Is Late News, Bad News? What to Expect from Delayed Social Security Report 

Better late than never. Maybe not.

The annual Social Security Trustees Report is required by law to be issued by April 1. This deadline is frequently missed, however, with reports in recent years typically released in May, June or even as late as August. When exactly this year’s report will land is unclear, but what’s all too clear is what it will show: Social Security is on a collision course with insolvency, and recent actions by Congress have probably made the situation even worse, according to Jason Fichtner, a former Social Security official and executive director of the LIMRA Retirement Income Institute. The program isn’t on track to simply collapse, fortunately, but substantial benefit cuts are coming unless lawmakers do something about it. Those cuts could impact retirement planning for millions of clients across the country.

“I’d expect the 2026 Trustees Report to have an [Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund] depletion date of 2032, especially given the recent passage of the Social Security Fairness Act,” Fichtner told Retirement Upside. That law, passed in early 2025, repealed the program’s Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset that reduced benefit payments for some government workers, hastening the projected depletion date by six to 12 months. “There’s a chance, if recent changes to immigration are taken into account, that the depletion date could move up to 2031,” he said. “We’ll see.”

When (and What) Will It Show? 

Speculation in Washington is that the 2026 report will come out sometime in June, Fichtner said, noting a late report isn’t surprising. These days, an on-time report would be more of a surprise, as that’s only happened once in the past five years. Last year’s report showed: 

• The estimated OASI trust fund depletion date was 2033, with 81% of benefits payable at that time. 
• Combining the retirement benefit trust fund with the disability insurance trust fund, however, could buy an extra year of solvency. 

Worse Than All That? One more thing to keep in mind is that the demographic and economic assumptions factoring into the Trustees Report are supposed to be current through the end of the prior year. “The global and economic ups and downs of the first quarter of 2026 will not be included in the assumptions for the 2026 report,” Fichtner warned. “Also, the long-term estimates are sensitive to economic growth projections, as well as fertility rates and immigration. It will be interesting to see if the trustees have made any long-term changes to the assumptions.”