When to Claim Social Security: 62 vs 67 vs 70

If your full retirement age (FRA) is 67, which it is for everyone born in 1960 or later, claiming at 62 pays 70% of your full benefit for life, claiming at 67 pays 100%, and claiming at 70 pays 124%. Waiting until 70 pays more in total if you live past about 80; claiming at 62 pays more if you don't. If you are married and the higher earner, your claiming age also sets your spouse's survivor benefit, which often tips the decision toward waiting.

The sections below show the monthly amounts, the break-even arithmetic, the spousal and survivor rules that change the answer for couples, and the tax and Medicare interactions. To run your own earnings record, use the Social Security calculator.

How much you get at each age from 62 to 70

SSA cuts your benefit by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months you claim before FRA and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that (SSA: benefit reduction for early retirement). Each month you wait past FRA adds a delayed retirement credit of 2/3 of 1%, or 8% a year, until 70 (SSA: delayed retirement credits). Both changes are permanent.

With an FRA of 67 and a full benefit (your primary insurance amount, or PIA) of $2,500 a month:

SSA rounds monthly benefits down to the whole dollar. No credits accrue after 70, so there is never a reason to wait longer.

Cost-of-living adjustments are added to your benefit base every year from the year you turn 62, whether or not you have claimed, so waiting does not cost you any COLAs. The 2027 COLA is 3.6% (91 FR 67380); the Social Security COLA calculator shows what it does to your deposit after the Medicare premium.

Break-even ages: when waiting pays off

The break-even age is when the larger checks from waiting catch up with the head start from claiming earlier. Take a full benefit of $2,800:

• Claiming at 62 pays 70%: $1,960 a month.
• Claiming at 70 pays 124%: $3,472 a month.
• Before 70, the early claimer collects $1,960 × 96 months = $188,160.
• Waiting adds $3,472 − $1,960 = $1,512 a month, so it takes $188,160 ÷ $1,512 = 124.4 months, or about 10.4 years, to catch up. The break-even age is 80.4.

Cumulative benefits by age, before COLAs, taxes, or interest:

Because the break-even depends only on the percentages, not on the dollar amount, the same ages apply to everyone with an FRA of 67:

Three adjustments move these ages. If you would invest early benefits at a positive real return, break-even comes later. If waiting means drawing down savings you would otherwise invest, it comes earlier. And for a married higher earner, the survivor benefit (below) can make waiting worthwhile even if you personally die before break-even. For your own odds of reaching 80 or 90, start from SSA's longevity estimates and adjust for your health and family history.

When claiming at 62 can make sense

Claiming early is the right call more often than the break-even table suggests, but only in specific situations:

• Your life expectancy is short and no one depends on your record. A single person with a serious diagnosis gains little from a larger check they are unlikely to collect for long.
• You are the lower earner in a couple. Your own benefit stops when either spouse dies (the survivor keeps only the larger of the two), so the case for delaying it is weaker than for the higher earner's.
• You have nothing else to live on. If the alternative is high-interest debt or missed bills, the guaranteed reduction may be the cheaper option.
• You have stopped working for good. The earnings test (below) makes claiming at 62 while still earning a full salary a poor trade.

Worry that the program will be cut is a weak reason to claim early. The Social Security Trustees Report projects that incoming payroll taxes would still cover most scheduled benefits if the trust fund reserves run out, and any cut Congress enacted would apply to your benefit whatever age you claimed. Claiming at 62 locks in a 30% reduction to protect against a smaller, uncertain one.

Funding the wait: the bridge strategy

If you stop working before 70 and want to delay, you need other money to live on in the meantime, usually withdrawals from a 401(k) or IRA. To check that your savings still last after the bridge years, enter your benefit and the year it starts as other income in the how long will my money last calculator.

Worked example. With a $2,500 full benefit, waiting from 67 to 70 gives up 36 × $2,500 = $90,000 of checks and raises the monthly benefit by $600 for life. It takes $90,000 ÷ $600 = 150 months, or 12.5 years, to recover, which is the 82.5 break-even age above. You spend $90,000 of savings to buy an extra $7,200 a year that rises with inflation for the rest of your life and, if you are the higher earner, for your surviving spouse's life too.

