Social Security benefits: how they work

Key points

You qualify for a retirement benefit with 40 Social Security credits, about 10 years of work. The amount comes from your highest 35 years of earnings, adjusted for wage growth.
You can start at any age from 62. With a full retirement age of 67, starting at 62 pays 70% of your full benefit and waiting until 70 pays 124%, the most. The cut for starting early is permanent.
A spouse can get up to 50% of the worker’s full benefit. A widow or widower at full retirement age generally gets 100% of the worker’s benefit, including any delayed credits.
Benefits rise 3.6% in January 2027, and up to 85% of them can be taxable. The 2026 Trustees Report projects that once the reserves of the trust fund for retirement and survivor benefits run out in late 2032, incoming taxes would cover 78% of scheduled benefits, if Congress does nothing.

Social Security pays monthly benefits to people who paid Social Security tax long enough, and to their spouses, former spouses, children and survivors. Nearly 72 million people get them, according to the Social Security Administration (SSA).

This guide covers the whole system briefly and links to deeper guides on each question. It covers federal rules, not state income tax.

We checked every rule and figure on October 27, 2026 against SSA’s publications, actuarial pages and operations manual, the Social Security Act and regulations (20 CFR part 404), the tax code, IRS Publication 915, Public Law 118-273, the 2026 Trustees Report and Medicare.gov. They are listed at the end. To run your own numbers, use our Social Security calculator.

Social Security is paid for mainly by payroll tax. Employees pay 6.2% of wages up to a yearly cap, and employers pay the same. The cap is $184,500 for 2026 and $192,300 for 2027. Self-employed people pay 12.4%. So in 2027 a worker earning $192,300 or more pays $11,922.60, and the employer pays the same.

Paying it earns credits toward benefits for you and your family. The main monthly benefits are:

Retirement benefits on your own work record, from 62.
Spouse and divorced spouse benefits, up to half of the worker’s full benefit.
Survivor benefits for a widow or widower, children and dependent parents.
Disability benefits for workers who cannot work because of health problems. SSA says the amount “is the same as a full, unreduced retirement benefit,” and it becomes a retirement benefit at full retirement age.

Social Security replaces part of your pay: SSA estimates that a benefit started at 67 replaces about 42% of a medium earner’s average wages, as much as 78% for very low earners and about 28% for high earners.

Your earnings record and benefit estimates are in a personal “my Social Security” account at ssa.gov/myaccount, where you can “see the effects of different ages to begin receiving retirement benefits.”

You need 40 credits to qualify for retirement benefits on your own record. That is 10 years of work at the maximum of four credits a year.

A credit is a set amount of covered earnings (wages or net self-employment income). The amount rises each year:

Year	Earnings for one credit	Earnings for the maximum four
2026	$1,890	$7,560
2027	$1,970	$7,880

You can earn at most four credits a year, however much you earn. Credits stay on your record if you stop working, and SSA adds new ones if you go back.

Credits decide only whether you qualify. In SSA’s words: “The number of credits does not affect the amount of benefits you receive.” Your earnings set the amount.

Work that did not pay Social Security tax, such as some state and local government jobs, earns no credits. More in our guide to Social Security credits.

SSA first works out one number: your primary insurance amount (PIA). That is your monthly benefit if you start at your full retirement age. Early and late claiming, spouse benefits and survivor benefits are all percentages of it.

Index your earnings. Each year’s earnings, up to that year’s taxable maximum, are adjusted for the growth in average wages up to your indexing year. That is the second year before the year you turn 62, so the year you turn 60. Earnings from then on count at face value.
Take your highest 35 years. SSA adds your 35 highest indexed years and divides by the months in them (420). If you worked fewer than 35 years, the missing years count as zero. The result, rounded down to the dollar, is your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME).
Apply the formula. Your PIA is 90% of the first slice of your AIME, plus 32% of the middle slice, plus 15% of the rest. The dividing lines, called bend points, depend on the year you turn 62.

