Social Security claiming plan

How the filing age changes your check

If you were born in 1960 or later, your full retirement age is 67. File at 62 and the checks start now but run 30% smaller for life. Wait past 67 and each year adds 8%, so filing at 70 pays 124% of your full benefit. The right call depends on your benefit amount, your spouse's, and how long the checks need to last.

The plan checks every filing age from 62 to 70 (every pair of ages for a couple) and adds up the checks to the life expectancy you enter for each person, survivor years included. It covers people born in1954 or later, the group today's deemed filing rules apply to.

Social Security filing rules that matter

You can file as early as 62. Each month you file before full retirement age cuts the check by 5/9 of 1% for the first 36 months and 5/12 of 1% for each month after that. Each month you wait past full retirement age adds 2/3 of 1%, or 8% a year, for anyone born 1943 or later. The credits stop at 70, so there's no gain in waiting longer than that.

Spousal and survivor benefit rules

A spouse with a smaller benefit of their own gets that benefit plus a spousal top-up: 50% of the other spouse's full benefit minus their own full benefit. The top-up is cut by 25/36 of 1% a month for the first36 months before full retirement age and 5/12 of 1% a month after that. It gets no delayed retirement credits and starts only once the other spouse has filed. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 extended deemed filing to anyone born on or after January 2, 1954: applying for your own benefit also applies you for the spousal top-up, so file-and-suspend and restricted applications no longer work.

After a death, the survivor gets the larger of their own benefit and the survivor benefit. The survivor benefit is100% of what the deceased was receiving, delayed credits included, at the survivor's full retirement age for survivor benefits, and 71.5% if started at 60. If the deceased filed early, it is capped at the larger of their reduced check and 82.5% of their full benefit. Deemed filing does not apply to survivor benefits, so a survivor can take one benefit first and switch to the other later. The plan starts the survivor benefit right away or at the survivor's full retirement age for survivor benefits, whichever pays more by the survivor's life expectancy.

Two worked examples

Spousal top-up: one spouse has a full benefit of $2,000 and has already filed. The other, born in1964, has a full benefit of $600 and files at 62. Their own benefit is $420, and the $400 top-up is cut to $260 for starting early, so the check is $680 a month.

Widow(er)'s limit: a worker with a $2,000 full benefit files at 62 and receives $1,400. At their own full retirement age for survivor benefits, the surviving spouse gets $1,650, which is82.5% of the full benefit. Had the worker waited to 70, the survivor would get the credited$2,480 instead.

When delaying does not make sense

Delaying does not make sense if you need the money now, if your health makes a long life unlikely, or if filing early lets a lower-earning spouse start their own benefit sooner in a way the household math favors. The paid plan puts the lifetime totals of the top three strategies side by side, so you can see the trade in dollars.