Full Retirement Age (FRA)

What Is the Full Retirement Age (FRA)?

The full retirement age (FRA), also known as the “normal retirement age,” is the age at which people can receive full retirement benefits upon leaving the workforce. In the U.S., for example, the FRA for receiving Social Security benefits is 67 years of age for people born in 1960 or after, 66 for people born from 1943 to 1954, and 66 and two, four, six, eight, or 10 months for people born from 1955 to 1959 (the age increases by two months each successive year). Claiming benefits prior to your FRA will reduce your benefit, while claiming after your FRA will increase them by 8% annually, in monthly increments of either 0.6% or 0.7%, with the maximum benefit occurring at age 70.

Understanding Full Retirement Age (FRA)

FRA also applies to pension plans, such as employer-sponsored plans. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) identifies FRA for minimum vesting purposes as “the earlier of (A) the time a plan participant attains normal retirement age under the plan or (B) the later of age 65 or the fifth anniversary of the time a plan participant commenced participation in the plan.”

Public servants, police officers, and military members, for example, typically receive full benefits after a certain number of service years, rather than at a specific age.

In 2021, FRA for Social Security retirement benefits is 66 years and two months for people born in 1955, and it will gradually rise to 67 for those born in 1960 or later. 

Given concerns about the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund, coupled with demographic changes and increases in longevity, there has been talk in conservative circles of making the FRA higher, with Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, proposing such a policy in 2019. That, however, is unlikely to fly in the Biden administration, especially with the House of Representatives in Democratic hands.

The percentage of your full retirement benefit that you will get if you choose to retire at age 62

Full Retirement Age (FRA) Changes

Amendments in 1983 to Social Security included a provision that allowed raising the FRA beginning with people born in 1938 or later. Improvements in the overall health of older people and increased life expectancy prompted the change. The Social Security Administration provides a calculator that will tell an individual their FRA.

If you were born in 1960 or later, your FRA is 67, though you may begin claiming benefits at age 62. Those benefits, however, will be at a reduced sum (70% of the FRA benefit), because you will receive benefits for 60 months longer. At age 65, you will get 86.7% of the full retirement benefit. If you start receiving benefits as a spouse at FRA, you will get half the monthly benefit that your spouse would receive if their benefits started at FRA.

Similarly, you can wait until after FRA to begin collecting benefits and instead collect delayed retirement credits until age 70.

Full Retirement Age (FRA) Around the World

FRA around the world typically falls from 65 to 67 years of age and can vary for men and women. Here are some examples: