Claiming Social Security at 70 Is Not Always the Best Move. What to Weigh First

A family member who is approaching retirement recently mentioned that he intends to wait until age 70 to file for Social Security benefits.

The appeal is easy to understand. Waiting until 70 can increase monthly benefits by about 24% compared with claiming at full retirement age of 67. For anyone focused on bigger checks and larger cost-of-living increases over time, delaying can sound like the obvious choice.

Still, a higher monthly payment does not automatically mean a larger total payout over a lifetime. That distinction matters before deciding to hold off until 70.

Why waiting may not be the right strategy

One often overlooked feature of Social Security is that, for someone who lives an average lifespan, the program is designed to deliver roughly the same lifetime benefit no matter when benefits are claimed. Delaying can raise the monthly amount, but it also means giving up payments that could have started earlier.

If you do not expect to live as long as average, then waiting until 70 may not make sense. Health problems entering retirement, or a family pattern of earlier deaths, can be reasons not to postpone benefits beyond full retirement age.

In some cases, claiming before full retirement age may be the better option. Benefits can begin as early as age 62.

For example, if a person’s full retirement age benefit is $2,000 a month and that person waits three more years to claim at 70, the monthly payment would rise to $2,480.

That trade-off can work well for someone who lives well into their 80s. But if death occurs at 75, the earlier claim comes out ahead. In that case, filing at full retirement age would produce a lifetime benefit of $192,000, while waiting until 70 would result in just $148,800.

Even if someone lives to 81, the earlier filing can still win. In that example, claiming at age 67 produces a lifetime total of $336,000, compared with $327,360 for a claim at 70.

That is why it is smart to run the numbers before assuming that waiting is the best move. In many cases, a person has to live a fairly long time just to break even. If that feels too risky, filing at full retirement age or even earlier could be the better choice.

Your spouse could change the equation

There is another major factor to consider: whether a spouse may depend on Social Security survivor benefits. For the higher earner in a household, waiting until 70 does more than increase personal monthly benefits. It also can leave a larger survivor benefit behind.

If you expect a shorter retirement, you may lean toward claiming sooner. But if your spouse is in excellent health and comes from a family with long-lived parents, delaying could still make sense because it would increase the survivor benefit available later.

In the end, claiming Social Security is a personal decision, and there is no single filing age that is right for everyone. What matters is not assuming that waiting until 70 is automatically the best answer. The risks of delaying should be understood first, and you should be comfortable with them before making a choice.