Delayed Retirement Credits: How Much Does Waiting Add?
Delayed retirement credits raise your Social Security retirement benefit by 2/3 of 1% for each month you wait past full retirement age, 8% a year, for anyone born in 1943 or later. They stop at 70. With a full retirement age of 67, waiting to 70 adds 24%, so a $2,000 full benefit becomes $2,480 a month for life. The credits add to your own benefit and carry over to your surviving spouse, but they don’t raise a living spouse’s spousal benefit.
How much you can add by birth year
| Year of birth | Full retirement age | Months of credits to 70 | Most you can add |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1943 to 1954 | 66 | 48 | 32% |
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months | 46 | 30.67% |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months | 44 | 29.33% |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months | 42 | 28% |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months | 40 | 26.67% |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months | 38 | 25.33% |
| 1960 and later | 67 | 36 | 24% |
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The credit rate is the same 8% a year for every birth year from 1943 on; the totals differ only because a later full retirement age leaves fewer months before 70. If you were born on January 1, use the previous year.
The credits aren’t compounded. Three years add 24%, not the 26% that 8% a year compounded would give. Cost-of-living increases are a separate matter: they’re added to your benefit every year from the year you turn 62, whether or not you’ve started, so waiting doesn’t cost you any of them.
How credits are counted
You earn a credit for each month from the month you reach full retirement age until the month you turn 70 in which you’re eligible but not receiving benefits. The months don’t have to be consecutive. You can earn them by not applying, or, if you already started, by asking Social Security to suspend your benefit after full retirement age. The increase is figured on your full benefit, the primary insurance amount, including the cost-of-living increases already added to it.
Starting a few months after full retirement age still counts. Each month adds 2/3 of 1%, so 67 and 4 months pays 102.67% and 68 and 6 months pays 112%.
When the increase shows up
Credits don’t all appear in your first check. Credits from the years before the year you start are included right away; credits earned in the year you start are added the following January. Credits for the year you turn 70 are added in the month you turn 70.
For example, someone born in June 1960 reaches full retirement age in June 2027 and starts benefits at 69, in June 2029, with a $2,000 full benefit. The first check includes the 19 credits from June 2027 through December 2028: $2,253.33. In January 2030, the 5 credits from January to May 2029 are added, bringing it to $2,320, the 116% that 69 should pay.
Don’t ask for back payments when you finally apply. After full retirement age you can choose to have benefits start up to six months before the month you apply, but each month you take back is a month of credits you give up.
Who the credits help, and who they don’t
- Your own retirement benefit: increased for life.
- Your surviving spouse or surviving divorced spouse: their survivor benefit is based on your benefit including all the credits you’d earned, up to the month before your death.
- Your spouse while you’re alive: no effect. A spousal benefit is based on your full benefit without credits, and it stops growing at the spouse’s own full retirement age.
- Children and other family members: no effect, and the family maximum is figured before your credits are added.
If you’re married and the higher earner, the survivor protection is often the main reason to wait. Your spouse inherits the larger check if you die first.
Working and Medicare while you wait
There’s no earnings limit once you reach full retirement age, so you can work any amount and keep earning credits. If a year of work ranks among your highest 35, it also raises the full benefit the credits are figured on.
Delaying Social Security doesn’t delay Medicare. Sign up around 65 to avoid a lifelong Part B penalty; if you’re not getting Social Security yet, you’ll pay the Part B premium directly instead of having it deducted. If you suspend your benefit to earn credits, the Part B premium can’t come out of the suspended checks either.
Is waiting worth it?
Waiting from 67 to 70 gives up three years of checks for a check 24% larger. Before cost-of-living increases, the larger check catches up at about 82 and 6 months, the break-even age for 67 versus 70. Live past that and waiting pays more in total, and the gap widens every year after: by 90, starting at 70 instead of 67 adds up to $43,200 more on a $2,000 full benefit.