Workers who turn 62 in 2027 will have their Social Security benefit figured on higher bend points. The two dollar thresholds in the formula rise to $1,340 and $8,077, up from $1,286 and $7,749 for people who turn 62 this year. The change sets how much of a worker’s lifetime earnings is counted at each rate of credit.

The numbers come from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Chief Actuary. Its bend points table lists 2026 at $1,286 and $7,749, and 2027 at $1,340 and $8,077. The first threshold rises by $54 and the second by $328.

It is the year of turning 62 that counts

The bend points do not follow the year a worker retires or the year the first check arrives. The table’s footnote says the year that applies is the year of eligibility, that is, the year in which a worker attains age 62, or becomes disabled before 62 or dies before 62.

That means a worker who turns 62 in 2027 gets the $1,340 and $8,077 figures even if the first payment does not start until years later. A worker who turned 62 in 2026 stays on $1,286 and $7,749 for life, however long the claim is put off. Anyone close to a birthday near the end of one year and the start of the next should check which year SSA treats as the 62nd-birthday year.

What changed this year: Social Security and Medicare change every year, and nobody sends you a memo. The Retirement Money Brief breaks down what changed and what to do.

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What a bend point does in the benefit formula

A worker’s monthly benefit at full retirement age starts with average indexed monthly earnings, known as AIME. SSA’s benefit formula page says the result, the primary insurance amount, is the sum of three percentages: 90 percent of the first $1,340 of AIME, 32 percent of AIME over $1,340 and through $8,077, and 15 percent of AIME over $8,077.

The bend points are the dollar lines where the percentage changes. Earnings below the first line are replaced at the highest rate, and earnings above the second line at the lowest. That is why a worker with modest lifetime earnings gets back a larger share of pay than a high earner does.

The page adds that SSA rounds the result down to the next lower multiple of ten cents. The figures are adjusted each year, which is why the 2027 numbers are higher than 2026’s.

What the higher thresholds are worth

A simple example with the same average earnings shows the effect. At an AIME of $5,000, the 2026 bend points produce a benefit of about $2,345.80 a month, and the 2027 bend points produce about $2,377.20. The difference is $31.40 a month. The figures are illustrative, since a real AIME changes from year to year with wage indexing.

Both thresholds rose by about the same proportion, roughly 4.2 percent, which is the $54 increase on $1,286 and the $328 increase on $7,749. That keeps the formula’s three layers in step with growth in average wages, so the extra credit lands mostly on earnings between the two lines.

SSA’s benefit amounts page works through a maximum earner who turns 62 in 2027. That worker has an AIME of $14,966 and a primary insurance amount of $4,395.10. The page says a person claiming at 62 gets a benefit 30 percent less than that amount, which works out to about $3,076.57 a month, and the first cost-of-living increase such a worker could receive is the one effective for December 2027.

The 30 percent cut is the price of claiming early. SSA’s age reduction chart says benefits are reduced a small percentage for each month before full retirement age, and for people born in 1960 or later, a $1,000 benefit at full retirement age falls to $700 at 62. Full retirement age for that group is 67.

How this differs from the cost-of-living increase

The bend points are separate from the annual cost-of-living adjustment. On October 14, 2026, SSA announced a 3.6 percent raise for current beneficiaries on its cost-of-living adjustment page. That increase applies to people who already receive benefits, while the bend points set the starting benefit for people who reach 62 in a given year.

The same page says the agency will announce the next cost-of-living increase in October 2027. Until then, the 3.6 percent figure is the one that applies to current beneficiaries, and the 2027 bend points are the ones that apply to the newest group of 62-year-olds.

The two changes can move in the same direction without being the same thing. A worker who turns 62 in 2027 has a starting benefit shaped by the new bend points, which in turn reflect the national average wage index. Future increases then build on that starting amount.

Planning around these numbers means asking two questions. What does the earnings record produce under the 2027 formula, and what does it cost to start at 62 instead of waiting until 67? SSA’s formula and age reduction pages answer the first and second parts, but combining them for a specific record takes arithmetic and a few assumptions about when to claim.

Turning 62 in 2027 and still deciding when to claim?

The new bend points raise the starting benefit by a modest amount. The larger swing comes from the claiming age: a check started at 62 is 30 percent smaller than one started at full retirement age, and that gap lasts for life.

The story’s formula question leads to a related one, which is when to claim. The Social Security Claiming & Family Benefits Kit includes a claiming calculator (Excel) for claiming age, break-even and survivor benefits, plus the 2026 earnings-test rules for anyone who keeps working after 62. Its 37 pages open with a section on the choice between 62, 67 and 70.

Get the claiming-age calculator and earnings-test rules for the 62-in-2027 decision →

More Financial Reading

• 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
• 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
• 17 Medicare Money Moves Now That Part D Caps at $2,400

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.