calculation is crucial for Americans who budget their expenses based on Social Security, which is usually announced in mid-October. However, due to a government shutdown, that announcement is being delayed.

While the 2026 COLA was slated to be announced on Oct. 15, that date has been pushed back to Oct. 24.

• Read more: When will Social Security announce 2026 COLA increases? — Well, it depends

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced it will release the September 2025 Consumer Price Index on Oct. 24 — the data set the SSA uses to determine COLA increases.

“No other releases will be rescheduled or produced until the resumption of regular government services,” the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics said.

“This release allows the Social Security Administration to meet statutory deadlines necessary to ensure the accurate and timely payment of benefits.”

• Read more: Social Security COLA 2026: These 10 states will get the largest raises

While we don’t know exactly what those numbers will be, we do have a pretty good idea of what they might look like based on the calculation the Social Security Administration uses to determine the increase.

Using this calculation, bipartisan group The Senior Citizens League, predicts the increase will be about 2.7%, which is slightly up from 2025’s increase of 2.5%.

Using this calculation, a 2.7% COLA would result in about an extra $54 per month for the average retired worker, increasing the monthly benefit from $2,008 to $2,062.

From a historical perspective, the predicted 2026 COLA would rank 29th among the COLAs implemented since 1977, which was the first year that the SSA began calculating COLAs based on the CPI-W,” TSCL wrote in a release.

The last COLA, implemented in 2025, currently ranks 33rd.

• Read more: Government shutdown: How it’s affecting Social Security, payments, services

While the COLA increase is semi-predictable, the government shutdown complicates other moving parts essential to keeping the Social Security Administration running smoothly and serving beneficiaries.

Before the shutdown, the Social Security Administration created a contingency plan indicating it would retain approximately 45,000 (90%) of its workforce during the shutdown, while furloughing roughly 6,200 employees.

• Read more: Say goodbye to retirement at 65: Here’s when you can collect full Social Security benefits

This staffing reduction is expected to halt a variety of services, including:

• Benefit verifications
• Earnings record corrections and updates are unrelated to the adjudication of benefits
• Payee accountings
• Prisoner activities-suspension
• Requests from third parties for queries
• Freedom of Information Act requests
• IT enhancement activities, public relations and training
• Replacement Medicare cards
• Overpayments processing

However, beneficiaries will continue to be paid on time. Benefit payments are categorized as mandatory spending, CBS News reported. This means Congress already authorized their funding with no expiration date.

Recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a needs-based program that provides monthly payments to people with limited income and resources who are age 65 or older or have a disability, can expect to receive their first payment on Wednesday, Oct. 1, and Friday, Oct. 30.