{"id":287702,"date":"2026-08-17T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/?p=287702"},"modified":"2026-08-16T17:36:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T21:36:50","slug":"social-security-full-retirement-age-2026-birth-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/social-security-full-retirement-age-2026-birth-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Retirement Age in 2026: Why Being Born in 1959 Instead of 1960 Changes Your Social Security for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Full retirement age<\/strong> is <strong>67<\/strong> for anyone born in <strong>1960 or later<\/strong> and <strong>66 and 10 months<\/strong> for those born in <strong>1959<\/strong>, according to the table published by the <strong>Social Security Administration (SSA)<\/strong>. Two months of difference in a birth certificate look trivial, but they change the permanent reduction applied to an early claim: a worker born in 1959 who files at <strong>62<\/strong> loses <strong>29.17%<\/strong> of the benefit, while one born in 1960 loses the full <strong>30%<\/strong>. On a benefit of <strong>$2,000<\/strong>, that gap alone is worth about <strong>$200 a year<\/strong> for life.<\/p>\n<p>Full retirement age is the reference point for the entire system. Everything else, early reductions and delayed credits alike, is measured from it.<\/p>\n<h2>The table, by birth year<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>1943-1954:<\/strong> 66<\/li>\n<li><strong>1955:<\/strong> 66 and 2 months<\/li>\n<li><strong>1956:<\/strong> 66 and 4 months<\/li>\n<li><strong>1957:<\/strong> 66 and 6 months<\/li>\n<li><strong>1958:<\/strong> 66 and 8 months<\/li>\n<li><strong>1959:<\/strong> 66 and 10 months<\/li>\n<li><strong>1960 and later:<\/strong> 67<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The staircase is the result of a <strong>1983<\/strong> reform that raised the age gradually rather than at once. It finished phasing in with the 1960 cohort, which is why <strong>67<\/strong> is now the figure that applies to every worker still in the labor market.<\/p>\n<h2>What changes at that exact age<\/h2>\n<p>Three things happen when full retirement age arrives, and they arrive together. The benefit is paid at <strong>100%<\/strong> of the calculated amount, with no reduction. The <a href=\"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/social-security-earnings-test-2026-24480-limit\/\">earnings test disappears<\/a>, so a beneficiary can work without any limit. And <strong>delayed retirement credits<\/strong> begin to accrue at <strong>8% a year<\/strong> for anyone who postpones further, up to age <strong>70<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Before that date, filing costs <strong>five ninths of 1% per month<\/strong> for the first 36 months and <strong>five twelfths of 1%<\/strong> for each additional month.<\/p>\n<h2>Why 62 is still the most common choice<\/h2>\n<p>Age <strong>62<\/strong> remains the earliest possible claim and one of the most frequent, even though it carries the largest reduction. Layoffs, health problems and caring responsibilities push people out of the labor market well before <strong>67<\/strong>, and the decision is often made without a calculation.<\/p>\n<p>The cost is not small. <a href=\"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/retiring-at-62-social-security-30-percent-reduction\/\">Claiming five years early<\/a> converts a <strong>$2,000<\/strong> benefit into <strong>$1,400<\/strong>, permanently, and caps what a surviving spouse can later receive on the same record.<\/p>\n<h2>Full retirement age is not Medicare age<\/h2>\n<p>One confusion worth clearing up: <strong>Medicare<\/strong> eligibility begins at <strong>65<\/strong> regardless of birth year, and it has not moved. A worker born in 1960 therefore reaches Medicare age two years before full retirement age.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who delays a Social Security claim past <strong>65<\/strong> still needs to enrol in Medicare during their own initial enrolment window, because the automatic enrolment that comes with a benefit claim does not apply. Missing it can mean a permanent surcharge on the <strong>Part B<\/strong> premium, which stands at <strong>$202.90<\/strong> a month in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two months of difference in the birth table decide whether an early claim costs 29.17% or the full 30% of a benefit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,41,37],"class_list":["post-287702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-payment","tag-retirement","tag-social-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287704,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287702\/revisions\/287704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/futbolete.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}