Claiming at 62 cuts your benefit to 70% for life. Waiting until 70 raises it to 124%. Which one pays more depends on a single number nobody hands you — how long you live.
Run your numbers
Two inputs. Your full-retirement-age benefit comes from your Social Security statement at ssa.gov — or use the 2026 average of $2,071.
Don’t know it? Take the 33-factor assessment — it takes about three minutes.
Why the age matters so much
Social Security is built around a full retirement age — 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Claim before it and your monthly payment is permanently reduced. Claim after it and you earn delayed retirement credits worth 8% a year, up to age 70.
The reductions and credits are fixed, and they never reset. Claiming at 62 doesn’t mean a smaller check until 67 and then a bigger one. It means a smaller check for the rest of your life.
- Age 62 — 70% of your full benefit
- Age 63 — 75%
- Age 64 — 80%
- Age 65 — about 86.7%
- Age 66 — about 93.3%
- Age 67 — 100%
- Age 68 — 108%
- Age 69 — 116%
- Age 70 — 124%
The break-even, and why averages fail you
Claiming early means more cheques, each one smaller. Waiting means fewer cheques, each one larger. Somewhere the totals cross. That crossover is the break-even age, and for most people it lands between 78 and 82.
Every Social Security calculator on the internet will tell you that. What almost none of them do is ask how long you are likely to live — they assume the population average and hand you a generic answer.
But the spread is enormous. A lifelong non-smoker with normal blood pressure and an active job has a materially different outlook from someone with untreated hypertension and a thirty-year smoking history. Same break-even arithmetic, completely different answer.
The 2032 question
The 2026 Trustees Report projects that Social Security’s retirement trust fund will be depleted in late 2032. At that point, without congressional action, incoming revenue would cover roughly 78% of scheduled benefits — a cut of about 22 to 24%, or around $500 a month for the average retiree.
That projection is driving a lot of people toward claiming at 62, on the logic of taking the money while it’s there.
Run the arithmetic before you act on that instinct. Claiming at 62 is a permanent 30% reduction that you impose on yourself with certainty. The projected shortfall is 22 to 24%, it applies from 2032 rather than immediately, and it assumes Congress does nothing for six years — which it has never done before when the deadline arrived. In 1983 it acted with months to spare.
You may still decide to claim early. Plenty of people should, for reasons that have nothing to do with break-even math — health, employment, needing the income now. But make it a decision rather than a flinch.
Common questions
What is the best age to claim Social Security?
There is no single best age. Claiming at 62 gives you 70% of your full benefit permanently; waiting until 70 gives you 124%. The crossover point where total lifetime benefits from waiting exceed those from claiming early usually falls between ages 78 and 82. If you expect to live past that point, waiting generally pays more in total.
How much less do I get if I claim at 62?
If your full retirement age is 67, claiming at 62 reduces your monthly benefit to 70% of your full amount — a 30% permanent reduction. Claiming at 63 gives 75%, at 64 gives 80%, at 65 gives about 86.7%, and at 66 gives about 93.3%.
How much more do I get if I wait until 70?
Delaying past full retirement age earns delayed retirement credits of 8% per year. If your full retirement age is 67, waiting until 70 raises your monthly benefit to 124% of the full amount — a 24% permanent increase.
Should I claim early because of Social Security cuts?
The 2026 Trustees Report projects the retirement trust fund will deplete in late 2032, at which point benefits would be reduced by roughly 22–24% without congressional action. Claiming early locks in a permanent reduction of up to 30%, which may cost more than the projected shortfall. Run the numbers against your own life expectancy before deciding.
What is the Social Security break-even age?
The break-even age is the point at which the total benefits you would have received by waiting exceed the total you would have received by claiming earlier. It is driven almost entirely by how long you live, which is why a personalized life expectancy estimate is more useful than a population average.
Benefit percentages are calculated from your birth year using SSA’s full retirement age schedule. Figures ignore cost-of-living adjustments, taxation of benefits, spousal and survivor rules, and the earnings test, all of which can change the answer. This is not financial advice — talk to a qualified adviser about your own situation.