AARP Exclusive: Why More Americans Are Suddenly Claiming Social Security Early

Concerns about the program’s finances and staffing are driving the rush to start benefits, AARP survey finds

Deirdre Shesgreen,

AARP

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Published August 19, 2025

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More Americans are filing early for their Social Security benefits, and a new AARP poll suggests the surge is largely driven by fears about the program’s financial future and anxiety about changes at the Social Security Administration (SSA).

The trend could have significant implications for Americans’ long-term retirement security, because claiming Social Security before full retirement age (FRA) — currently between 66 and 67, depending on birth year — leads to lower lifetime benefits.

Among Americans age 50-plus who, in the past year, claimed Social Security earlier than planned or considered doing so, 49 percent said they were motivated by media reports that the program is “running out of money.”

In reality, Social Security can’t run out of money because it is funded by a steady stream of payroll tax revenue. The program’s trust funds are projected to run short of surplus cash by 2034, but even if that happens, Social Security would continue to pay benefits, albeit at a reduced rate.

Twenty percent of survey respondents cited customer-service concerns, such as SSA staff reductions and access to in-person services at Social Security offices, as a reason they claimed or plan to claim earlier, and 17 percent pointed to difficulty reaching SSA online or by phone.

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The AARP poll fleshes out research by the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that tracks SSA filing data. From January through July 2025, more than 2.3 million people filed for Social Security retirement benefits, up 16 percent from the same period in 2024, says Jack Smalligan, senior policy fellow at the Urban Institute.

That’s a reversal of a decades-long trend of older Americans increasingly claiming Social Security later. Even people with higher incomes, who are presumably more financially secure and “have the greatest ability to delay claiming,” are more frequently starting Social Security at 62, the earliest claiming age, Smalligan says. That means accepting a benefit up to 30 percent lower than what they’d get at full retirement age.

Joel Eskovitz, senior director of Social Security and savings at the AARP Public Policy Institute, called the findings “concerning.”

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“This is a lifetime decision, so you’re seeing a smaller benefit” year after year, Eskovitz says. “If you don’t have any other retirement income, that can be really devastating.”

A ‘foot in the door’

Clint Banner was planning to start retirement benefits at 68, more than a year after his full retirement age of 66 and 8 months. That would have bumped up his monthly payment by more than 9 percent above his FRA level, under Social Security’s system of delayed retirement credits. Similarly, his wife, Christine, intended to hold off claiming a spousal benefit on his earnings record until she hit her FRA of 66 and 10 months.

But the North Carolina couple started getting nervous, Clint Banner says — about a volatile stock market biting into their savings and about members of Congress warning that “we can’t keep Social Security going [because] it’s going to bankrupt us.” So the retired veteran and telecom engineer took his retirement benefit in late 2024, when he reached his FRA, and Christine Banner filed her claim in February.

“We’re going to end up getting less, but we wanted to have our foot in the door,” he says. “We were thinking that if they do some stupid stuff [to change the program], we might be OK in terms of being grandfathered because we were already getting it.”

The Banners are far from alone in their fears, and not without reason: The most recent annual report by Social Security’s trustees projects that the surplus in the program’s trust funds will be depleted by 2034, as benefit payments outpace the payroll tax revenue that funds the program. If that happens, Social Security recipients will still be paid out of annual tax revenue, but they will get only 81 percent of their scheduled benefits.

Another June 2025 AARP poll, of U.S. adults age 18 and older, found widespread confusion about the implications of a trust fund shortfall. More than a third of respondents believed Social Security payments would stop if the trust funds ran dry. Another third correctly answered that benefits would be reduced, but nearly half of that group estimated the bite would be 50 percent or more.

If the shortfall did in fact spell doom for Social Security, “then the trend of early claiming [would] make some rational sense,” Eskovitz says. But even “under the extreme worst-case scenario,” he notes, benefits would be reduced but not eliminated.

Still, AARP is working hard to head off that scenario. To avert a shortfall, Congress must increase the revenue that funds Social Security, reduce overall spending on benefits (for example, by raising the full retirement age) or adopt a plan that combines both approaches. AARP has long pressed lawmakers to protect and strengthen Social Security by acting sooner rather than later.

There are good reasons for some people to claim Social Security early, Eskovitz says — for instance, a sudden loss of employment that leaves you without income, or poor health that could limit your lifespan. Concerns about Social Security’s solvency or management are not among them, he says: “You should think about your own personal circumstances.”

Boomer effect?

The SSA attributes the spike in claims primarily to the “peak 65” phenomenon, which involves the last and largest cohort of boomers reaching retirement age. An agency spokesperson says that accounts for the “vast majority” of the increase.

Other factors include the Social Security Fairness Act — a law passed in late 2024 that restored or increased benefits for workers eligible for both Social Security and a government pension — and SSA outreach to people collecting spousal and survivor benefits about their retirement benefit options, the spokesperson says.

In a May 2025 report on the rise in claims, the Urban Institute said that while late boomers have expanded the Social Security-eligible population, that growth is “not large enough to fully explain the recent surge.” The other factors SSA cited have driven a jump in claims for people age 71 and older but “don’t appear to explain increases at younger ages,” the institute said.

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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.