When you think of retiring, you probably imagine sailing off into the sunset, relaxing on the golf course or the beach, or puttering around your house with plenty of time to enjoy life.
For many, though, retirement looks very different than this. In fact, many seniors find themselves claiming their Social Security retirement benefits and still earning a paycheck. Sometimes this is because they want to; sometimes it's because they need to, since retirement benefits don't stretch far enough to cover all their costs.
The problem is, if you work while collecting Social Security and you haven't yet reached your full retirement age, you could actually end up causing your payments to be reduced or even paused entirely. There are rules in place that determine what happens when you work and collect benefits, and you need to know what those rules are.
You should also be aware that the rules are changing in 2026. Here's what they're likely to look like next year, so you'll know exactly what to expect if you're hoping to both work and collect retirement benefits at the same time.
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Social Security's work rules will look different in 2026
To understand the change to the Social Security work rules that's coming in 2026, you first need to look at what the rules are in 2025.
Currently, if you've reached full retirement age (FRA), you can work as much as you want. However, if you haven't, then you'll forfeit some or all of your Social Security checks if you earn too much from your job. The definition of "too much" depends on whether you'll hit FRA at any point during the year.
If you will not reach your full retirement age in 2025 but you're working and collecting Social Security this year, then you lose $1 in benefits for every $2 you earn above $23,400. This doesn't mean the money is gone forever: Your benefits are recalculated at your full retirement age to account for any income you missed, and your monthly payments increase at that time. But it does mean that some or all of your monthly Social Security payments will disappear temporarily if you work too much.
If you will reach your full retirement age this year, you're still limited in how much you can work before you do. You'll lose $1 in benefits for every $3 earned above $62,160. This rule only applies until you hit FRA, though. Once you do, you can earn as much as you want, and benefits won't be affected at all.
In 2026, the rule that you can work all you want after FRA still holds true -- but the thresholds at which you start to lose benefits if you're under your FRA are changing. The official announcement hasn't been made yet, but based on current projections, the $23,400 limit will jump up to $24,360, and the $62,160 limit will increase to $64,800.
This means that if you won't reach FRA at all, you can earn around $960 more next year, and if you will reach FRA at some point next year, you can earn around $2,640 more without benefits being reduced. That's a significant amount of extra money.
Why is knowing the rules for collecting Social Security important?
Understanding these rules for working while receiving Social Security is important because it can affect your retirement planning process. If you're hoping to limit the amount you have to take out of your 401(k) by double-dipping and collecting Social Security and a paycheck, the work rules could affect your ability to do that.
Unfortunately, many people simply don't have enough saved in their retirement plans to get by without bringing in some kind of income. If that's your situation, you need to think carefully about how your paychecks will affect benefits -- and if you'd just end up losing most of your Social Security checks anyway, you may decide that claiming Social Security before your FRA isn't really worth it.
You may also have to adjust your budget once you discover you can't collect the income you were expecting from both sources. And it's better to know that sooner rather than later, so you can make the best choices to achieve financial security as a senior.
