What Happens to Social Security in a Government Shutdown?

The Senate passed spending legislation March 14 that keeps the government operating through Sept. 30, the end date for the 2025 federal fiscal year. The measure, called a continuing resolution (CR) and adopted by the House three days earlier, maintains 2024 spending levels for most federal agencies.

But even if the federal government had shut down, or does in the future, Social Security recipients would continue getting their monthly payments.

In federal parlance, Social Security benefits are “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 Social Security Administration (SSA) is not immune to the shutdown threat. Its administrative budget is discretionary — meaning it's subject to annual congressional approval. Lawmakers determine how much of Social Security’s revenue can go toward operating expenses, such as processing benefit applications, renting space for local offices and paying employees’ salaries.

The new CR keeps the SSA operating at fiscal year 2024 funding levels. The agency is under a hiring freeze and announced plans last month to pare its workforce from about 57,000 employees to 50,000, a 12.3 percent cut.

Shutdown plan

In the event of a government shutdown, which most recently occurred over the winter of 2018-19, the SSA has a detailed contingency plan laying out how it would operate. This blueprint, most recently updated in September 2024, says the agency “will continue activities critical to our direct-service operations and those needed to ensure accurate and timely payment of benefits.”

Payroll tax revenue will continue to go into the trust funds that supply money to cover retirement benefits, survivor benefits, family benefits and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The SSA says it has legal authority to process payments even if congressional appropriations lapse. 

The SSA also administers Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a safety-net benefit for people with very low incomes who are visually impaired, have a disability or are age 65 and older. While SSI is paid out of general government revenues, the SSA says it has enough previously appropriated money to continue making SSI payments for the next three months, longer than any past shutdown.