Drawing on retirement accounts first has a side benefit: it shrinks the traditional balance before required minimum distributions start at 73 (75 if you were born in 1960 or later), and the years between retirement and claiming are often your lowest-income years, which is when converting part of an IRA to a Roth costs the least. The Roth conversion ladder guide shows how to size those conversions. The Retirement Withdrawal Planner spreadsheet compares two claiming ages side by side, together with your withdrawals and taxes, and shows the break-even age for every claiming age from 62 to 70.

Spousal benefits: how they are calculated

A spouse can receive up to 50% of the worker's full-retirement-age benefit (42 U.S.C. §402). Four rules decide what is actually paid:

1. The worker must have filed before the spouse can collect on the worker's record. Divorced spouses are the exception (see below).
2. Early claiming cuts it more. The spousal benefit is reduced by 25/36 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before the spouse's own FRA and 5/12 of 1% after that. At 62 with an FRA of 67, a spouse gets 32.5% of the worker's PIA instead of 50% (SSA).
3. No delayed credits. Waiting past the spouse's own FRA does not raise a spousal benefit, and the worker's delayed credits don't raise it either. The spousal amount is based on the worker's PIA, not on what the worker actually collects.
4. Deemed filing. If you were born on or after January 2, 1954, applying for either your own retirement benefit or a spousal benefit counts as applying for both. SSA pays your own benefit first and adds the spousal "excess" on top. You cannot take the spousal benefit alone and let your own grow.

Worked example. The higher earner's PIA is $3,000 and the spouse's own PIA is $1,000. Half of $3,000 is $1,500, so the spousal excess is $1,500 − $1,000 = $500.

• Spouse claims at FRA: $1,000 own + $500 excess = $1,500.
• Spouse claims at 62 (FRA 67): own benefit reduced 30% to $700, plus the $500 excess reduced 35% to $325 = $1,025.

Survivor benefits: why the higher earner's age matters most

When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of their own benefit or the deceased's, not both. Under 42 U.S.C. §402(e):

• At the survivor's full retirement age for survivor benefits, the survivor receives what the deceased was actually being paid, including delayed retirement credits.
• If the deceased claimed early, the survivor receives the larger of the deceased's reduced benefit or 82.5% of the deceased's PIA.
• A survivor can claim as early as 60, reduced by up to 28.5%, so the benefit at 60 is 71.5% of the full survivor amount (§402(q)).
• Remarrying after 60 does not end survivor benefits.

Worked example. The higher earner's PIA is $3,000 and FRA is 67.

Delaying from 62 to 70 raises the survivor's check by $1,245 a month for as long as the survivor lives. That is why the most common couple's strategy is for the higher earner to wait until 70 while the lower earner claims earlier: the household gets some income now, and the larger benefit, the one that will survive, is maximized. The bigger the age gap, the more the survivor benefit is worth, because a younger spouse is likely to collect it for more years.

Switching between survivor and retirement benefits

Deemed filing covers spousal and retirement benefits only, not survivor benefits (§402(r)). A widow or widower can therefore take one benefit first and switch to the other later:

• Survivor first, own benefit later. The survivor benefit is $2,400 and your own PIA is $2,200. At 70 your own benefit would be $2,200 × 1.24 = $2,728, more than the survivor benefit. Take the reduced survivor benefit at 60 (71.5% × $2,400 = $1,716), then switch to $2,728 at 70.
• Own benefit first, survivor later. The survivor benefit is $2,400 and your own PIA is $1,800. Even at 70, your own benefit would be only $2,232. Take your own reduced benefit at 62 ($1,260), then switch to the full $2,400 survivor benefit at your survivor FRA.

The earnings test applies to survivor benefits taken before FRA too, so these sequences work best once you have stopped working.

Divorced spouses

You can claim spousal benefits on an ex-spouse's record if the marriage lasted at least 10 years, you are unmarried, and you are 62 or older. If you have been divorced for at least two years and your ex is at least 62, you can claim even if your ex has not applied (42 U.S.C. §402(b)). Your claim does not reduce your ex's benefit or a current spouse's benefit. The same 50% cap, early-claiming reduction, and no-delayed-credit rule apply. If your ex dies, a 10-year marriage also qualifies you for survivor benefits on the same terms as a widow or widower.

