Americans Born in 1960 Reach Social Security’s Full Retirement Age of 67 in 2027, the First Group to Hit That Threshold

Americans born in 1960 turned 66 this year, an age that used to mark the finish line for a full Social Security check. For them, it does not. Under the Social Security Administration’s retirement age table, anyone born in 1960 or later has a full retirement age of 67, which the 1960 group reaches in 2027.

That makes them the first birth year to hit the top of a schedule Congress wrote more than four decades ago. Every group before them had a full retirement age below 67.

How the Retirement Age Climbed From 65 to 67

For decades, 65 was the age for an unreduced retirement benefit. That changed with the 1983 Social Security Amendments, which grew out of the report of the National Commission on Social Security Reform, often called the Greenspan Commission. The agency’s history office says the commission’s January 1983 report “became the basis for the 1983 Social Security Amendments,” which resolved the program’s short-term financing problem and changed much of the law.

Actuary Bruce D. Schobel laid out the result in an Oct. 14 newsletter article for the Society of Actuaries. The normal retirement age was 65 for workers born before 1938, he wrote, then rose gradually under the 1983 schedule “until it reached 67 for workers born after 1959.” Those workers first became eligible for retirement benefits in 2022, when the oldest of them turned 62.

The agency’s table shows the steps along the way:

• Born 1937 or earlier: 65
• Born 1938 through 1942: rising two months a year, from 65 and 2 months to 65 and 10 months
• Born 1943 through 1954: 66
• Born 1955 through 1959: rising two months a year, from 66 and 2 months to 66 and 10 months
• Born 1960 and later: 67

One quirk applies to birthdays on New Year’s Day. The agency says people born on Jan. 1 should use the full retirement age for the previous year, so someone born Jan. 1, 1960 follows the 1959 rule of 66 and 10 months.

The two-year jump from 65 to 67 played out slowly. Workers born in 1943 through 1954 spent a dozen birth years at 66 before the second round of two-month steps began with the 1955 group. The 1960 group is where those steps end, and no later birth year has a higher full retirement age under current law.

What Claiming at 62 Now Costs

The higher full retirement age makes early claiming more expensive. Because there are 60 months between age 62 and 67, the agency’s reduction calculator shows a 30% cut for anyone born in 1960 or later who starts benefits at 62.

The agency’s own example puts it in dollars. A $1,000 monthly benefit at full retirement age becomes $700 when claimed at 62. For a spouse’s benefit, the cut is steeper: a $500 spousal benefit falls to $325 at 62, a 35% reduction.

The size of that cut is why the timing question weighs so heavily for this group, a trade-off examined in the site’s look at why more Americans claim at 62.

What Waiting Past 67 Adds

The reward for waiting runs in the other direction. For anyone born in 1943 or later, Social Security adds delayed retirement credits of 8% a year, or two-thirds of 1% for each month benefits are put off past full retirement age. The credits stop at 70.

For the 1960 group, that means three years of credits between 67 and 70, which works out to 24% above the full benefit. Using the agency’s $1,000 example, the same worker would collect $700 a month at 62, $1,000 at 67 or $1,240 at 70.

Delaying does not mean waiting on everything. The agency adds one caution for people who hold off: Medicare eligibility still starts at 65. Its delayed-credits page tells people to sign up for Medicare at 65 even if they hold off on retirement benefits, because waiting can delay Medicare coverage and cost more.

Working While Collecting, Before and After 67

Full retirement age also controls the earnings test for people who work while collecting benefits. Schobel noted that before full retirement age, beneficiaries face an annual exempt amount that rises from $24,480 in 2026 to $25,560 in 2027, with a special monthly test in the year a person reaches full retirement age. The 2027 figure is detailed in the site’s report on the new earnings limit.

Once a person reaches full retirement age, the limit disappears. Since January 2000, Schobel wrote, people at or past that age can earn any amount without benefit reductions, starting with the month they reach it. For the 1960 group, that month arrives in 2027.

Extra work can still help. Schobel noted that additional covered earnings can raise a benefit through Social Security’s annual recomputations, but cannot lower it.

For people born in 1960, the practical calendar is simple: 67 in 2027 for a full benefit, any time from 62 for a reduced one, and up to 70 for the largest monthly check the agency pays on their record. The agency’s retirement age table, reduction calculator and delayed-credit rules are all posted on ssa.gov.

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

Image: National Trails Office (US National Park Service) – Public domain/Wikimedia Commons