Taking Social Security at 62: what you keep and what you give up
Sixty-two is the first door, not a discount that ends later: the reduction stays for the rest of your life.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Claiming Social Security at 62 cuts your benefit by 30% for life when your full retirement age is 67, the case for everyone born in 1960 or later: a $2,000 PIA pays $1,400 instead of $2,000. The cut is 5/9 of 1% for each of the 36 months closest to full retirement age and 5/12 of 1% for each earlier month (20 CFR 404.410). Most people cannot start at exactly 62, because you must be 62 for a whole month; unless you were born on the 1st or 2nd, the first month is 62 and 1 month, which keeps 70.4%, or $1,408. Cost-of-living adjustments apply to the reduced check, so the gap never closes. If you keep working, the 2026 earnings test withholds $1 for every $2 above $24,480. For a married higher earner, starting at 62 also lowers what a surviving spouse inherits, though never below 82.5% of the PIA.
What starting at 62 costs you
At 62 and 1 month
$1,408
| Share of your PIA kept for life | 70.4% |
| Less each month than at 67 | $592 |
| Waiting catches up at about age | 78 and 8 months |
| 2026 earnings limit before withholding | $24,480 |
Exactly how much 62 removes
The reduction counts the months between your first check and full retirement age. With 67, a start at exactly 62 is 60 months early: 36 months at 5/9 of 1% (20%) plus 24 at 5/12 of 1% (10%), so 30%. With a full retirement age of 66, as for people born from 1943 to 1954, it was 25%. The SSA's reduction table lists every birth year, and the rule itself is 20 CFR 404.410. The SSA rounds the reduction up to the dime before subtracting it and pays the result rounded down to the dollar.
The running total: ahead early, behind later
| PIA | At 62 and 1 month | Less per month | Lead (+) or gap (-) at 80 | At 90 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | $704 | $296 | -$4,640 | -$40,160 |
| $1,500 | $1,056 | $444 | -$6,960 | -$60,240 |
| $2,000 | $1,408 | $592 | -$9,280 | -$80,320 |
| $2,500 | $1,760 | $740 | -$11,600 | -$100,400 |
| $3,000 | $2,112 | $888 | -$13,920 | -$120,480 |
| $3,500 | $2,464 | $1,036 | -$16,240 | -$140,560 |
By 67 the early claimant has collected 59 checks that the patient one has not. From then on the patient one receives more each month and closes the gap at about 78 and 8 months. A positive figure in the table means the early start is still ahead at that age; a negative one means waiting has paid off. The crossover is nearly the same whatever the PIA, because both checks are percentages of it. The break-even tool runs any pair of start ages.
Working while collecting at 62
The earnings test is the catch for anyone who claims at 62 and keeps a job. With $35,000 of wages in 2026 and a $1,408 check, $5,260 is withheld, roughly 4 checks held back from January. The months withheld are credited back at full retirement age through a smaller reduction, as the SSA explains, but the income you planned on in your sixties is not there. Only wages and net self-employment count; pensions and investment income do not.
Cost-of-living raises do not reward claiming early
A common belief is that starting at 62 lets you "collect the COLAs" sooner. It does not work that way. From the year you turn 62, every cost-of-living adjustment is added to your PIA whether you have claimed or not, so someone who waits to 67 starts with a PIA that already includes five years of increases. The 2.8% raise payable in January 2026, for example, was applied to the PIA of everyone who turned 62 in 2025 or earlier, claimed or not. What claiming early changes is only the percentage of that PIA you receive, and that percentage is fixed on the day you start. The comparisons on this page are therefore in today's dollars: COLAs scale both options by the same factor.
Situations where the early start comes out ahead
The arithmetic favors 62 in a few identifiable cases. Someone with a serious health condition or a family history of short lives may not reach the late seventies, where waiting starts to pay. A single person with no other income may need the check simply to avoid drawing down savings at a bad time. A lower earner in a couple, whose own benefit will later be replaced by a larger survivor benefit, loses little by starting early on their own record. None of this is a recommendation: it is where the numbers in the table tilt the other way.
What the early start does to a spouse
A husband or wife's spouse benefit is based on the worker's PIA, not on the reduced check: with a PIA of $2,800, a spouse at full retirement age gets $1,400 whether the worker started at 62 or 70. But the spouse cannot claim it until the worker has filed, so an early start opens that door sooner. The survivor side runs the other way: the RIB-LIM rule limits a widow or widower to the larger of the deceased's reduced check or 82.5% of the PIA, $2,310 here instead of $2,800.
No back pay, but one way out
Applying late does not recover the months since 62: before full retirement age, 20 CFR 404.621 forbids retroactive months that would be reduced for age. The reverse door exists. Within 12 months of starting, you can withdraw your application once and repay what you received (20 CFR 404.640), after which the SSA treats you as never having applied. The withdraw or suspend page covers both options. At the other end of the range, see Social Security at 70.