A worker who has paid the maximum into Social Security every year and retires in January 2027 would collect $5,358 a month by waiting until 70, according to the agency’s Office of the Chief Actuary. The same worker claiming at 62 would get $3,094 a month, a difference of $2,264 every month for life.

Those are the highest checks the program pays on a retirement record, and they show how much the claiming age moves the amount more clearly than any average does.

The three maximum checks for January 2027

The Social Security Administration’s table of maximum retirement benefits lists the 2027 row for three ages. A worker who retires at 62 gets $3,094 a month. At 67, the full retirement age for anyone born in 1960 or later, the figure is $4,188. At 70, it is $5,358.

The $4,188 number also appears in the agency’s 2027 cost-of-living fact sheet, published October 14, which lists the maximum benefit for a worker retiring at full retirement age as $4,152 a month in 2026 and $4,188 in 2027. The same release announced a 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment for 2027.

What the 62-to-70 gap works out to

Subtract $3,094 from $5,358 and the result is $2,264 a month, or $27,168 a year. Put another way, the age-70 check is about 73 percent larger than the age-62 check. Between 62 and full retirement age at 67, the table shows an increase of $1,094 a month, from $3,094 to $4,188. Waiting from 67 to 70 adds another $1,170, to $5,358.

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The table notes that the age-70 retiree is the one who gets the full effect of delayed retirement credits, the extra amount the program adds for each month claiming is put off past full retirement age. The age-62 amount is a reduced benefit, since the table assumes the worker is exactly 62 years and 1 month old when the checks start.

Who actually receives a check like this

Very few retirees do. The SSA table assumes maximum taxable earnings every year since age 22, a record of decades at the top of the wage base. The fact sheet puts the average retired worker’s benefit at $2,170 a month in 2027, up from $2,095 in 2026, which is roughly where most households land.

The pattern still holds at lower earnings. A smaller benefit is reduced by the same share for claiming early and raised by the same share for claiming late, so the maximum table is a map of the tradeoff, not a promise of what any one worker will receive.

The question a person near 62 is facing, whether to claim then or wait until 70, comes down to how long the checks are likely to run and what else the household has to live on in between. A worker who waits to 70 gets nothing from this program for eight years compared with a 62 start, and the larger check has to make up that time before it comes out ahead. The break-even point depends on the person’s own record, so the maximum table gives the shape, not the answer. The agency’s own tables are free at ssa.gov, and a my Social Security account shows the worker’s own estimates at each age.

What the January 2027 figures do not include

The table gives a monthly benefit amount for a worker alone. It does not show what a spouse or a surviving spouse would receive, and those amounts follow their own rules and are tied to the worker’s age at claiming. A married worker who claims at 62 locks in a lower check that can also become the base for a survivor’s benefit later.

Taxes and Medicare premiums come out of the check or the household budget separately, and neither is part of the actuary’s table. The figures are also for a January 2027 start, so a worker who claims in another month or year has a different record, with cost-of-living increases already applied to benefits in pay.

The SSA numbers are fixed by the benefit formula, and the choice between $3,094 and $5,358 for a top earner, or the equivalent shares for anyone else, is the one part of the decision a worker controls.

Claim at 62 or wait to 70: which pays off for one household?

The risk in the 62-or-70 choice is that it is made on one number, the biggest check on the chart, when a household’s own break-even age, a spouse’s benefit and a survivor’s check all pull in different directions. Once a claim is filed, the reduced amount is the base the household lives on.

The Social Security Claiming & Family Benefits Kit includes a claiming calculator (Excel) for claiming age, break-even and survivor benefits, and spousal and survivor sequencing worksheets, so the $3,094 and $5,358 comparison can be run on the household’s own record. The 5-Tab Claiming Calculator is the part that does the arithmetic.

Get the claiming calculator and break-even worksheets for 62 versus 70 →

More Financial Reading

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