Working before full retirement age: the earnings test

If you claim before FRA and keep working, SSA withholds $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480 in 2026. In the year you reach FRA, it withholds $1 for every $3 above $65,160, counting only earnings before the month you reach FRA (SSA earnings test amounts). For 2027 the limits are $25,560 and $67,920 (91 FR 67380). From the month you reach FRA, there is no limit.

Worked example. You claim at 62 in 2026 and earn $40,000. The excess is $40,000 − $24,480 = $15,520, so SSA withholds $15,520 ÷ 2 = $7,760 of benefits, usually by holding back whole monthly checks early in the year.

Withheld benefits are not lost. At FRA, SSA recalculates your benefit as if you had claimed later by the number of months withheld. That recovers some of the reduction, but it is still a reason to wait to claim until you have stopped working or your earnings fall below the limit.

Changing your mind after you claim

You have two ways to change course:

• Withdraw your application within 12 months of becoming entitled (20 CFR 404.640), using Form SSA-521. You must repay every benefit paid on your record, including benefits to family members and any Medicare premiums or tax withheld from your checks. You can do this only once.
• Suspend benefits between FRA and 70. While suspended, you earn delayed retirement credits, but no one else can collect on your record during the suspension, except a divorced spouse (42 U.S.C. §402(z)). The old "file and suspend" strategy, where a spouse collected while the worker's benefit grew, ended for suspensions requested after April 29, 2016.

Taxes and Medicare: how claiming age interacts

Federal tax on benefits

Up to 85% of your benefits can be taxable. The test uses provisional income: your other income, plus tax-exempt interest, plus half your benefits (IRS Publication 915). Above $25,000 single or $32,000 joint, up to 50% of benefits is taxable; above $34,000 single or $44,000 joint, up to 85%. These thresholds are set by statute and have never been indexed for inflation.

Claiming age changes the picture in both directions. A larger delayed benefit raises provisional income, but delaying usually means living on IRA withdrawals in your 60s and fewer withdrawals later, which can reduce the taxable share of benefits in your 70s. Taxpayers 65 and older can also take the $6,000 senior deduction for 2025 through 2028, which phases out above $75,000 of modified AGI ($150,000 joint) (IRS). How Social Security benefits are taxed walks through the worksheet, and the taxable Social Security calculator runs it. A few states also tax benefits, usually with income-based exemptions, so check your state revenue department.

Medicare enrollment and premiums

Medicare starts at 65 no matter when you claim Social Security. If you are already receiving benefits, you are enrolled in Parts A and B automatically and the Part B premium, $202.90 a month in 2026, is deducted from your check (CMS). If you are delaying Social Security past 65, you must sign up yourself: the Part B late-enrollment penalty is 10% of the premium for each full 12-month period you could have had Part B but didn't, unless you had qualifying employer coverage, and it lasts as long as you have Part B (Medicare.gov).

Higher-income enrollees also pay IRMAA surcharges, based on modified AGI from two years earlier. For 2026 they start above $109,000 single and $218,000 joint (CMS, same fact sheet). Large IRA withdrawals or Roth conversions you make at 63 or 64 to fund a delayed claim count toward your premiums at 65 and 66, so size them with the MAGI calculator.

Government pensions: WEP and GPO no longer apply

If you have a pension from work not covered by Social Security, such as some state and local government jobs, older advice may warn that the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset will cut your benefit. The Social Security Fairness Act (Pub. L. 118-273, signed January 5, 2025) repealed both for benefits payable after December 2023. Your claiming decision now follows the same rules as everyone else's.

Military retired pay never reduced Social Security: military service has paid into the system since 1957. Estimate the pension itself with the military retirement calculator. Federal employees under FERS also pay into Social Security; estimate the pension, and the supplement that ends at 62, with the FERS retirement calculator.

Choosing your age: a summary

Before you file, get your earnings record and benefit estimates from my Social Security, check them for missing years, and run both spouses' numbers together. The Social Security calculator shows the monthly amounts, break-even ages, and spousal and survivor figures for your record.