Industry News

On March 15, 2022, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released its report, Social Security Retirement Benefit Claiming Age. The report presents the age distribution of Social Security benefit claims for retired workers based on calendar year, birth year and gender. According to the report, in the last two decades, the age distribution of Social Security benefit claims has shifted to later ages. Several factors that have likely contributed to the change include: 1) changes in the full retirement age (FRA); 2) the retirement earnings test (RET); 3) the delayed retirement credit (DRC); 4) the economic environment; and 5) the population age distribution.

The change in the age distribution of Social Security claiming is relatively consistent for male and female workers. However, women were more likely than men to claim benefits at age 62 (the earliest eligibility age (EEA)) and were less likely to claim benefits at the FRA. The FRA is the age when retired workers can first claim full Social Security retired worker benefits, which has changed from age 65 in 1935 to increasing in increments based on birth year to reaching age 67 for workers born in 1960 or later.  

The report is available here.