Social Security adds 8% to a retirement check for each full year a worker waits past full retirement age to claim, and the increases stop at age 70. The raise applies to anyone born in 1943 or later, which covers nearly everyone now deciding when to claim. After 70, waiting adds nothing.

The Social Security Administration explains the credits on its delayed retirement credits page. For people born in 1943 or later, the 12-month rate of increase is 8.0%, and the page says the benefit increase stops when a person reaches age 70.

How the 8% adds up month by month

The credit is earned monthly, not once a year. The same SSA page lists the monthly rate for people born in 1943 or later as 2/3 of 1%, which works out to 8% over 12 months. Waiting six extra months after full retirement age therefore adds about 4%.

What waiting is worth for someone with full retirement age of 67

The age where those credits start is set by birth year. SSA’s retirement age schedule says it reaches 67 for people born in 1960 and later. For that group, the window for earning credits runs from 67 to 70, three years, so the maximum increase is 24%.

A simple example shows the size of it. A worker whose benefit at full retirement age would be $1,000 a month would get about $1,240 a month by waiting until 70. These are round numbers for illustration, and an actual check depends on the worker’s own record.

So the question for a worker approaching 67 is whether three more years of waiting is affordable and worth it. Anyone who can cover the bills from work, savings or a spouse’s income in the meantime is the person for whom the credits do the most good.

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The other side of the choice: claiming early

Delaying is one end of a range. SSA’s page on retirement age and benefit reduction shows that claiming at 62 cuts the check. For someone with a full retirement age of 67, a $1,000 benefit would be reduced to $700, a 30% reduction.

Put side by side, using the same round numbers, the check at 62 is $700, at 67 is $1,000 and at 70 is about $1,240. SSA’s Office of the Chief Actuary says a person can receive his or her largest benefit by retiring at 70, according to its early or delayed retirement table.

What the 8% does not change

Federal regulation backs up the end date. 20 CFR 404.313 counts the credits through the month a person reaches age 70. A worker who holds off past that point gets no further increase.

The credits only apply to the worker’s own retirement benefit, and they only grow while a person waits to start it. Filing at 70 means the larger amount comes for the rest of the person’s life. It does not make up for the years of checks that were not received in the meantime, which is why the break-even age matters.

Starting a check before full retirement age while still working brings in a separate rule, the earnings test, that can temporarily withhold benefits. That rule has its own limits and stops applying at full retirement age.

Full retirement age is not the same for everyone, which changes the starting point. For people born from 1943 through 1954, SSA’s same reduction page shows full retirement age is 66, and a $1,000 benefit claimed at 62 would be reduced to $750, a 25% cut. Someone born in 1960 or later takes the larger 30% cut for the same early claim.

Because the credit builds month by month, a worker does not have to wait the full three years to get some of it. With a full retirement age of 67, starting at 68 adds about 8%, starting at 69 adds about 16% and starting at 70 adds about 24%. On the $1,000 example, those checks would be roughly $1,080, $1,160 and $1,240.

Anyone who decides to wait has a natural stopping point. Because the increases end at 70, a person who has not started benefits by then gains nothing further by waiting. SSA’s actuarial page says that “no credit is given after age 69,” which matches the rule that credits run through the month of the 70th birthday.

That makes 70 the last sensible date to file for those who are able to wait, with the 8% a year earned on the way there. Whether to stop at 67, 68, 69 or 70 depends on health, other income, a spouse’s benefit and how long the household expects to need the check.

Deciding between claiming at 67 and waiting until 70?

Waiting adds 8% a year, but it also means giving up checks in the meantime, and a wrong guess about the break-even age is hard to undo once a claim is filed. For a married couple, the survivor’s check is part of the same decision.

The Social Security Claiming & Family Benefits Kit includes a claiming calculator (Excel) for claiming age, break-even and survivor benefits, along with spousal and survivor sequencing worksheets. Part 3 of the kit is titled The Age Decision: What Waiting Is Worth, and it puts the 62, 67 and 70 numbers side by side.

Get the claiming calculator to test 67 against 70 for a household →

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
• 21 Ways Retirees Can Raise $1,000 Fast Without a Job

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