The Social Security retirement age isn’t a single number. Age 62 is the earliest you can file, your full retirement age falls between 66 and 67 depending on the year you were born, and 70 is the last age at which waiting still raises your monthly check. The gap between claiming at the earliest point and the latest can shift your payment by more than 60 percent, so which age you pick is the single biggest decision in the whole system.
Full Retirement Age by Birth Year
Full retirement age is the point at which you get 100 percent of the benefit your work record earned, with no reduction and no bonus. The schedule is set by federal law and tied to the year you were born.1Legal Information Institute. 42 USC 416 – Retirement Age
- Born 1943 through 1954: 66.
- Born 1955: 66 and 2 months.
- Born 1956: 66 and 4 months.
- Born 1957: 66 and 6 months.
- Born 1958: 66 and 8 months.
- Born 1959: 66 and 10 months.
- Born 1960 or later: 67.
If you were born in 1960 or after, your full retirement age is 67, and that number is what every reduction and every credit is measured against.2Social Security Administration. Benefits Planner: Retirement – Retirement Age Hitting full retirement age also ends the earnings test, so once you reach it you can work and earn any amount without the government withholding part of your check.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working
Claiming Early at 62
Sixty-two is the floor. You can file for retirement benefits then, but your monthly payment gets a permanent haircut for every month you claim before full retirement age.4Social Security Administration. Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction The reduction runs in two tiers: 5/9 of one percent per month for the first 36 months early, and 5/12 of one percent for each additional month beyond that.5Social Security Administration. Early or Late Retirement – Section: Early Retirement Reduces Benefits
Run that on a full retirement age of 67. Filing at 62 is 60 months early, which works out to a 30 percent cut. A $2,000 full-retirement-age benefit becomes $1,400 for the rest of your life.
The word “permanent” is worth pausing on. People often assume their benefit will pop back up to the unreduced amount when they reach full retirement age. It doesn’t. The reduced figure becomes your new base, and every future cost-of-living adjustment is calculated on that lower number. A 2.8 percent COLA adds about $39 to a $1,400 check instead of about $56 to a $2,000 check, and that gap compounds every year you’re alive.
Spousal Benefits Claimed Early
A spouse can also start as early as 62 on the higher earner’s record, but the reduction is steeper than for a worker’s own retirement benefit. A spousal benefit taken at full retirement age is 50 percent of the worker’s primary insurance amount. Taken at 62 against a full retirement age of 67, it can drop to about 32.5 percent.6Social Security Administration. Benefits for Spouses The formula is 25/36 of one percent per month for the first 36 months early, then 5/12 of one percent for each additional month.7Social Security Administration. Benefit Reduction for Early Retirement
Delaying Past Full Retirement Age
Waiting past full retirement age grows your benefit by 2/3 of one percent per month, or 8 percent per year.8Social Security Administration. Delayed Retirement Credits These delayed retirement credits build until age 70 and then stop. Full retirement age of 67 and filing at 70 means a 24 percent boost. Full retirement age of 66 and filing at 70 means a 32 percent boost. In 2026, the maximum benefit at full retirement age is $4,152 per month; at age 70 that maximum is $5,181.9Social Security Administration. What Is the Maximum Social Security Retirement Benefit Payable?
Past 70 there is no further reward. Every month you delay beyond your 70th birthday is a month of payments you simply forfeit. If you’ve waited that long, file.
Pausing Benefits After You Start
If you already claimed and regret it, you have one lever left. Once you reach full retirement age, you can ask Social Security to suspend your payments. While suspended, you earn delayed retirement credits at the same 8 percent annual rate, and payments restart automatically at 70 if you haven’t resumed them yourself.10Social Security Administration. Pause Your Retirement Benefit Two catches: anyone collecting on your record loses their payments too during the suspension, and you still have to pay Medicare premiums out of pocket.
Working While Collecting Before Full Retirement Age
If you claim before full retirement age and keep working, the government temporarily withholds part of your check when your earnings pass an annual cap. In 2026:
- Under full retirement age all year: $1 withheld for every $2 earned above $24,480.
- The year you reach full retirement age: $1 withheld for every $3 earned above $65,160, counting only earnings in the months before you reach that age.
This feels like a tax, but it isn’t. When you hit full retirement age, Social Security recalculates your benefit and credits back the months that were withheld, raising your monthly payment going forward.3Social Security Administration. Receiving Benefits While Working Inconvenient if you needed the money now, but not lost.
Age Rules That Don’t Follow the 62/67/70 Pattern
Survivors Can File at 60, or 50 With a Disability
Surviving spouses and surviving divorced spouses have their own age floor. Under 42 U.S.C. § 402(e) and (f), a surviving spouse can start reduced survivor benefits at 60.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 402 – Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Benefit Payments Filing at 60 pays roughly 71.5 percent of the deceased worker’s benefit; waiting until full retirement age pays 100 percent.12Social Security Administration. What You Could Get From Survivor Benefits A surviving spouse with a qualifying disability can file as early as 50.13Social Security Administration. POMS: DI 11005.050 – Prescribed Period and Controlling Date A divorced surviving spouse qualifies on the same terms if the marriage lasted at least 10 years.14Social Security Administration. More Info: If You Had a Prior Marriage
Disability Benefits Convert Automatically
If you’re receiving Social Security Disability Insurance, there’s no retirement-age choice to make. At full retirement age, the system converts your disability payments to retirement benefits automatically, at the same monthly amount, because disability benefits are already calculated at the full retirement rate.15Social Security Administration. If I Get Social Security Disability Benefits and I Reach Full Retirement Age, Will I Then Receive Retirement Benefits? The periodic medical reviews stop, and eligibility is based on age from then on.
Medicare Is a Separate Age at 65
Age 65 sits between the early and full retirement ages for most people and triggers something Social Security retirement doesn’t: Medicare eligibility. Your initial enrollment window is seven months long, starting three months before your 65th birthday and ending three months after. Missing it can add permanent penalties to your Part B and Part D premiums for as long as you’re enrolled.16Medicare. Avoid Late Enrollment Penalties If you’re still working at 65 with employer coverage from a company of 20 or more, different rules let you delay without penalty. Otherwise, sign up at 65 whether or not you’re claiming Social Security.
One Recent Change Worth Knowing
Two provisions used to reduce benefits for people who also drew a pension from work not covered by Social Security, mainly certain state and local government jobs. The Windfall Elimination Provision cut the worker’s own retirement benefit, and the Government Pension Offset reduced spousal and survivor benefits by two-thirds of the government pension amount, often eliminating them.
The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, repealed both. The repeal applies retroactively to benefits payable from January 2024 forward, and affected beneficiaries are receiving one-time lump-sum payments to cover the increase back to that date.17Social Security Administration. Social Security Fairness Act: Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) If your benefit was ever reduced or denied because of a non-covered government pension, your current monthly amount should now reflect the full benefit you earned.