age of social security benefits
When to Apply. If you choose to start receiving your Social Security retirement benefits at the age of 62, you can start the application process when you are 61 and nine months of age or four months ahead of time of the month you need your benefits to begin. The Social Security Administration (SSA) permits you to apply for retirement, spousal benefits, Medicare, or disability advantages on the web. The nice thing about this process is that the whole application takes only around fifteen minutes of your time. No signatures are required. Required Forms Needed. And if you factor in cost-of-living adjustments at 1.5%, the difference between taking your benefit at age 62 vs. age 70 could be 88% says David Cechanowicz, director of education for Social Security Timing, a software program used by financial professionals to run benefit calculations. If your full retirement age is 67, your Social Security benefit is reduced by: 1  About 30 percent if you start collecting at 62. 2  About 25 percent if you start collecting at 63. 3  About 20 percent if you start collecting at 64.  About 13.3 percent if you start collecting at 1  65. About 6.7 percent if you start collecting at  66. If your full retirement age is 67, your Social Security benefit is reduced by: About 30 percent if you start collecting at 62. About 25 percent if you start collecting at 63. About 20 percent if you start collecting at 64. So, a person born in 1960 or later whose benefit was $1,000 per month at FRA could receive $1,240 per month if they wait until age 70 to claim their Social Security benefit. By contrast, that same person would receive just $700 if they claimed Social Security at age 62. 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 benefit. Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, we will not reduce your benefits no matter how much you earn. If you will reach full retirement age in 2017, the limit on your earnings for the months before full retirement age is $44,880. Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, you can get your benefits with no limit on your earnings. Here's a table that shows how much your Social Security is reduced when you claim at 62, depending on your birth year and assuming a $1,000 full retirement age benefit for the primary beneficiary, or a $500 benefit for a spouse. If your full retirement age is 67 and you begin collecting Social Security at age 62, for example, your benefits are reduced by about 30 percent. The reduction drops to 25 percent if you wait until you’re 63, and so on. The Social Security Administration provides a chart of retirement benefits by birth year.
62