Full Retirement Age and Early Retirement Eligibility

As people consider retirement, they must decide when to claim their Social Security benefits. Their basic benefit amount is based on a predetermined benefit formula. From there, the exact amount workers receive depends in part on when they claim it: the earlier they claim, the smaller the monthly benefit. 

People can begin claiming as early as age 62. The size of the benefit increases with each month of delay beyond that, with the maximum available at age 70. Social Security also sets a full retirement age (FRA). This is the age when beneficiaries are eligible to receive unreduced monthly payments. The FRA used to be age 65, is currently age 66, and will increase to age 67 for people born in 1960 or later. Under current law, waiting until age 70 to claim retirement benefits will result in a benefit check that is about 76 percent higher than what the same person would have received at age 62 when people can begin to claim benefits. 

People are generally living longer and spending more time in retirement than in prior generations. At the time of Social Security’s creation, people who reached age 65 lived an average of 12 additional years. On average, men who reach that age today live 18 more years, and women, 20.6 more years. As a result, in most cases, Social Security is paying beneficiaries longer than it used to. This contributes to the financial strain on the system. It is important to acknowledge that some demographic groups are not experiencing these increases in life expectancy. 

The age at which people can begin to claim benefits is called the early eligibility age (EEA). Some people have called for adjusting the EEA or the FRA to reflect increasing longevity. Doing so could involve simply increasing them to a new, higher level. Another approach would be to use a formula that increases them continually as longevity increases. 

Those opposed to increasing the EEA and the FRA have several concerns. They point out that it would effectively serve as a benefit cut. Those who could not wait to claim will see a smaller benefit than they would have previously received. This affects all non-disability recipients. But those affected the most are workers unable to delay claiming benefits due to their health, physical challenges of their job, or inability to find work. Increasing the FRA could also negatively affect the benefits available to surviving spouses. The size of the survivor benefit depends on the deceased spouse’s worker benefit. If the spouse accepted a lower benefit in exchange for retiring before the FRA, the survivor benefit would also be lower than if the spouse had waited. 

Another difficulty associated with increasing the EEA or FRA involves job availability and employment discrimination. Implementing such a policy change assumes that people will be able to work longer if they are so inclined. Ongoing age discrimination in employment means that not everyone who would like to work longer will be able to do so.