{"id":529574,"date":"2026-07-07T13:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/529574\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T13:18:11","slug":"social-security-at-62-how-many-people-claim-early-and-what-it-means-for-retirement-income","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/529574\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Security at 62: How Many People Claim Early and What It Means for Retirement Income"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Americans<\/a> Americans who claim Social Security benefits at 62 will receive permanently reduced benefits during their retirement.
Credit: Getty Images KEY TAKEAWAYS <\/p>\n

More than a quarter of Social Security beneficiaries begin claiming benefits at age 62, resulting in permanently reduced payments. <\/p>\n

Delaying Social Security benefits beyond full retirement age increases later benefits. <\/p>\n

A full or boosted benefit matters most for retirees who depend on Social Security for much of their income. <\/p>\n

More than a quarter of Social Security beneficiaries begin getting their benefits at an age when they would be permanently reduced, according to government data. <\/p>\n

Americans can claim Social Security as early as 62, but doing so cuts their benefit by up to 30% versus those claiming at 67. About 26% of the 3.25 million people who first claimed benefits in 2024 did so at 62. <\/p>\n

Americans typically expect to retire at 65, but the median actual retirement age is 62, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s (EBRI) 2026 Retirement Confidence Survey. <\/p>\n

Note <\/p>\n

Without congressional action, the Social Security trust fund that pays retirement benefits is projected to be depleted in 2032, at which point payroll taxes would cover only about three-quarters of scheduled benefits, requiring an across-the-board cut of about 23%. <\/p>\n

The share of new beneficiaries claiming at 62 has been falling for two decades, from a peak of more than 60% of new beneficiaries in the 1990s to about 26% in 2024, the lowest level in at least 40 years, according to an Investopedia analysis of Social Security Administration (SSA) data. <\/p>\n

Claims surged in 2025, rising about 11% over the prior year, with researchers positing some may have rushed to file amid worries about the program’s future<\/a> and cuts to staff<\/a> at the Social Security Administration. Higher earners\u2014those with the most flexibility to wait\u2014were among those filing at 62 in unusual numbers, an Urban Institute analysis found. <\/p>\n

<\/a> The Cost of Claiming Early <\/p>\n

To get a full benefit, retirees must wait until full retirement age (FRA)<\/a>: That’s 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, or 66 and 10 months for those born in 1959. <\/p>\n

Future retirees can also boost their payments by 8% for each year they delay claiming benefits beyond their FRA, up until age 70. <\/p>\n

In December 2025, the average monthly payment for a 62-year-old beneficiary who just began claiming benefits was $1,335. The average benefit for 67-year-old new beneficiaries was about $2,521, according to the Social Security Administration. <\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

Social Security payments are essential for many retirees. A 2024 Census Bureau report found that 42% of older Americans rely on their benefits<\/a> for half or more of their income, and 14% relied on Social Security for 90% or more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Americans who claim Social Security benefits at 62 will receive permanently reduced benefits during their retirement.Credit: Getty Images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,76334,268,85,46,266,267,25442,1759,2959],"class_list":["post-529574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-claiming-benefits","tag-finance","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-retirement-benefits","tag-social-security","tag-social-security-administration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}