What Happens to Social Security in a Government Shutdown?

Even without a budget deal, monthly benefits are still paid

Andy Markowitz and Deirdre Shesgreen,

Updated January 31, 2026

AARP

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Published January 19, 2024

/ Updated January 31, 2026

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A broad swath of the government shut down at midnight on Jan. 30 after Congress failed to reach an agreement to fund most federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The shutdown may be short-lived, as spending legislation passed by the Senate late on Jan. 30 is expected to get a House vote in early February. But even in a prolonged stalemate, Social Security recipients would continue to receive their monthly payments.

That’s because Social Security benefits are, in federal parlance, “mandatory spending.” They have a dedicated, permanent funding source (primarily, the payroll taxes most of us pay on our work income) and are unaffected by the federal appropriations process.

However, the SSA is affected by shutdowns. Its administrative budget is discretionary, meaning it is subject to congressional approval. Lawmakers determine how much of Social Security’s revenue can be allocated to operating expenses, such as processing benefit applications, renting space for local offices, and paying employees’ salaries.

A spending agreement enacted in November 2025 funds some federal programs through fiscal year 2026, which ends Sept. 30, 2026, but many federal agencies were only funded through Jan. 30.

The House passed legislation Jan. 22 that would fund all government operations through the 2026 fiscal year, but the Senate revised the measure, funding all agencies through Sept. 30 except for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Under the Senate version, DHS would be funded for two weeks, during which lawmakers will consider new policies on immigration enforcement. The revised bills must pass the House, which reconvenes Feb. 2, and be signed into law by the president, to end the shutdown.

The last government shutdown, which began Oct. 1, 2025, and lasted 43 days, was the longest in U.S. history.

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Shutdown plan

The SSA's most recent shutdown blueprint, updated in September 2025, directs the agency to “continue activities critical to our direct-service operations and those needed to ensure accurate and timely payment of benefits.” That means beneficiaries “continue receiving their Social Security, Social Security Disability Insurance [SSDI] and SSI payments,” an agency spokesperson says.

SSI is Supplemental Security Income, a safety-net benefit administered by the Social Security Administration for people with very low incomes who are 65 or older or have a disability or severe visual impairment. Unlike Social Security retirement, survivor and family benefits and SSDI, SSI is funded out of general government revenues, not the dedicated payroll tax.

During a shutdown, the payroll tax revenue that largely funds Social Security continues to be collected and goes into the program’s trust funds. The SSA has legal authority to process payments even when congressional appropriations lapse.

Most SSA employees remain on the job without pay to maintain essential functions and services, including paying benefits, staffing field offices, processing benefit applications and appeals, holding disability hearings, and issuing new and replacement Social Security cards. About 6,200 are scheduled be furloughed.

Some Social Security services and activities would be suspended, including benefit verifications by phone or in person (this service remains available online if you have a My Social Security account), processing overpayments, information technology improvements, public relations and training.

“The good news is that payments go out, and everything should seem pretty much normal, for a while,” says Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president for government affairs.

“But during a shutdown, the staff at SSA and other government agencies won’t get paid. That can go on for a little while, but eventually, people have to get paid so they can take care of their own families,” he adds.

Stopgaps now routine

Congress has repeatedly used short-term funding bills, known as continuing resolutions, as stopgaps in recent years to keep the government running as the House and Senate struggled to pass regular budget bills. Under the current budget law, SSA operations are funded at fiscal year 2025 levels until at least Jan. 30.

That budget authorized the SSA to spend $14.3 billion — about 1 percent of its revenue — on customer service and operations for 2025, a 0.5 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C., think tank, estimates that, when adjusted for inflation, Social Security’s customer service budget shrank by 21.2 percent from 2010 to 2025, while the number of beneficiaries grew by 26 percent.

The spending bill now before the Senate would, if enacted as is, increase SSA operational and customer service funding about 3.8 percent, to about $14.8 billion. Most of the increase would go toward program integrity work focused on evaluating SSDI and SSI recipients' medical and financial eligibility to continue receiving benefits.

A November 2024 AARP survey of Americans ages 50-plus found overwhelming support across party lines for increasing Social Security’s administrative and customer service spending. Eighty-five percent of respondents backed a bigger budget, including 92 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of independents.

AARP has long spotlighted lapses in Social Security customer service and urged Congress to provide adequate resources for the agency to improve.

Andy Markowitz is an AARP senior writer and editor covering Social Security and retirement. He is a former editor of the Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

Deirdre Shesgreen is an AARP writer and editor covering Social Security. She previously worked as a state news editor for the AARP Bulletin and as a reporter and editor at USA Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other publications.