Delay in Social Security COLA Announcement
Social Security recipients will have to wait longer than expected to learn about the increase in their benefits for 2026. The government shutdown has pushed back the planned release of the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) by over a week.
Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the September 2025 Consumer Price Index (CPI) will be released on October 24th. Once the CPI is public, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will be able to provide details on the 2026 COLA.
The SSA determines the COLA based on the CPI for Urban Wage Workers (CPI-W) from July through September, comparing it to the same period from the previous year. This index reflects consumer spending trends on essentials like food, housing, healthcare, and various goods.
Since the September 2025 data isn’t available yet, the SSA can’t calculate the COLA at this time.
The announcement, initially slated for October 15, has been delayed due to the ongoing shutdown, which hindered the BLS’s operations. It’s reported that BLS employees were recalled to work to ensure the COLA announcement could still happen this month.
While the SSA will make the official announcement, the Coalition on Aging, a nonpartisan advocacy group, has estimated the COLA to be around 2.7%.
“Seniors nationwide are anxiously awaiting the official COLA announcement in October,” said Shannon Benton, Director of TSCL. “Our research indicates that about 39% of seniors rely solely on Social Security for their income, so this announcement significantly affects their quality of life.”
A 2.7% adjustment would represent a slight increase of 0.2% from the 2.5% COLA for 2025. Over the past decade, annual adjustments have generally been below the average inflation rate of 3%, barring three years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s a look at the COLA changes since 2016:
- January 2016 — 0.0%
- January 2017 — 0.3%
- January 2018 — 2.0%
- January 2019 — 2.8%
- January 2020 — 1.6%
- January 2021 — 1.3%
- January 2022 — 5.9%
- January 2023 — 8.7%
- January 2024 — 3.2%
- January 2025 — 2.5%
Benton mentioned, “Many seniors feel that inflation is actually much more severe than the COLA predictions suggest. In fact, about 80% believe that inflation in 2024 will outpace the 2.5% COLA that was adjusted in early 2025.”
Currently, around 74.5 million individuals receive Social Security benefits.
