# At what age could I collect Social Security benefits frtom 1957 on?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 1, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979 "2018-02-01T20:28:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/1 "2018-02-01T20:28:45Z")
I’ve tried searching several different ways, but the only responses I seem to get are variations of “What are your Social Security benefits if you were born in 1957?”.
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### Author:  [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/2 "2018-02-01T20:40:31Z")
Your question is not clear. Do you mean:
How have full-benefit and partial-retirement ages changed over time since 1957?
What are your full-benefit and partial benefit-ages if you were born in 1957? (The answer to which would presumably be on the page you found).
What age do you have to be to collect a benefit you earned in 1957? (That one’s pretty clear you could do so now unless you were a young child actor or something in 1957).
Something else?
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/3 "2018-02-01T20:41:35Z")
> [@OldGuy](#):
>
> Your question is not clear. Do you mean:
>
> How have full-benefit and partial-retirement ages changed over time since 1957?
>
> What are your full-benefit and partial benefit-ages if you were born in 1957? (The answer to which would presumably be on the page you found).
>
> What age do you have to be to collect a benefit you earned in 1957? (That one’s pretty clear you could do so now unless you were a young child actor or something in 1957).
>
> Something else?
The first.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/4 "2018-02-01T20:49:22Z")
I googled using the term “Social Security retirement age over time,” and got an article from U.S. News, entitled, “[How Social Security Has Changed Over 80 Years](https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/articles/2015/08/10/how-social-security-has-changed-over-80-years),” as the sixth hit.
In it, it says:
> [@](#):
>
> **Changes to the retirement age.** The original age to claim Social Security payments was 65. A 1961 law allowed workers to begin claiming permanently reduced Social Security payments as early as age 62, but they still needed to wait until the full retirement age, 65, to receive the entire payment they qualified for. “Anytime from 62 on you could claim, but the benefit was reduced proportionally to how much earlier you did start to claim,” Palmer says. “Now a majority of people opt to start claiming at 62.” A 1983 law raised the full retirement age to 66 for most baby boomers and 67 for people born in 1960 or later and increased the reduction in monthly payments for people who sign up before their full retirement age. Provisions were also added to increase payments for retirees who delay claiming benefits past their full retirement age up until age 70.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/5 "2018-02-01T20:59:59Z")
Thank you.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/6 "2018-02-01T21:14:18Z")
I searched for “social security retirement age” and got what seems to be the answer, and “social security retirement age history” found a page that states that the only time the age changed was in legislation passed in 1983.
[https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/retirechart.html](https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/retirechart.html)
[https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/background.html](https://www.ssa.gov/planners/retire/background.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Year of Birth \* Full Retirement Age
1937 or earlier 65
1938 65 and 2 months
1939 65 and 4 months
1940 65 and 6 months
1941 65 and 8 months
1942 65 and 10 months
1943–1954 66
1955 66 and 2 months
1956 66 and 4 months
1957 66 and 6 months
1958 66 and 8 months
1959 66 and 10 months
1960 and later 67
\*If you were born on January 1st of any year you should refer to the previous year. (If you were born on the 1st of the month, we figure your benefit (and your full retirement age) as if your birthday was in the previous month.)
[/quote]
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### Author:  [@ZurBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZurBob)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/7 "2018-02-01T22:26:18Z")
As noted above, the list is for the so-called “full retirement” age.
However, it _isn’t_ in reality… Those ages are just arbitrary numbers within the SS retirement range.
One can draw SS benefits starting as early as 62, irrespective of year/month date of birth. The longer one defers benefits, the higher the monthly allocation (up to age 70).
So, at 62 you can draw SS at the minimum rate; at 70 you will draw the maximum possible; and any time between the minimum/maximum, a fraction thereof. It’s fairly linear.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/8 "2018-02-02T00:42:46Z")
> [@ZurBob](#):
>
> As noted above, the list is for the so-called “full retirement” age.
> However, it _isn’t_ in reality… Those ages are just arbitrary numbers within the SS retirement range.
> One can draw SS benefits starting as early as 62, irrespective of year/month date of birth. The longer one defers benefits, the higher the monthly allocation (up to age 70).
> So, at 62 you can draw SS at the minimum rate; at 70 you will draw the maximum possible; and any time between the minimum/maximum, a fraction thereof. It’s fairly linear.
But, from the information kenobi provided, this wasn’t true in 1957, which was the question asked. In 1957, you could claim social security retirement payments from age 65. There was no facility to claim a reduced payment from any younger age
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### Author:  [@ZurBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZurBob)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/at-what-age-could-i-collect-social-security-benefits-frtom-1957-on/807979/9 "2018-02-02T00:57:31Z")
Yep. Forgot about Czarcasm’s clarifying second post.