What happens if you start Social Security at 62? If you begin benefits before your full retirement age, Social Security reduces your monthly payment by a fraction of a percent for each month you filed early. The dollars add up.

Full retirement age, or FRA, is the age at which you are entitled to 100 percent of the Social Security benefit amount determined by your lifetime earnings. For most of the program’s history, it was 65, but since the early 2000s, it has been gradually increasing under changes to Social Security’s financial structure enacted by Congress in 1983.

AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering Americans 50 and older to choose how they live as they age.

When you reach full retirement age, Social Security resets your benefit to make up for money previously withheld due to the earnings test.

In 2026, if you collect benefits before full retirement age and continue to work, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will temporarily withhold $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn over $24,480. If you will reach FRA in 2026, the earnings limit goes up to $65,160 and $1 is deducted from your benefits for every $3 you earn over that. Once you attain full retirement age, the earnings limit ...

Easily calculate how much retirement income you need from your savings, 401 (k), Social Security benefits and more with this retirement calculator.

Probably not. Whatever your age when you claim Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Social Security sets your benefit as though you had reached full retirement age. Full retirement age, or FRA, is the point at which you qualify for 100 percent of the benefit Social Security calculates from your lifetime earnings.

If you set benefits to begin at full retirement age (FRA) — 66 and 10 months for people born in 1959 and 67 for those born in 1960 and later — your first payment generally will arrive in the month after you attain that age. That’s because Social Security pays benefits a month behind, so your payment for, say, June 2026 will arrive in July.

The changes to the full retirement age from age 66 to 67 were mandated by Congress in 1983. Raising the age further is a possible change for Social Security.

The most an individual who files a claim for Social Security retirement benefits in 2026 can receive per month is: $2,969 for someone who starts benefits when they turn 62. $4,152 for someone who files at full retirement age. $5,181 for someone who files at age 70.