Social Security Retirement Age Rising: What It Means For You In NH

NEW HAMPSHIRE — Social Security applicants will face a growing retirement age beginning in 2025.

For many decades, the age at which workers became eligible for 100 percent of their retirement benefits was 65. But in 1983, that threshold was adjusted to raise the age to match the growing expected lifespan incrementally.

While those aged 62 can already begin collecting some retirement benefits, taxpayers cannot receive 100 percent of their lifetime earnings until they reach full retirement age, which has gradually increased by two months each year since 1983.

For individuals born in 1958, it is 66 years and 8 months. By 2025, it will reach 67 years for those born in 1960 or later. Full retirement benefits and eligibility details can be found here on the Social Security Administration website.

Those who don't apply for benefits until after reaching full retirement age can also receive backpay or delayed retirement credits that increase their monthly payments.

But the retirement age isn't the only change for Social Security. A modest 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment will also take effect, boosting retirement benefits by about $50 a month beginning in January, according to the SSA. The adjustment is based on inflation, as reported by the Consumer Price Index.

According to the SSA, nearly 24 percent of New Hampshire residents collected Social Security benefits in 2023.