Originally, Social Security was designed to provide about the same total payout in lifetime benefits, regardless of when a person began collecting. This concept was intended to ensure fairness, no matter whether someone claimed early or waited until a later age.
Current life expectancy data from the CDC shows that retirees today can maximize their benefits by claiming at a specific age, a fact that wasn’t fully accounted for when the 1983 adjustments were made.
Data from the CDC offers some helpful insights into this calculation. The CDC’s life expectancy tables, updated in November 2023 based on 2022 data, provide estimates of how long retirees can expect to live. For instance, a 62-year-old retiree today can anticipate collecting more from Social Security over their lifetime by delaying their claim well beyond their full retirement age.
By age 65, there’s an even stronger case for waiting, but once someone is approaching 70, it may make sense to consider claiming benefits slightly before reaching that milestone. According to the latest figures, the average 70-year-old has a life expectancy of around 85 years and four months. Based on this data, most people would maximize their lifetime benefits by claiming just before they turn 70.
Social Security Isn’t ‘Going Bankrupt’
In its report, the Social Security trustees also issued separate depletion date projections for the program’s two funds.
The old age and survivors insurance trust fund, which pays benefits to retired workers, their spouses and children and survivors of deceased workers, will be able to pay full benefits until 2033, also one year earlier than reported last year. At that time, 77% of benefits will be payable.
That depletion date is 10 years away — fewer years than projected by the trustees since reforms were implemented in 1983, noted the Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan organization focused on raising awareness of the nation’s fiscal challenges.
