When you can apply for retirement benefits How to apply online How to apply by phone or in person What you need to apply What happens after you apply

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How to Apply for Social Security Retirement Benefits

When you're ready to file your claim, here's what you need to know

5-minute read

Part of Series: Retirement Benefits

Phil Pruitt,

AARP

Expert reviewed by

Tom Margenau

Published October 12, 2026

Phil Pruitt is an AARP writer and editor focusing on Social Security. He is a former editor at Scripps News and Yahoo News and was on the start-up staff at USA Today, where he held numerous editing positions.

Tom Margenau writes the "Social Security Simplified" column for AARP Bulletin and the nationally syndicated column "Social Security and You." He is a former public information director at the Social Security Administration and a 32-year veteran of the agency.

Key takeaways

• You can apply for retirement benefits online, by phone or in person.

• You can file up to four months before you want your payments to begin — you choose the benefit start month as part of your application.

• You’ll need to provide Social Security with some basic information, including your date and place of birth, recent work history and bank account details.

You can apply for your Social Security retirement benefits to begin as early as age 62 — although your payments go up if you wait past that — and there are three ways to file your claim: online, by telephone or in person at a local Social Security office.

When you can apply for retirement benefits
How to apply online
How to apply by phone or in person
What you need to apply
What happens after you apply

Whichever method you use and whenever you use it, here’s what you need to know about the application process.

When you can apply for retirement benefits

The earliest you can apply for Social Security retirement benefits is four months before the month you want your benefits to start, and the earliest your benefits can start is your first full month as a 62-year-old. As part of the application, you’ll be asked what month you want benefits to begin. So if you turn 62 in June 2027 and want to start collecting as soon as possible, you can apply as early as March to become eligible for benefits in July. (Social Security pays benefits a month behind, so you'll receive that first payment in August.)

There is an exception to this timing: If you were born on the first or second day of a month, your benefit eligibility can begin in that month. That’s because the Social Security Administration (SSA), following an old principle of English common law, considers you to have attained a particular age on the day before your birthday.

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Say you were born on June 1 or 2, 1965, and want to start retirement benefits when you turn 62. Under Social Security’s rules, you will reach that age on May 31 or June 1, 2027, and your first full month as a 62-year-old is June 2027. Therefore, you can apply in February for benefit eligibility to begin in June. But if your birthday is between June 3 and 30, your first full month at 62 is July, and the soonest you can apply is March.

Remember this about applying at 62: Your payment will be up to 30 percent less than if you wait until full retirement age (FRA), which is when you become entitled to 100 percent of the Social Security benefit calculated from your lifetime earnings. FRA is 66 and 10 months for people born in 1959 and 67 for people born in 1960 or after. The reduction for early retirement is permanent — but so is the benefit boost you get for waiting, up to age 70.

How to apply online

Go to the retirement benefits page on the Social Security website. (From the home page, click on the Benefits menu at the top and select “Retirement.”) Click on “Learn how to apply,” then “Apply for myself” (assuming you are applying for yourself and not assisting someone else with a claim; there’s a separate button for that).

You’ll be prompted to create or log in to your My Social Security account. (You can still file an online application if you don’t have an account, but you may need to visit a local Social Security office to verify your identity.) Once you’ve signed in, you’ll be guided through a series of screens with questions about yourself, your work and your family.

You don’t need to do it all in one sitting; at any time, you can save your work and exit after receiving a reentry number. You can return to your application by signing in to your My Social Security account, where you can retrieve your number and resume the process. If you do not have an account, it’s a good idea to print or write down your reentry number so you can enter it when you return to the application.

How to apply by phone or in person

Call Social Security’s national customer service number, 800-772-1213, between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time Monday through Friday and tell the agent who answers your call that you want to apply for retirement benefits. They will schedule a phone or in-person appointment.

If you are applying by phone, you will have to verify your identity in one of two ways: You’ll be asked tailored questions that presumably only you can answer, or you’ll be asked to use your My Social Security account credentials to generate a security authorization PIN (SAP) to share with the SSA agent. (Social Security has a FAQ page with more information on identity proofing.)

If you apply in person, bring at least one of the following “primary” forms of ID:

An unexpired, state-issued driver’s license.
An unexpired, state-issued identification card.
An unexpired U.S. passport or passport card.

Make sure to bring the originals; photocopies will not be accepted.

If you don’t have any of these primary documents, the SSA may accept a “secondary” form of ID, such as a U.S. military identification card, a tribal ID document, a certification of naturalization or U.S. citizenship, or a health insurance or Medicaid card.

What you need to apply

No matter how you apply, be ready to provide the following information. Gather the relevant documents ahead of time so you have them at hand.

Your Social Security number
Where and when you were born
Information about your employers and earnings for the past two years
Citizenship or immigration status
Bank account details so the SSA can set up direct deposit of your payments
Military service records, if you served before 1968

What happens after you apply

The SSA will review your application and determine if it needs to verify your identity, clarify your answers or see any documents. You should receive a letter within 30 days with either a decision or a request for more information. (If you asked for your benefit to start in a future month, the SSA says you’ll get the letter 30 days before the start date.)

You don’t have to wait until you get a letter to see where things stand. If you have a My Social Security account, you can log in and check the status of your application. If not, call 800-772-1213 and when you hear “How can I help you today?” say “Application status.”

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