When can you retire and collect Social Security? It depends on when you were born.
Key Points
- If you were born in 1960 or after, your Full Retirement Age (FRA) is 67. It is lower for earlier births.
- If you claim Social Security at your FRA, you avoid fines and get 8% extra every year after your FRA.
- There is no penalty for working over FRA, and your earnings can still increase your benefit calculation.
Full Retirement Age for Receiving Social Security:
The full retirement age (FRA) is the age when you can start receiving full, or “normal”, Social Security retirement benefits. Your main insurance amount (PIA), or standard benefit, is based on the average salary you earned over your employment, adjusted for inflation.
Full retirement age depends on your birth year. For those born in 1960 or after, FRA is 67. If you were born before 1960, your FRA is slightly lower. If you were born in 1959, for example, then you are 66 and 10 months.
When it comes to Social Security, it’s crucial to know your full retirement age, or the age at which you may claim Social Security without a permanent cut to your payments. The full retirement age also affects how many delayed retirement credits you can earn to increase your benefits by delaying when you start getting benefits and how much you can earn while getting Social Security benefits without losing any of your benefits.
How does full retirement age affect your Social Security benefits?
If you claim your benefits at your full retirement age, you will get your usual Social Security payment amount. If you claim before the FRA, you will incur early filing penalties that decrease your compensation by the following amounts:
- A reduction of 6.67% per year for the first 36 months before FRA
- An additional 5% for each subsequent month before FRA
Crunch the numbers, and you’ll see that if you take your benefits at 62, with a full retirement age of 67, your payments will be reduced by a whole 30 per cent. And they are prorated per month – so a few months earlier or later might make a big difference in your monthly benefit.
If you file for benefits after FRA, on the other hand, you’ll get delayed retirement credits. That means your monthly benefit increases by 8% for each year. You work beyond age 62 and before age 70 and receive delayed retirement credits. Beyond that point, postponing your claim yields no financial gain. If you are seeking either spousal or survivor benefits, then you cannot earn delayed retirement credits.
Working after full retirement age
Retirees may work and receive Social Security benefits, but if you are under full retirement age (FRA), you will be subject to the Social Security earnings test. Under this test, if you earn more than a specific amount (which fluctuates each year), you will lose part or all of your benefits for a time. When you reach full retirement age, your benefit is recalculated, and you may get most of that money back.
Other key questions about full retirement age
There are a few additional key points to consider regarding full retirement age.
1. Do survivor benefits increase after the full retirement age?
If you are a surviving spouse claiming on your deceased husband’s employment record, there is no advantage to waiting until after your full retirement age to claim. In this instance, you will not receive delayed retirement credits, and your pension will remain unchanged.
However, if you are the better-earning spouse, waiting to claim benefits until after FRA might mean that your widowed partner would get more in monthly income, since your widowed partner will receive the larger of the two monthly benefits you were receiving.
2. Are Social Security benefits taxable at full retirement age?
Your age is not a factor in whether you will have to pay federal tax on Social Security income. You may owe federal taxes on Social Security benefits at whatever age you claim them, depending on what you earn.
If your total income exceeds the IRS’s “provisional income” level, some of your Social Security payments may be taxed. To figure your provisional income, sum all your sources of income other than Social Security, including nontaxable income such as interest on municipal bonds, and add half of your yearly Social Security income.
Single filers with provisional income between $25,000 and $34,000 and married joint filers with provisional income between $32,000 and $44,000 will pay income taxes on 50% of their Social Security payments. Up to 85 per cent of Social Security payments will be taxed for single filers with provisional income above $34,000 and married filers over $44,000.
The “big, beautiful bill” (now law) was passed on July 4, 2025, and Social Security taxes are still in place. But a new temporary tax deduction for those aged 65 and over has lowered the number of retirees taxed on benefits, since the deduction for more retirees now exceeds their taxable benefits.
If the deduction persists, 88% of retirees won’t be taxed on their payouts, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
3. Is your full retirement age affected by where you live?
The place where you reside doesn’t affect your entire retirement age. Most Social Security standards, including those that determine benefit amount and claiming age, are established by federal law. But certain states do tax Social Security payments, so where you reside might determine how much you pay on your retirement income. But again, the age at which you claim benefits doesn’t affect the tax rate you pay — your income is the essential element.
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