Your Social Security full retirement age depends on the year you were born, and under current law it lands somewhere between 66 and 67. Anyone born in 1960 or later reaches full retirement age at 67. People born from 1943 through 1954 reach it at 66. Birth years in between fall on a two-month sliding scale. Full retirement age is the point at which you qualify for 100 percent of the benefit you earned; claiming before or after changes that amount permanently.
Full Retirement Age by Birth Year
- 1943 through 1954: 66 years
- 1955: 66 years and 2 months
- 1956: 66 years and 4 months
- 1957: 66 years and 6 months
- 1958: 66 years and 8 months
- 1959: 66 years and 10 months
- 1960 or later: 67 years
This schedule was written into law decades ago to phase in a higher retirement age as life expectancy rose. Congress has not moved the 1960-or-later figure since.1Social Security Administration. 20 CFR 404.409 – What Is Full Retirement Age
One note on how birth year is read. Social Security applies its rules using the year you were born, and the age charts above give you the exact month at which full retirement age is reached. If your full retirement age is 66 and 8 months, you don’t hit it on your 67th birthday and you don’t hit it on your 66th; you hit it eight months after you turn 66.
Claiming Early at Age 62
The earliest you can file for your own retirement benefit is 62, and the reduction is permanent. For the first 36 months you claim before full retirement age, your benefit is cut by 5/9 of one percent per month. For any additional months beyond 36, the rate drops to 5/12 of one percent per month.2Social Security Administration. Social Security Handbook 724 – Basic Reduction Formulas
What that produces in practice: if your full retirement age is 67 and you file at 62, you’re claiming 60 months early. The first 36 months take 20 percent off, the next 24 months take another 10 percent, and you’re left with 70 percent of your full benefit. A $2,000 monthly benefit becomes $1,400.3Social Security Administration. Early or Late Retirement
The reduced amount doesn’t correct itself when you reach full retirement age. It stays at the lower level for life, with cost-of-living adjustments applied on top of the smaller base.
Waiting Past Full Retirement Age
Every month you delay filing past your full retirement age adds delayed retirement credits to your benefit. For anyone born in 1943 or later, the credit works out to 8 percent per year, and credits stop accumulating at age 70. There is no advantage to waiting beyond that.3Social Security Administration. Early or Late Retirement
How much you can gain depends on your full retirement age. If your FRA is 67, you have three years of credits available, for a 24 percent boost by 70. If your FRA is 66, you have four years and a 32 percent boost. The larger figure only applies to people born from 1943 through 1954. Everyone born in 1960 or later caps out at 24 percent.
The increase becomes your new baseline, and future cost-of-living adjustments compound on top of it. Someone with a full retirement age of 67 whose full benefit would be $2,000 receives roughly $1,400 at 62 or roughly $2,480 at 70.
Retroactive Lump-Sum Option
If you delay past full retirement age and then decide to file, you can ask for up to six months of retroactive benefits paid as a lump sum. In exchange, your going-forward monthly benefit is calculated as though you filed six months earlier, which trims your delayed credits slightly. Retroactive payments are not available for any month before you reached full retirement age.4Social Security Administration. Delayed Retirement Credits
Spousal and Survivor Ages
A spousal benefit at your own full retirement age is worth up to 50 percent of your husband or wife’s primary insurance amount. You can claim as early as 62, but the reduction is steeper than for your own retirement benefit: 25/36 of one percent per month for the first 36 months, then 5/12 of one percent per month for any additional months. Claiming a spousal benefit at 62 with a full retirement age of 67 leaves you with roughly 32.5 percent of the worker’s amount rather than 50 percent.5Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses
Survivor benefits run on a different clock. A surviving spouse can claim as early as age 60, or as early as 50 with a qualifying disability. The amount is reduced when claimed before the survivor’s own full retirement age, but the earliest entry point is two years before ordinary retirement benefits open up.6Social Security Administration. Survivors Benefits
Working While Collecting Before Full Retirement Age
Claiming early and continuing to work triggers the earnings test. In 2026, Social Security withholds $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn above $24,480. In the calendar year you reach full retirement age, the threshold rises to $65,160 and the withholding rate drops to $1 for every $3 above the limit, with only earnings from the months before your birthday counting.7Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
Once you reach full retirement age, the earnings test goes away. You can earn any amount without losing benefits. The money withheld earlier is not forfeited: Social Security recalculates your monthly benefit at full retirement age to give you credit for the withheld months across your remaining lifetime.8Social Security Administration. How Work Affects Your Benefits
Retirees who claim at 62 and then pick up part-time work are the group most often surprised by this. A modest wage can push you over the limit, shrink or eliminate your checks for months, and take years of recalculated payments to recoup.
How Your Claiming Age Affects Taxes on Benefits
Social Security is not automatically tax-free. Federal tax on your benefits depends on your combined income, which is your adjusted gross income plus any tax-exempt interest plus half of your Social Security benefits. The thresholds have not been updated since 1984:
- Single filers with combined income between $25,000 and $34,000 may have up to 50 percent of benefits taxed. Above $34,000, up to 85 percent can be taxed.
- Joint filers with combined income between $32,000 and $44,000 may have up to 50 percent of benefits taxed. Above $44,000, up to 85 percent can be taxed.
- Married filing separately while living with a spouse: up to 85 percent of benefits are taxable at virtually any income level.
Those percentages describe how much of your benefit is included in taxable income, not the tax rate applied to it. No one pays tax on more than 85 percent of their Social Security.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 86 – Social Security and Tier 1 Railroad Retirement Benefits
This matters when you’re choosing a claiming age. Withdrawals from a traditional IRA or 401(k) raise your adjusted gross income and can push more of your Social Security into taxable territory. A larger monthly benefit from waiting until 70 may also cross these thresholds sooner than a reduced benefit taken at 62. Either direction, the interaction between your claiming decision and your other income deserves a look before you file.