Benefits Planner: Retirement | The Age You Start Receiving Benefits and the Age You Stop Working (2024)

FAQs

Benefits Planner: Retirement | The Age You Start Receiving Benefits and the Age You Stop Working? ›

You can start receiving your Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62. However, you are entitled to full benefits when you reach your full retirement age. If you delay taking your benefits from your full retirement age up to age 70, your benefit amount will increase.

If You Stop Work After Full Retirement Age

You can delay getting retirement benefits and earn credits that increase your benefit amount.

Full retirement age

For anyone born 1960 or later, full retirement benefits are payable at age 67.

The current full retirement age is 67 years old for people attaining age 62 in 2024. (The age for Medicare eligibility remains at 65.)

How much can you earn and still get benefits? later, then your full retirement age for retirement insurance benefits is 67. If you work, and are at full retirement age or older, you may keep all of your benefits, no matter how much you earn.

We calculate your benefits based on your highest 35 years of earnings. If you stop working before you have 35 years of earnings, or you have low earnings for some years, this will affect your benefit calculation.

Your PIA amount will not increase. However, the longer you delay the start of benefits, the higher your monthly benefit amount will be. Without continued work, your Social Security benefit amount will be based on your existing work history.

You can get Social Security retirement benefits and work at the same time. However, if you are younger than full retirement age and make more than the yearly earnings limit, we will reduce your benefits. Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, we will not reduce your benefits no matter how much you earn.

But for Social Security benefits, the full retirement age — when a qualifying worker is eligible for 100% of the benefits they earned — is moving to 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.

If you start receiving benefits at age 66 you get 100 percent of your monthly benefit. If you delay receiving retirement benefits until after your full retirement age, your monthly benefit continues to increase.

How do I get the $16728 Social Security bonus? ›

Have you heard about the Social Security $16,728 yearly bonus? There's really no “bonus” that retirees can collect. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a specific formula based on your lifetime earnings to determine your benefit amount.

Social Security survivors benefits are paid to widows, widowers, and dependents of eligible workers. This benefit is particularly important for young families with children.

When it might make sense to take Social Security at 62. You need the money now. You have health issues that may shorten your life expectancy, or you don't expect to live past your break-even point. You're receiving early retirement from an employer and the benefits end at age 62.

If you delay taking your benefits from your full retirement age up to age 70, your benefit amount will increase. If you start receiving benefits early, your benefits are reduced a small percent for each month before your full retirement age.

Roughly 27% of new retirement benefits applicants were 62 when they filed in 2022. The 565,887 retired workers who were 62 years old and receiving Social Security benefits in December 2022 (the most recent data available) received an average of $1,275 that month. That's just $15,300 per year.

If you do not have 35 years of earnings by the time you apply for benefits, your benefit amount will be lower than it would be if you worked 35 years. Years with no earnings count as zeroes in the benefit calculation.

But even if you never worked and therefore don't have an earnings record, you're not necessarily out of luck. If you're married (or were married) to someone who's entitled to Social Security, you can collect spousal benefits equal to 50% of your husband or wife's benefits at full retirement age.

Common changes you must report to us include: Change in income. Change in resources (including bank accounts, vehicles, or property). Change in employment (i.e., starting, stopping, or changing jobs).

Have you heard about the Social Security $16,728 yearly bonus? There's really no “bonus” that retirees can collect. The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a specific formula based on your lifetime earnings to determine your benefit amount.