9 Critical Facts About Social Security's New Full Retirement Age

Your monthly Social Security benefits check is one crucial consideration when planning for retirement.

If you take benefits before you reach the federal government’s official full retirement age (FRA), your monthly check will be permanently reduced.

Here is everything you need to know about full retirement age, including a key recent change. Find out about the pros and cons of delaying benefits until — and even beyond — your FRA.

While you might actually retire from work before or after you reach Social Security's “full retirement age,” your official FRA determines when you’re entitled to receive your “full” benefit amount.

This amount is based on the average amount of money you made during the 35 years when you earned the most pay.

You can start taking Social Security benefits as early as age 62, but for every month you receive benefits before your FRA, you’ll receive a reduced benefits check.

When Social Security first launched, the full retirement age was 65. However, as life expectancies grew, Congress decided to increase the FRA.

Your birth year now determines your full retirement age. For example, those born between 1943 and 1954 have an FRA of 66.

Those born in 1960 are the first cohort whose full retirement age is 67. Most Americans qualify for Social Security beginning at age 62. That means the vast majority of people who are qualifying for benefits for the first time now and going forward will have a full retirement age of 67.

Not sure how to calculate your full retirement age? Check out the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) benefits chart, which breaks down retirement age by birth year.

Alternatively, you can enter your birth year into the SSA’s calculator to generate your FRA.

You don’t have to wait until your full retirement age to start receiving Social Security benefits. In fact, you can start receiving benefits as early as your 62nd birthday.

However, your benefit amount will be reduced by a certain percentage for every month you receive benefits prior to reaching your FRA.

The difference in your monthly payments can be stark depending on when you first apply for Social Security.

For instance, according to the SSA, someone who waited until their FRA to start receiving benefits this year would receive a maximum of $4,018. But if you applied for benefits this year at age 62 instead, the most you could receive per month would be $2,831.

Some people mistakenly believe that if they file early for Social Security, their benefit will increase once they reach full retirement age.

This is not true. If you apply for benefits before your FRA, the size of your monthly check will be permanently smaller than if you had waited until full retirement age.

As we have seen, waiting until full retirement age to apply for Social Security can pay big dividends. But you can get an even bigger payout if you wait until after your full retirement age.

For instance, if you applied for benefits this year at age 70, the maximum amount you could receive would be $5,108. That is a monthly benefit increase of $2,277 — or $27,324 a year — over what you would have received if you filed at age 62.

After the age of 70, there is no additional benefit to waiting longer to apply. So, make sure you apply for your Social Security benefits no later than age 70.

While there are perks to waiting until your FRA to file for Social Security benefits, doing so isn’t the best course of action for everyone.

For example, if putting off benefits would jeopardize your housing situation or make it difficult to make ends meet, accepting the reduced payment might be the smartest financial move. It also might make sense to file early if you have a health condition that is likely to shorten your lifespan.

Everyone’s individual circumstances are different, so make sure to consider things like your monthly budget, your planned age of retirement, your current job situation, and your health when deciding the right time to take benefits.

Every year, the SSA looks at inflation rates over the previous 12 months and decides on whether to implement a cost of living adjustment (COLA) to Social Security benefits to compensate for higher prices.

In most years, a COLA is indeed implemented, although there have been years — such as 2010, 2011, and 2016 — when inflation was so low that the COLA was zero.

Regardless of whether you take your benefits early or wait until your FRA — or beyond — your benefits check will increase for each year the SSA decides to implement a COLA.

For now, 67 is the highest full retirement age in the SSA’s history. However, it’s possible that the FRA will increase in the future, especially if Social Security’s finances remain shaky.

Of course, a higher FRA isn’t a given. This uncertainty can make retirement planning harder, especially if you’re still decades away from leaving the workforce.

For retirement planning purposes, it might be easiest to assume your FRA will be 67, but stay alert to the possibility of future changes that could impact when you’re able to retire.

While you can apply for benefits as soon as you turn 62, there are good reasons to put off taking benefits until you reach full retirement age.

A financial advisor or other money professional can help you decide whether taking Social Security benefits before your FRA is a smart financial move, or if waiting to receive benefits makes more sense for your bottom line.