Is the retirement age for Social Security increasing in 2027? Here's everything to know
Full retirement age reaches 67, but it isn't scheduled to climb further.
Social Security's full retirement age will reach 67 in 2027 for people born in 1960 or later, completing a gradual increase that Congress set in motion more than four decades ago.
That doesn't mean a new law is suddenly raising everyone's retirement age next year. Instead, 2027 marks the point when the existing schedule established by the Social Security Amendments of 1983 reaches its final step.
Under current law, 67 is where the increase stops.
Is Social Security retirement age increasing to 67 in 2027?
People born in 1960 are the first group whose full retirement age is exactly 67, and they begin reaching that milestone during 2027.
Geoffrey Schmidt , a certified public accountant and founder of retirement education resource Holy Schmidt!, told Yahoo Finance: "It has finished its long, slow climb to 67."
People born before 1960 have slightly earlier full retirement ages. Those born in 1959, for example, reach full retirement age at 66 years and 10 months.
Full retirement age is important because it determines when someone becomes eligible to receive 100 percent of the retirement benefit calculated from their earnings record.
What happens if you claim Social Security before 67?
Retirement benefits can still be claimed as early as age 62.
However, someone with a full retirement age of 67 who starts receiving benefits at 62 could see their monthly payment permanently reduced by as much as 30 percent.
Waiting beyond full retirement age has the opposite effect.
Delayed retirement credits can increase a person's benefit by about 8 percent for each year they wait beyond full retirement age, with those increases stopping at age 70.
There is currently no advantage to delaying a claim beyond 70.
Could retirement age increase again after 2027?
Some proposals have called for raising Social Security's retirement age further as lawmakers debate the program's long-term finances.
But no additional increase has been enacted under current law.
Anyone born in 1960 or later therefore has a full retirement age of 67 unless Congress passes future legislation changing the system.
So the important distinction for retirees is that 2027 completes an existing increase. It doesn't introduce a new retirement age above 67.
