Claiming Social Security at 62 permanently cuts your monthly benefit by up to 30%. Waiting past full retirement age raises it about 8% a year, up to age 70. The right age depends on your health, your other income, whether you're still working, and who relies on you financially.

Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935. It works like a pension: a lifetime income from the government based on your working-years earnings. Deciding when to start it is one of the higher-stakes choices in retirement planning.

Factors to weigh:

• Your current financial situation
• Your health and expected lifespan
• Whether you're still working
• Whether a spouse or dependent relies on your benefit

Working through it with a retirement advisor is one of the better ways to land on a claiming age you can live with.

What is full retirement age?

Full retirement age (FRA) is when you can collect 100% of your benefit. It depends on your birth year:

• Born 1943-1954: FRA is 66 exactly.
• Born 1955-1959: FRA rises by two months per birth year (66 and 2 months for 1955, up to 66 and 10 months for 1959).
• Born 1960 or later: FRA is 67.

You can claim as early as 62, but the benefit is permanently reduced. Here is the reduction for claiming at 62, by birth year:

Source: Social Security Administration.

Claiming between 62 and FRA lands somewhere in between: the reduction is 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months early, then 5/12 of 1% per month before that. For an FRA of 67, claiming at 65 is about a 13.3% reduction; at 63, about 25%.

What you gain by waiting past FRA

For each month you delay past full retirement age, up to age 70, the benefit grows by 2/3 of 1%, which is 8% per year. Credits stop accruing at 70, so there's no reason to wait longer, though you are not required to claim at 70.

For someone whose FRA is 67, here's how the benefit grows:

Waiting from 67 to 70 adds roughly $240 a month on a $1,000 benefit, for life, and every future cost-of-living adjustment is then applied to the larger amount.

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Reasons to claim at FRA or earlier

Waiting isn't always the right call. Reasons to claim sooner:

• Health and longevity. If your health is poor or your family history points to a shorter lifespan, claiming earlier means you collect for more of the years you have. You may also want the income sooner to cover medical costs.
• High-interest debt. Using benefits to clear expensive debt earlier frees up cash flow and saves interest for the rest of your life.
• You can't keep working. An injury, a layoff, or caregiving can force an earlier claim regardless of the plan.
• No one else depends on your benefit. A surviving spouse or a minor or disabled child can receive survivor benefits of roughly 71% to 100% of your benefit after your death. If no one would, the case for delaying weakens.
• Strong investment returns. If your portfolio is reliably outearning what delaying would add, the smaller early benefit may matter less. Model it with an advisor, accounting for inflation and the 8% delay credit.

Working while claiming

If you claim before FRA and keep working, the earnings test can temporarily reduce your benefit. For 2026:

• Under FRA all year: the SSA withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480.
• In the year you reach FRA: it withholds $1 for every $3 you earn above $65,160, counting only earnings before your birthday month.
• At or past FRA: no earnings limit.

Withheld benefits aren't lost. Once you reach FRA, the SSA recalculates your benefit to credit the months it withheld. And claiming at 65 or later has nothing to do with Medicare eligibility, which starts at 65 no matter when you claim Social Security; just remember to enroll in Medicare on time if you claim Social Security after 65.

Frequently asked questions

At what age do most people claim Social Security?

Recent SSA data shows about 27% of men and 25% of women claim at 66, with claims spread across ages 62 to 70 and the share waiting until FRA or later growing over the past two decades. Note that for anyone turning 66 today (born 1960 or later), FRA is 67, so claiming at 66 now produces a reduced benefit.

What is my Social Security break-even age?

Your break-even age is when the total dollars from claiming later catch up to what you'd have collected by claiming earlier. Comparing age 70 to age 62, break-even typically falls somewhere around age 80 to 82. Whether waiting pays off for you depends on your health, savings, whether you keep working, and whether a spouse would benefit from your record.

How much does waiting past full retirement age add?

For each month from FRA to age 70, the SSA adds 2/3 of 1% to your benefit, which is 8% per year. If your FRA is 67 and you wait until 70, that's 24% more, for life, plus larger cost-of-living adjustments going forward.

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