Year you turn 62	90% of AIME up to	32% of AIME from there to	15% of AIME above
2026	$1,286	$7,749	$7,749
2027	$1,340	$8,077	$8,077

The PIA is rounded down to the next 10 cents. From December of the year you turn 62, it also gets each year’s cost-of-living increase, whether or not you have started benefits.

Example. You turn 62 in 2027 (born in 1965) and your AIME is $6,000. Your PIA is:

90% of the first $1,340: $1,206.00
32% of the next $4,660 (from $1,340 to $6,000): $1,491.20
nothing at 15%, because $6,000 is below $8,077

PIA: $2,697.20 a month, before cost-of-living increases from December 2027 on. The first dollars of AIME are replaced at 90% and the last at 15%, so the formula replaces a larger share of pay for lower earners.

Two related figures:

The maximum benefit for a worker retiring at full retirement age is $4,152 a month in 2026 and $4,188 in 2027. SSA’s worked example of a top earner assumes maximum-taxable earnings in every year since age 22. See the maximum Social Security benefit.
The average retired worker gets an estimated $2,095 a month before the 2027 increase and $2,170 after it. See the average Social Security check.

The full method, step by step, is in how Social Security is calculated.

Full retirement age by birth year

Your full retirement age is when you can get 100% of your PIA. For anyone born in 1943 or later it is between 66 and 67.

Year of birth	Full retirement age
1943 to 1954	66
1955	66 and 2 months
1956	66 and 4 months
1957	66 and 6 months
1958	66 and 8 months
1959	66 and 10 months
1960 and later	67

Two quirks. If you were born on January 1, use the previous year. And if you were born on the 1st of any month, SSA figures your benefit as if your birthday were in the month before.

Survivor benefits use a different full retirement age: 66 for survivors born from 1945 to 1956, rising to 67 for those born in 1962 or later. More in our guide to full retirement age.

Claiming at 62, 67 or 70: how much you get at each age

You can start retirement benefits in any month from 62 on. Starting before full retirement age cuts the benefit. Starting after it adds delayed retirement credits, up to 70; waiting past 70 adds nothing more.

Early: the cut is 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before full retirement age and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that. The Social Security Handbook is plain about it: “This reduction is permanent.”
Late: for anyone born in 1943 or later, each month you wait past full retirement age adds 2/3 of 1%, which is 8% a year.

With a full retirement age of 67 (born in 1960 or later), the percentages are:

Start at	Your own benefit, % of your PIA	Spouse benefit, % of the worker’s PIA
62	70%	32.5%
63	75%	35%
64	80%	37.5%
65	86.7%	41.7%
66	93.3%	45.8%
67	100%	50%
68	108%	50%
69	116%	50%
70	124%	50%

The spouse column goes by the spouse’s own age when the spouse benefit starts. Spouse benefits earn no delayed credits, so they stop growing at full retirement age.

Two timing rules. You must be 62 for the whole month to get a benefit for that month, so a start at 62 pays exactly 70% only if you were born on the 2nd of a month; for anyone else the first month at 62 is one month closer to full retirement age, with a slightly smaller cut. And if you start after full retirement age but before 70, the credits earned in the year you start are added the following January.

Example. You were born on March 2, 1965, so your full retirement age is 67, and your PIA is $2,000. In today’s dollars your monthly check would be:

$1,400 starting at 62
$2,000 starting at 67
$2,480 starting at 70

Run these numbers in the calculator.

Waiting means fewer checks, but bigger ones. The break-even age is when the total from waiting catches up with the total from starting earlier. Here, starting at 67 instead of 62 catches up at 78 and 8 months. Starting at 70 instead of 67 catches up at 82 and 6 months. Counting every check up to age 85, the totals are $386,400 starting at 62, $432,000 at 67 and $446,400 at 70. These totals add the checks; they leave out cost-of-living increases, taxes and any return on checks you save.

A break-even age means something only next to how long you might live. Our life expectancy calculator uses Social Security’s own period life table.

Deeper guides: Social Security at 62, how much Social Security you get at 65, delaying Social Security, the break-even age and claiming strategies.

