One of the biggest decisions about retirement is when to start claiming Social Security. While you can officially begin filing at 62, postponing even a few years can mean a permanent increase in your benefits.
For anyone born in or after 1960, 67 is the full retirement age (FRA) — when you can receive 100% of your earned benefits. But according to the Schroders 2025 U.S. Retirement Survey, close to half (44%) of working Americans expect to file for Social Security benefits before then.
Only 10% said they planned to wait until 70, when they could maximize their monthly payout with delayed retirement credits.
Find out when most people start claiming benefits, how to decide the right age to file and ways to supplement your benefits.
What age do most people start claiming Social Security?
According to Social Security Administration data from 2025, the median age to start claiming Social Security is between 64 and 65 for both men and women.
The most common age, however, is 66. A third of beneficiaries begin receiving retirement benefits then.
Since the 1980s, the government has been slowly raising the FRA, from 65 to 67. In 2025, people claiming for the first time had FRAs that were mostly between 66 and 66 years and 10 months. So, those recipients were likely to receive 100% of their Social Security benefits.
Close to a quarter (22%) of retirees, however, filed their first claim at 62, the earliest you can receive benefits. If your FRA is 66, claiming at 62 reduces your monthly benefit by 25% for those four years.
Only about 8.5% of seniors waited until age 70 to start claiming. If your FRA is 66, waiting until 70 means your monthly benefit check is 32% higher than it would have been at 66.
Why do people claim Social Security early?
If you start filing at age 62, you’ll only receive 70% of what you’d get at your FRA.If your FRA is 67, for example, claiming at 62 means getting $1,400 a month versus receiving $2,000 if you started at 67.
Still, there are many reasons why someone may want to file for Social Security before their full retirement age.
According to the Schroders report, a third of recipients said they weren’t waiting because they needed the money to live on. A similar percentage expressed concern that Social Security would become insolvent before they could access it.
Other reasons include:
- You need to stop working before reaching FRA
- An expected shorter life span because of existing health issues or family history.
- A desire to give your retirement savings more time to grow.
Should you wait to collect Social Security?
If you’re still working or have substantial savings or few debts, waiting to claim can be extremely beneficial.If your full retirement age (FRA) is 67, for example, waiting until then will increase your monthly Social Security benefit by about 43% compared with claiming at age 62.
Here is a broad comparison for someone with an FRA of 67. This doesn’t factor in cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), post-retirement earnings, taxes or other expenses.
- Claiming at 62 vs 67: 30% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 63 vs 67: 25% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 64 vs 67: 20% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 65 vs 67: 13.3% less per monthly check
- Claiming at 66 vs 67: 6.7% less per monthly check
Waiting even longer can be even more financially beneficial. For each year you hold off (up to age 70), you collect about 8% more.
Someone born in 1960 who waits until 70 to apply for Social Security could earn up to 124% of their full benefits. (8% x 3 years = 124%).
- Waiting until 68: 108% of full benefits
- Waiting until 69: 116% of full benefits
- Waiting until 70 (max): 124% of full benefits
Part of the decision involves looking at your overall health and whether you think you’ll live long enough for the higher monthly payments to make up for the years you deferred, known as the break-even period.
Married couples may have an added incentive to wait, especially if one spouse earned much more than the other. A larger Social Security benefit can provide more financial support throughout retirement and leave the surviving spouse with a higher monthly payment if the higher earner passes away first.
How much is the average Social Security check?
The average monthly Social Security retirement benefit is about $2,092 per month as of June 2026, or about $24,350 per year. The average benefit across all Social Security beneficiaries — including retirees, disabled workers, survivors, and dependents — was about $1,938 per month, or close to $23,260 per year.
The benefits you receive from the Social Security Administration (SSA) could be substantially higher or lower, depending on your lifetime earnings, the number of years you worked and the age you start claiming benefits
If you earned the maximum taxable income for your 35 highest-earning years and claimed benefits at age 70 in 2026, the largest possible monthly Social Security benefit you could receive would be$5,181before federal or state taxes.
The table below shows the average benefits for retirees who claimed at full retirement age, broken down by age and gender.
Beneficiaries who waited until after reaching FRA and qualifying for delayed credits had somewhat higher averages.
How to supplement your retirement income
Social Security replaces only about 40% of pre-retirement earnings for the average worker, making other retirement savings an important part of most retirement plans.
Retirement accounts
If you have access to a 401(k) account, try to contribute at least enough to earn the full employer match, if one is offered.
An individual retirement account (IRA) isn’t tied to your workplace, so you can continue contributing as long as you have eligible earned income and meet IRS contribution rules. You can get started with a traditional or Roth IRA account with Fidelity with as little as $1.
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Annuities
The popularity of annuities has soared in recent years. You can fund one with a lump sum or through a series of payments and the money can grow either at a fixed or variable rate. It can also be tied to a market index like the S&P 500, with limits on gains and losses.
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Investments
Stocks, bonds, CDs and other investments can also help supplement your retirement income. Vanguard is a popular choice, thanks to its low-cost index funds, retirement planning tools and broad lineup of mutual funds and ETFs, including target-date retirement funds.
How are Social Security benefits calculated?
The SSA calculates retirement benefits by reviewing your lifetime income and indexing your highest 35 years of earnings to produce an Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME).
Your AIME is then used in a progressive formula to determine your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), the benefit you’d receive if you began claiming at your FRA.
The formula applies different percentages to portions of your income, known as “bend points,” to ensure that Social Security replaces a larger share of earnings for lower-income workers.
The payout you receive is then adjusted based on the age when you start claiming benefits:
- Claiming at FRA: You receive 100% of your calculated PIA.
- Claiming early (62 to FRA): Your benefits are reduced for each month you claim before your FRA.
- Delaying until after FRA: You earn credits that increase your monthly check by a percentage (about 8% per year) for each month you wait past your FRA, up to age 70.
How to figure out your estimated Social Security benefit
The SSA’s Quick Calculator gives estimates for three different retirement ages, in today’s dollars or inflated for future dollars.
If you know what you’ve earned each year you’ve worked, you can get a more accurate estimate using this online calculator.
FAQs
What’s the most you can get from Social Security?
In 2026, the maximum monthly Social Security retirement benefit you can receive is $5,181, but only if you delay claiming until age 70. If you claim at your full retirement age, it’s $4,152. If you start claiming at 62, the most you could receive is $2,969.
How much will I get from Social Security when I retire?
Your monthly benefit is determined by how many years you worked, your income in your top earning years and the age and year you decide to retire. If you know your income from your working years to date, you can use Social Security’s online calculator to estimate your benefits.
What’s the earliest age you can claim Social Security?
Eligible workers can begin claiming Social Security at age 62, although you won’t receive 100% of your benefits if you start filing before you reach full retirement age. For workers born in or after 1960, FRA is age 67.
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