Capitol Hill lawmakers have until midnight Friday, when Congress hopes to adjourn for the holidays, to pass a bill that would continue to fund the government.
The partial shutdown could cause nationwide disruption to federal agencies and employees. There are about 60,000 federal workers in Arizona, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Although “shutdown” sounds like a complete stop, that is not the full picture. Federal agencies classify their workers as “essential” or “nonessential.”
Essential workers like U.S. Postal Service employees and air traffic controllers would work through a government shutdown.
A government shutdown would mostly spare government programs such as Social Security, Medicare, food assistance and the military, although minor disruptions and delays to benefits and services could occur.
What happens to Social Security if the government shuts down?
Some agencies and programs would continue to function, at least partly, despite a shutdown because their mandatory spending is not subject to annual appropriations by Congress.
These include Medicare, Medicaid and 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. … It doesn’t have to be appropriated. … You’re still going to get your checks.”
Social Security retirement and disability benefits, including Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments, would continue to go out.
Also unaffected by a shutdown: military veterans’ benefits and medical care, and food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called SNAP.
Social Security’s contingency plan for government shutdowns
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 on Sept. 22. (That agreement expires on Friday.)
The SSA details how it would “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, 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 the 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 suggested anyone who has an appointment to start benefits or to handle benefit calculations make sure their appointments will happen or need to be rescheduled. “Appointments … could be impacted,” he said.
When do December Social Security benefits checks go out?
According to the SSA calendar, Social Security recipients whose birthdates range from the 21st to the 31st of the month are scheduled to receive a check on Dec. 24. The January Supplemental Security Income payment is scheduled to be sent on Dec. 31.
According to the SSA’s 2025 calendar, recipients who began receiving Social Security before May 1997 will receive their next check on Jan. 3. Those who receive both Social Security and SSI will receive their Social Security payment on Jan. 3 and their SSI payment on Jan. 1.
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: USA TODAY, USA TODAY Network and Reuters.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will I get my Social Security check if the government shuts down?
