Full Retirement Age For Social Security Benefits Changed—One Expert Explains the Shift

For many years, 65 was the age at which you were able to retire and start taking full Social Security benefits, but a law passed in 1983 changed that for some beneficiaries.

The full retirement age (FRA) for Social Security benefits rose this year under amendments to the program designed to stretch its funding. Retirees born in 1960 or later can only receive their full Social Security benefits at age 67. Workers who can continue for three more years until age 70 will receive increased benefits for those additional years they work.

Investopedia asked Maria Freese, senior legislative representative at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, about the rising FRA and how it affects retirees. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

INVESTOPEDIA: Why did the FRA increase this year?

MARIA FREESE: The increase in the retirement age was part of the last major set of amendments that were enacted by Congress back in 1983. They were very close to not having enough money to pay full benefits. So they came up with a bipartisan compromise piece of legislation that would have increased taxes that went into the program and also included some benefit cuts. The increase in the retirement age was one of the benefit cuts that was included in that legislation.

It was stretched out over a very long period of time so that people would have time to plan for it. In fact, it was done in two increments. The age went from 65 to 66 over a period of about five years, and then there was a hiatus of almost 10 years, and then it started going back up again until it got to age 67, and that’s where it is right now.

INVESTOPEDIA: What happens to individuals who created their retirement plan with the idea that they could fully retire at 65, but when they retired, that age was two years later?

FREESE: Well, I think most people try to work as long as they can, if they’re healthy enough to do their jobs, and if the jobs are there for them.

What people will frequently find is that no matter what they had planned or thought they were going to be able to do, health issues forced them into retiring earlier than they had intended when they were younger, and that means they end up having to claim Social Security because they don’t have enough savings or other sources of income to be able to replace them.

That’s unfortunate because what that basically means is they will have less money to retire on than they thought they were going to. So it ends up being one of those situations where they really are dependent on the Social Security benefits. 

A significant portion of people are dependent on their Social Security benefits for all or most of their income. So, when you have situations like that, you really don’t have a lot of flexibility.

We find a lot of our members, for example, are doing things like not renewing their prescriptions or splitting pills in half in order to be able to afford them, doing a lot of other things to try to cut their expenses, because they are dependent on their social security benefits for all or most of their income.

INVESTOPEDIA: The full retirement age will now stop increasing for individuals born in 1960 or after. Do you think the full retirement age will be raised in the future?

FREESE: It’s not going to go up unless Congress passes legislation that increases the retirement age, which is what the Republicans have been pushing for a number of years—to increase the retirement age either to age 70 or to tie it to life expectancy generally.