What is the eligibility age for Social Security?
The answer to this simple question is a bit complicated. You can qualify for a reduced benefit when you are as young as 62. The reduction would be between 25 percent and 30 percent of the benefit that you would receive if you wait until you are eligible for a full benefit.
When it comes to the full benefit, your eligibility age depends on the year of your birth. For people born between 1943 and 1954, it is 66, and it then goes up by two months per year.
To be clear, this means that someone that was born in 1955 would become eligible two months after their 66th birthday, and it would be 66 years and four months for someone that was born in 1956.
This arrangement ends in 1960 at the age of 67. People that were born during this year or any later year become eligible when they are 67 years of age.
It is possible to delay the submission of your application beyond your full eligibility age, and if you do this, you earn delayed retirement credits. They increase the amount of your benefit by eight percent for every year that you delay, but the accrual maxes out when you are 70.