The Average Social Security Benefit at 62 Vs 70 May Surprise You

Your Social Security filing age might carry more weight than most financial decisions you’ll make in retirement. While you’re eligible to begin collecting benefits as early as age 62, waiting to file could significantly increase your monthly checks.

Now there’s technically no such thing as a “final” age to claim Social Security. But the financial credit you get for waiting goes away once you turn 70, so that’s generally the benchmark financial planners work with.

As you might imagine, there’s a gap between the average monthly Social Security benefit at 62 versus 70. But you may be surprised at how big it is.

What the data says

As of December 2025, the average Social Security benefit at age 62 was $1,424.40. The average benefit at age 70 was $2,274.68.

Now it’s important to note that the $2,274.68 figure does not necessarily reflect people who signed up for Social Security at 70. Rather, it simply tells us what the average 70-year-old collecting benefits received last December versus the average 62-year-old.

But based on this data, there’s about an $850 difference in monthly Social Security income between those getting benefits at 62 versus 70. So that’s something to consider when you set out to make your filing decision.

In fact, if your full retirement age (FRA) for Social Security is 67, claiming benefits at 62 will reduce your monthly checks by 30%. Filing at 70 will increase your monthly checks by 24%. So it’s easy to see why there’s such a huge gap in the numbers above.

Should you claim Social Security at 62, 70, or somewhere in between?

Seeing how much bigger the average Social Security check is at age 70 may have you thinking it pays to put off your claim until then. But one thing the numbers above don’t account for is lifetime income.

If you start benefits at 62, by age 70, you’ll have gotten that money for eight years. If you don’t expect to live a long life, filing for Social Security at 62 could make a lot of sense, as it could result in a larger total lifetime payout from the program.

Now on the flipside, if you have great health and are likely to live well past your early 80s, claiming Social Security at 70 could not only boost your checks monthly, but also result in more lifetime income. But it’s hard to predict your own lifespan. So you should also consider your near-term financial needs.

If you don’t have a lot of money in retirement savings, delaying your claim until age 70, or even for a year or two past FRA, could help make up for that. If you’re sitting on plenty of money in your IRA, filing for Social Security at 62 could make it possible to retire sooner, which may be something you want to do.

You should also remember that if you live an average lifespan, Social Security is designed to pay you roughly the same lifetime total regardless of your filing age. The logic is that more months of checks can make up for an early claim, while larger checks can make for a late one.

The point, therefore, is that you should put a lot of thought into your claiming decision. But if you’re struggling between filing at age 62 versus 70, you may want to meet in the middle. Filing at FRA gives you your monthly benefit without a reduction or a boost, which is a pretty good compromise.

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