Social Security

Full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which you are eligible to receive the full amount of Social Security benefits. Your FRA depends on the day and year you were born.

Normal retirement age is a standard term for the age at which you can retire and receive your full retirement income. In the U.S., this primarily relates to your Social Security benefits.

Your Social Security retirement eligibility age is the age you can start collecting Social Security. The amount you receive varies depending on several factors. For example, the earliest age you can collect your Social Security retirement benefits is 62, but there is an exception for widows and widowers—they can begin benefits as early as 60. The earlier you collect, the less you will get in benefits.

If you take Social Security benefits before you reach your full retirement age, and you earn an annual income in excess of the income limit for that year, your monthly Social Security benefit will be reduced for the remainder of the year in which you exceed the limit. If you will reach full retirement age during that same year, it will be reduced every month until you reach full retirement age.

When a person dies, their current or former spouse can often start getting their Social Security benefits. Even if no one has died, you can collect a Social Security spousal benefit based on your current or former spouse's benefits. This amount will be equal to half of what your spouse gets if that’s higher than what you’d get on your own.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) pays two types of payments to eligible surviving spouses and children. These are known as survivor benefits. Other relatives of insured workers can also receive these payments. The benefits survivors might receive are an ongoing monthly survivor income and a lump-sum death benefit of $255.

Waiting to apply for Social Security benefits allows you to accumulate delayed retirement credits, which are permanent increases in your benefits worth 5% to 8% per year up until your age 70. The amount of the delayed retirement credit depends on the year you were born.

A cost of living adjustment (COLA) is a change in the amount of your Social Security benefit payment that is made to reflect an annual increase in consumer prices.

A restricted application tells the Social Security office that you are not applying for all benefits that you are eligible for at the same time. You might be eligible to use a restricted application to claim a spousal benefit while letting your benefit continue to grow. Spouses are able to restrict their benefits when they are caring for a child under the age of 16.

The Government Pension Offset (GPO) is a Social Security rule that affects workers with government pensions who also receive Social Security spousal or survivor benefits. That is, it applies when a public sector worker opts to claim the benefits earned by their private sector spouse, and then applies to receive those monthly payments. The offset in the rule will reduce the amount of their monthly payment by two-thirds.