What is my Social Security full retirement age?

Full retirement age, or FRA, is the age when you are entitled to 100 percent of your Social Security benefits, which are 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 to 67 under changes to Social Security’s financial structure enacted by Congress in 1983.

FRA is 66 and 8 months for those born in 1958, 66 and 10 months for those born in 1959, and under current law is due to settle at 67 for people born in 1960 or later.

Those dates apply to the retirement benefits you earned from working and to spousal benefits, which you may be able to collect on your mate's work record. They differ slightly for survivor benefits, which you can claim if your spouse dies. Full retirement age for survivors is 66 and 4 months for people born in 1958, 66 and 6 months for those born in 1959 and is going up by two months per birth year to 67 for people born in 1962 or later.

Keep in mind

• Claiming benefits before full retirement age will lower your monthly payments; the earlier you file — you can start at age 62 — the greater the reduction in benefits. Spousal and survivor benefits are also reduced if you claim them before reaching full retirement age.
• You can increase your retirement benefits by waiting past your FRA to retire. Each month you put off filing up to age 70 earns you delayed retirement credits that boost your eventual benefit.