In 2025, the full retirement age—the point at which you can start receiving all of your Social Security benefits—will rise.
Although recipients can start receiving Social Security benefits as early as age 62, they won’t be eligible to receive the entire amount until they are of full retirement age. Depending on how far you are from full retirement, the amount of benefits is decreased by a percentage if you take them before FRA. This reduction can be as much as 30%.
For instance, a $1,000 payout would be reduced to $750 for an individual born between 1943 and 1954 who retired at age 62, four years ahead of their full retirement age of 66. The $1,000 payment would be reduced to $700 per month for a person born in 1960 or later who retired at age 62, five years before to their FRA.
You are eligible for 100% of payments based on lifetime earnings if you wait until your FRA. However, because of a statute approved by Congress in 1983 that raised the FRA, which was 65 at the time, by two months for every year after that, that age rises annually.
READ MORE: The 2025 cost-of-living increase for Social Security beneficiaries will be less significant. Here’s the amount and time.
This is how AARP describes the procedure:
Those born May 2, 1958, through February 28, 1959, will reach FRA in 2025. FRA is 66 years and 8 months for those born in 1958 and 66 and 10 months for those born in 1959. For those born after 1960, it will settle at 67 under existing law.
FRA will therefore fall between 66 years and 8 months and 66 years and 10 months in 2025.
A complete chart of FRA details is available here.
Adjusted for inflation, the maximum Social Security payment that FRA employees are eligible to receive is $4,018 in 2025, up from $3,822 the previous year. A maximum of $5,108 per month can be claimed by those who wait until they are 70 years old.
This year, a cost of living adjustment is due to all Social Security recipients. In the upcoming year, benefits are expected to rise by 2.5 percent. According to the COLA, beginning with their subsequent payment, the typical beneficiary who currently receives $1,870 per month will experience an increase of roughly $47.
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