US government shutdown could delay news of Social Security increase

Published Sep 28, 2023 02:22PM ET
2/2 © Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Older couples view the ocean and waves along the beach in La Jolla, California March 8, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo 2/2
(Reuters) – One of the most highly anticipated announcements watched for each year by more than 70 million U.S. retirees and government benefits recipients could well be delayed by any federal government shutdown lasting more than a few days: Their annual pay increase.
With a partial government shutdown beginning on Sunday looking ever more likely amid an ongoing standoff in Congress, the U.S. Labor Department has advised that all economic data gathering and publishing activities conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics would cease for as long as the government remains closed.
A shutdown that stretches deeper into October would threaten the scheduled release of the Consumer Price Index for September currently set for Oct. 12, the department said.
That could mean a delay in the much-anticipated announcement of the annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) to the monthly benefits paid out by the Social Security Administration.
Any announcement delay, however, would not likely affect when the new payment amounts take effect. The new rate will start to be paid to Social Security retirement benefits recipients in January 2024, while payments to SSI beneficiaries typically change at the end of each December.
The COLA is determined by the annual change at the end of each year’s third quarter in the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, published each October by the BLS.