Here's the Average Social Security Benefit for Retirees at Age 70

The Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), conducted annually by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, assesses how confident workers and retirees are in their ability to live comfortably in retirement. The 2023 RCS showed the biggest drop in confidence since the Great Recession, and the primary culprit was financial hardship caused by inflation.

A bigger Social Security benefit can lessen financial hardships in retirement, and one way to score a bigger benefit is to delay Social Security. Workers are entitled to retirement benefits at age 62, but the payout increases for each month they delay, up to age 70.

Read on to see the average Social Security benefit for retirees at age 70 and to learn exactly how claiming age impacts Social Security payouts.

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The average Social Security benefit for retirees at age 70

The Social Security Administration regularly publishes anonymized benefit data to promote transparency and improve public understanding. The chart below pulls information from a biannual report, and it shows the average monthly Social Security benefit paid to retired workers aged 62 to 70 in June 2023.

Source: Social Security Administration. Note: Payments have been rounded to the nearest dollar.

The average retired-worker benefit at age 70 was $1,970 per month in June 2023, nearly $700 more than the average retired-worker benefit at age 62. Differences in claiming age are the primary reason for that discrepancy.

To clarify, not all retirees in the 70-year-old group claimed Social Security at age 70. Some certainly did, but most claimed at an earlier age. However, we know for certain that every retiree in the 62-year-old group did claim at age 62 simply because Social Security cannot start any earlier.

Let's take a closer look at exactly how claiming age impacts benefit payments.

The nuts and bolts of Social Security benefits

Social Security benefits are determined based on lifetime earnings and claiming age. Those variables come together in a two-step process to determine how much income a retired worker receives from the Social Security program, as detailed below:

Step 1: The first step is determining the primary insurance amount (PIA). The Social Security benefits formula is applied to the average, inflation-adjusted income from the 35 highest-paid years of work to determine the PIA. The PIA is the benefit a worker would receive if they claimed Social Security at full retirement age (FRA).

Step 2: The second step is adjusting the PIA for early or delayed retirement. Retired workers who claim Social Security before FRA get a permanently reduced benefit, meaning less than 100% of their PIA. Conversely, retired workers who claim Social Security after FRA get a permanently increased benefit, meaning more than 100% of their PIA. As a reminder, delayed retirement credits stop at age 70, so no one should ever claim Social Security later than age 70.

The chart below details the extent to which early and delayed retirement impacts Social Security payouts. Specifically, it shows retired workers the portion of their PIA they would get at different claiming ages.

Chart by Author.

As shown above, delaying Social Security can have a profound impact on payouts. Consider a worker born in 1960 with a PIA of $1,500. Their benefit would be $1,050 per month (70% of their PIA) if they claimed Social Security at age 62. But their benefit would be $1,860 per month (124% of their PIA) if they claimed at age 70.

Here's the bottom line: Retired workers born in 1960 or later can increase their benefit by 77% by claiming Social Security at age 70 rather than age 62. That additional income could go a long way in alleviating financial hardships in retirement.