Social Security recalculates your monthly benefit by claiming age: filing before full retirement age (FRA) locks in a permanent reduction, and delaying past FRA locks in a permanent increase. For someone with an FRA of 67, claiming at 62 pays about 70% of the full benefit for life, versus about 124% at 70, a 54-point gap.
What Is Full Retirement Age, and Why Does It Depend on Your Birth Year?
Full retirement age is the age at which the Social Security Administration (SSA) pays your benefit at 100% of the amount your earnings record calculates, with no reduction and no delayed credit. It is not the same age for everyone. Under the Social Security Amendments of 1983, Congress phased FRA up gradually by birth year.
Per SSA's own retirement age chart, anyone born in 1937 or earlier has an FRA of 65. The age rises by two months per birth year through 1942 (FRA 65 and 10 months), holds at 66 for anyone born 1943 through 1954, then rises again by two months per birth year from 1955 through 1959 (FRA 66 and 10 months), landing at 67 for everyone born in 1960 or later.
How Much Less Do You Get If You Claim at 62?
Age 62 is the earliest age SSA allows a retirement claim, and claiming before FRA reduces the benefit for every remaining month of your life, not just temporarily. The exact math is set out in SSA's own regulation on early retirement reduction, 20 CFR ยง 404.410: the reduction is 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months claimed early, then 5/12 of 1% for each additional month beyond that, a formula also summarized on SSA's Retirement Age and Benefit Reduction planner page.
For someone with an FRA of 67, claiming at 62 means filing 60 months early. The first 36 months account for a 20% reduction, and the remaining 24 months add another 10%, for a combined 30% reduction, a benefit of about 70% of the full amount. That 70% figure is fixed for life once claimed; it does not step back up when you reach FRA.
How Much More Do You Get by Waiting Until 70?
The opposite adjustment runs in the other direction. SSA's Delayed Retirement Credits page puts the rate at two-thirds of 1% for each month you hold off claiming past FRA, which works out to 8% for every full year of delay. This rate applies to anyone born in 1943 or later. Credits stop building at 70, so there is no benefit to filing any later than that.
For someone with an FRA of 67, three full years of delay to age 70 adds 24%, bringing the benefit to about 124% of the full amount, again fixed for life. Between the 70% floor at 62 and the 124% ceiling at 70, the same earnings record can produce a monthly benefit that differs by 54 percentage points depending on filing age alone.
Why Isn't There One "Right" Age to Claim?
SSA designed the early-claim reduction and the delayed credit to be roughly actuarially neutral, meaning someone who lives to an average life expectancy would collect a similar total amount over their lifetime no matter which age they pick, according to Congressional Research Service analysis of the adjustment formulas. A smaller check collected for more years and a larger check collected for fewer years can land in the same neighborhood on paper.
In practice, the variables that push the math one way or another for a specific person are individual: how long you expect to draw benefits, whether a spouse's or survivor's benefit is involved, whether you are still earning income that could trigger the earnings test before FRA, and what other retirement income sources you already have lined up. None of that shows up in a general percentage table.
What About Claiming Somewhere Between 62 and 70?
Claiming age is not limited to three fixed stops. Because both the reduction and the credit accrue month by month rather than only at round-number birthdays, a benefit can be filed at any point between 62 and 70 and land at the corresponding prorated percentage in between. Someone weighing how long a separate savings balance needs to stretch alongside Social Security can see the general mechanics in PlanVault's retirement savings withdrawal calculator, though that tool covers savings drawdown, not the Social Security percentages above.
Timing Is a Modeling Decision, Not a Guess
The rules above are the same for everyone with a given birth year. What they produce for any one household is not, because it depends on health, marital status, other income, taxes, and how the rest of a retirement plan is built around that check. This is exactly the kind of timing decision a licensed financial advisor can model for your specific situation, using your actual earnings record instead of a general percentage table.