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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Nearly 60% of new claimants in 2025 filed before their full retirement age, locking in a permanently reduced check.
- Beneficiaries who claimed at 67 in 2025 received almost $1,200 more per month than those who claimed at 62.
Most Americans are claiming Social Security before their full retirement age, and proposals to raise that age past 67 would deepen the cut for everyone who does.
Nearly 60% of the 3.46 million Americans newly claiming Social Security retirement benefits in 2025 filed before their full retirement age (FRA), locking in permanently reduced checks. About 54% didn’t even make it to 66.
That means they filed before their full retirement age (FRA), locking in permanently reduced checks. The figure excludes workers whose disability benefits convert automatically to retirement benefits at full retirement age, since they aren’t making a claiming decision.
Americans can start claiming retirement benefits at age 62, but that reduces the size of their monthly checks. To receive their full benefits, retirees must wait until their FRA to file.
Why This Matters
If lawmakers raise the full retirement age past 67—a proposal floated to shore up Social Security’s finances—this pattern of early claiming would translate into permanently smaller checks for a larger share of retirees.
How Waiting Until Your FRA Benefits You
Under a 1983 law, the FRA has climbed in two-month increments for recent birth cohorts. Those born in 1959, the cohort reaching FRA this year, must wait until 66 and 10 months. That’s the last stop: for everyone born in 1960 or later, the FRA is 67.
The average monthly benefit for a 67-year-old who first claimed in 2025 was $2,608, almost $1,200 more than the average payment for a 62-year-old, according to the Social Security Administration.
Beneficiaries who wait past their FRA boost their payments by 8% each year until they turn 70. The average monthly benefit for a first-time beneficiary aged 70 to 74 is $888 more than for a 67-year-old.
But waiting isn’t easy for many workers. The median worker says they plan to retire at 65, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey.
In practice, the typical American retires at 62, and 46% of retirees say they left earlier than planned.
Higher monthly checks matter because Social Security carries much of the load for many retirees. About 42% of Social Security beneficiaries rely on the program for half or more of their income, according to a 2024 Census Bureau report; 14% rely on it for at least 90%.
Read the original article on Investopedia
