Everyone Says Wait to Claim Social Security. Here’s When You Shouldn’t.

If you’ve ever read any advice about claiming Social Security, you’ve probably been told to wait as long as possible before filing. Multiple research studies back this up: claiming at 70 maximizes lifetime income and is the right choice for roughly 90% of retirees.

But 90% is not 100%. Specific circumstances exist where claiming earlier makes more financial sense. Here are the most important ones.

Why waiting to claim is usually the right move

The case for waiting comes down to one fundamental shift: people are living much longer than they did when Social Security was designed. The program was built around a break-even model, where early filers receive more checks at a lower monthly amount, and late filers receive fewer checks at a higher amount, with the math theoretically balancing out at a similar lifetime total. That balance made sense in the mid-20th century. It no longer does.

Today, delaying your claim past your full retirement age (FRA) earns delayed retirement credits worth 8% per year, up to age 70. For anyone born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67, which means waiting until 70 locks in a benefit that is 24% higher than what you would have received at FRA. Because most retirees now live well past their break-even point (typically around age 79 to 81), that larger monthly check pays off substantially over time.

The numbers are striking. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that more than 90% of workers aged 45 to 62 should wait until 70 to claim, yet only 10.2% actually do. The cost of that mismatch is steep: the median household loses $182,370 in lifetime discretionary spending by claiming before age 70. For context, optimizing the claiming decision would raise a typical worker’s lifetime spending by roughly 10.4%.

When claiming early makes sense instead

Waiting pays off for most retirees, but three situations consistently point toward an earlier claim:

• You are single and in poor health. The math of delaying only works if you live long enough to reach your break-even point, which typically falls around age 79 to 81. If a serious health condition makes it unlikely you will reach your early 80s, claiming early allows you to collect benefits while you can. This calculus is different for married couples: even in poor health, the higher-earning spouse can benefit from delaying, because a larger benefit translates directly into a larger survivor benefit for the remaining partner. But for a single person with no dependents and a shortened life expectancy, waiting risks leaving benefits entirely uncollected.
• Claiming your benefit lets your higher-earning spouse wait. Social Security strategy for married couples is genuinely complex. If one spouse earned significantly more over their career, it often makes sense for the lower earner to claim first, bringing in some household income while the higher earner continues to delay. That strategy maximizes the higher earner’s eventual benefit, which in turn maximizes the survivor benefit paid to whichever spouse lives longer. The lower-earning spouse can also potentially switch to a spousal benefit once the higher earner eventually files, which can offset any reduction from claiming early.
• You plan to claim spousal benefits, not your own retirement benefit. Spousal benefits do not accumulate delayed retirement credits. Waiting past your full retirement age provides no additional increase to a spousal benefit, so there is no financial advantage to delaying beyond FRA if spousal benefits are your primary source of Social Security income.

A financial advisor can help determine whether your specific health, marital, and earnings situation points toward an early or delayed claim. For most people the answer remains to wait, but for those in any of the circumstances above, holding off until 70 may cost more than it gains.

Editor’s note: This update added the 2026 full retirement age of 67 for workers born in 1960 or later, the 8% annual delayed retirement credit rate, the NBER finding that only 10.2% of workers actually claim at 70, and the typical break-even age range of 79 to 81 for delayed claiming decisions.

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