What does ‘full retirement age’ mean? What is full retirement age now? How does FRA affect retirement benefits? If I claim early, does my payment go up when I reach full retirement age? Does FRA apply to other types of benefits?

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What Is Social Security’s Full Retirement Age?

The basics on the benchmark that’s key to determining your retirement benefit amount

5-minute read

Part of Series: Retirement Benefits

Deirdre Shesgreen,

AARP

Expert reviewed by

Stephen Richardson

Published October 12, 2026

Deirdre Shesgreen is an AARP writer and editor covering Social Security. She previously worked as a state news editor for the AARP Bulletin and as a reporter and editor at USA Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other publications.

Stephen Richardson is a retired New England regional communications director for the Social Security Administration and AARP consultant on Social Security benefit issues. He began his career with the agency in 1982 as a claims representatives.

Key takeaways

Full retirement age, or FRA, is when you can claim your “full” Social Security payment — 100 percent of the benefit amount calculated from your lifetime earnings.
Originally set at 65, FRA has been gradually climbing since the early 2000s and will settle at 67 in 2027.
You don’t have to wait until FRA to claim Social Security, but filing earlier permanently reduces your monthly payment.

Social Security’s full retirement age (FRA) is a critical factor in determining how much you’ll receive when you claim retirement benefits. Here are the basics about FRA — what it is, how it’s changed and the role it plays in determining your payments.

What does ‘full retirement age’ mean?
What is full retirement age now?
How does FRA affect retirement benefits?
If I claim early, does my payment go up when I reach full retirement age?
Does FRA apply to other types of benefits?

What does ‘full retirement age’ mean?

Full retirement age, also known as normal retirement age, is the age at which you can claim 100 percent of the benefit amount calculated from your lifetime earnings history. File for retirement benefits before FRA and you get less than 100 percent; file after and you get more.

Why does it work this way? Because Social Security is designed to provide retirees with roughly the same total lifetime benefit income regardless of when they begin payments. To achieve this, Social Security reduces payments for those who apply early (and thus are likely to receive payments for longer) and increases them for those who wait (and are likely to be collecting for a shorter period).

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What is full retirement age now?

FRA is 66 and 10 months for people born in 1959 and 67 for those born in 1960 and later.

Sixty-five, widely considered the traditional retirement age, was the full retirement age for Social Security’s first six-plus decades. When the program was established in the mid-1930s, policymakers settled on 65 based on “prevailing retirement standards” — primarily that many state pension systems set that as the retirement age — and on actuarial studies that showed, at the time, that an FRA of 65 would maintain Social Security’s financial sustainability, according to a Social Security Administration (SSA) history.

However, in 1983, Congress voted to increase FRA to 67 as part of a suite of measures designed to shore up Social Security’s then-dwindling finances. To ensure that those nearing retirement were not affected and younger workers had time to adjust, lawmakers delayed implementation of the increase until the early 2000s and made it incremental, with FRA gradually rising over time based on year of birth.

Come 2027, the change enacted more than 40 years earlier will fully take effect. Still, the association of age 65 with retirement remains strong: A 2025 survey by insurance company Allianz Life found that more than half of U.S. adults age 25 and older still believe 65 is the full retirement age for Social Security.

How does FRA affect retirement benefits?

You can claim retirement benefits as early as age 62. But the earlier you claim, the less your monthly payments will be — as little as 70 percent of your full benefit if you start Social Security when you turn 62.

Only when you reach FRA can you claim your full benefit, also known as your primary insurance amount — 100 percent of the benefit amount Social Security calculates from your earnings history (specifically, your 35 best-paid years).

For each month beyond FRA that you delay filing, up to age 70, you earn delayed retirement credits that boost your eventual benefit above the 100 percent threshold. At 70 or older, you can qualify to receive 124 percent of your full benefit, and that increase, too, is permanent.

AARP’s Social Security Calculator can provide an estimate of your monthly Social Security retirement benefit (based on your earnings history and age) and show how much your monthly payment might increase if you wait to apply. The Social Security Administration (SSA) also has a retirement age calculator to help you determine your FRA and a retirement age chart that shows the financial impact of claiming benefits early.

If I claim early, does my payment go up when I reach full retirement age?

Generally, no. The reduction for starting Social Security early is permanent. For example, if your FRA is 67 and you file for benefits at 65, the SSA will shave about 13.3 percent off your full benefit amount. If your full benefit would be $2,000 a month, you’d get about $1,730. That penalty adds up to nearly $64,000 over 20 years.

There is one circumstance in which Social Security increases your base payment at FRA, although probably not to 100 percent of your full benefit. That happens if the SSA withheld some of your benefits during early retirement because you had work income that exceeded Social Security’s earnings limit. In this case, the SSA recalculates your benefit at full retirement age so that, over time, you recoup those deductions.

You can also engineer your own post-FRA benefit boost by requesting a suspension of benefits. During a suspension, the SSA does not send your benefits, and you earn delayed retirement credits for each month you don’t receive a payment. When you lift the suspension (or turn 70, whichever comes first), the SSA adds up the credits and adjusts your payment accordingly.

Does FRA apply to other types of benefits?

Yes, but in different ways. If you are eligible for spousal benefits based on your spouse’s earnings record, they are reduced if claimed before your own full retirement age. FRA is the same for spousal benefits as it is for retirement benefits, settling at 67 for spouses born in 1960 and later. Unlike with retirement benefits, spousal benefits max out at full retirement age — there’s no increase if you wait past 67 to start them.

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