A government shutdown may not be the gift Americans had on their list this holiday season. But the potential for one looms Friday.
A shutdown became more likely after President-elect Donald Trump opposed a bipartisan plan reached Wednesday to keep the government funded through mid-March. Complicating an already complex situation: Trump wants Congress to raise the debt ceiling because the current debt limit suspension ends on January 1, 2025. An agreement would give the incoming administration time to use “extraordinary measures” to pay the bills.
A question possibly on the minds of the 68 million Americans currently getting Social Security benefits: What happens to the Social Security Administration during a government shutdown? Will recipients still get benefits checks? Here’s what to know.
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During a government shutdown, some federal agencies continue their work because at least some of their workers are considered “essential” to continue activities such as air traffic control, border protection, law enforcement, in-hospital medical care, and power grid maintenance, notes the nonprofit, nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
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Among those agencies and programs that continue on because some of their mandatory spending is not subject to annual appropriations by Congress: Medicare, Medicaid and, yes, Social Security.
Social Security has “dedicated funding, so it’s outside of the budget process,” said Craig Copeland, director of wealth benefits research at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “All that money is there to paid (out). It doesn’t have to be appropriated. … You’re still going to get your checks.”
That means retirement and disability benefits including Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments will continue to go out.
Also unaffected by a shutdown: military veterans’ benefits, and medical care, and food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
The Social Security Administration has a contingency plan for shutdowns. In a letter to the director of the Office of Management and Budget three months ago, the SSA described its 2025 fiscal year plan for a potential federal government shutdown. That coincided with a potential mid-September shutdown, which was avoided by an agreement reached in Sept. 22. (That agreement expires on Friday.)
The SSA details how it will “continue activities critical to our direct-service operations and those needed to ensure accurate and timely payment of benefits …. (and) will cease activities not directly related to the accurate and timely payment of benefits or not critical to our direct-service operations.”
The plan, signed by Chad Poist, the SSA’s deputy commissioner for the budget, finance and management, cites a 1995 memorandum from the Department of Justice to the Office of Management and Budget that any other government activities needed to disburse Social Security benefits are allowed during a “lapse in appropriations.”
The SSA’s continued activities include processing benefits applications, issuing new and replacement Social Security cards, and information technology work needed for daily processing activities, fraud protection, and other applications.
Some discontinued activities during a shutdown include benefit verifications, earnings record corrections and updates unrelated to adjudication of benefits, and IT enhancement activities.
“Some of the (SSA) workers could be furloughed until this is resolved, because some of those services are funded differently than the way the benefits are,” Copeland said.
He suggests anyone who has an appointment to start benefits or to handle benefit calculations to make sure their appointments will happen or need to be rescheduled. “Appointments … could be impacted,” he said.
Those recipients whose birthdates range from the 21st to the 31st of the month are scheduled to get a check on Dec. 24, according to the SSA calendar. The January SSI payment is scheduled to go out Dec. 31.
The next checks would be Jan. 3 for recipients who began receiving Social Security before May 1997. Those who get both Social Security & SSI will get Social Security paid on Jan. 3 and SSI on Jan. 1, according to the SSA’s 2025 calendar.
Checks go out on Jan. 8 for those whose birthdates are from the 1st to 10th of the month and Jan. 15 for those whose birthdates are from the 11th to 20th.
Contributing: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY, and Reuters.
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.
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