Spousal benefits: up to half of your spouse’s full benefit

A husband or wife can get a benefit on the other’s record of up to 50% of the worker’s PIA. In general:

the worker has filed for their own benefit
the spouse is 62 or older, or any age while caring for the worker’s child who is under 16 or disabled and gets benefits on the worker’s record
the marriage has lasted at least a year, with some exceptions.

If it starts before the spouse’s own full retirement age, the spouse benefit is cut, to as little as 32.5% of the worker’s PIA at 62 when full retirement age is 67 (see the table above).

The spouse benefit is not added in full on top of the spouse’s own benefit. SSA pays your own retirement benefit first. If half the worker’s PIA is more than your own PIA, it adds the difference, which SSA’s manual calls the excess spouse’s benefit. Each part is cut for age on its own: your own benefit for the month you started it, the excess only for months it is paid before your full retirement age. An early cut to your own benefit stays, so the total can end up below the full spouse amount (third case below).

Deemed filing. If you were born on or after January 2, 1954 and qualify for both your own benefit and a spouse benefit, applying for one counts as applying for both. You cannot take one and leave the other to grow.

The worker’s delayed credits do not raise a spouse benefit. The cap stays at half the worker’s PIA, not half of a larger check earned by waiting. (They do raise a survivor benefit; see below.)

Example. You were born on March 2, 1965 with a PIA of $2,400. Your spouse, born on September 2, 1965, has a PIA of $700 of their own. Both full retirement ages are 67.

Both start at 67. You get $2,400. Your spouse gets their own $700 plus $500 on your record, $1,200 in all. Household: $3,600 a month.
You wait until 70; your spouse starts at 67. You get $2,976 from 70. Your spouse gets $700 from 67 and the $1,200 total only from when you claim at 70. Household from then on: $4,176 a month.
You wait until 70; your spouse started their own benefit at 62. Your spouse’s own check is $490 (70% of $700). The $500 excess is added in full from when you claim, because your spouse is past full retirement age by then, but the early cut stays: $990 a month, not $1,200.

Run this couple in the calculator, then change your claiming age to 67 to see the first case, or your spouse’s to 62 to see the third.

A family as a whole has a limit, the family maximum. Social Security says it varies between 150% and 180% of the worker’s benefit. If the spouse and children are due more, their benefits are reduced; the worker’s is not. More in Social Security spousal benefits.

Divorced spouse benefits

You can get a spouse benefit on a former husband’s or wife’s record if:

the marriage lasted at least 10 years before the divorce became final
you are not married now
you are 62 or older
your own PIA is less than half of your ex’s PIA, the full spouse benefit.

Your ex does not have to have claimed, as long as you have been divorced for at least 2 years and your ex is at least 62 and has the work credits to qualify for retirement benefits.

Your benefit does not reduce what your ex or your ex’s current spouse gets. The deemed filing rule applies to divorced spouses too. More in divorced spouse Social Security.

Survivor benefits

When a worker dies, a widow or widower can get:

generally 100% of the worker’s benefit at the survivor’s own full retirement age (66 to 67)
71.5% at 60, the earliest age, rising for each month the survivor waits
reduced benefits from 50 if the survivor is disabled
75% at any age while caring for the worker’s child who is under 16 or disabled.

The survivor benefit is figured from the worker’s benefit. If the worker waited past full retirement age, the delayed credits carry over to the survivor. If the worker started early, the survivor benefit is limited to the larger of what the worker was getting or 82.5% of the worker’s PIA.

Example. Take the couple above. If you waited until 70 and then died, your spouse, at full retirement age, would get $2,976 a month in place of their $1,200; the survivor note under the couple link above shows it. If you had started at 62 with $1,680, your spouse at full retirement age would get $1,980, which is 82.5% of your $2,400 PIA, because that is larger than your check. Run the start at 62 in the calculator: its survivor note shows the $1,980.

Other survivor rules:

One benefit, not two. If you qualify for a survivor benefit and your own retirement benefit, SSA pays one, not both added together. You can switch later: for example, take the survivor benefit first and switch to your own at 70. Deemed filing does not apply to survivor benefits.
Marriage length. Generally at least 9 months before the death. A surviving divorced spouse needs a marriage of at least 10 years.
Remarriage. Remarrying before 60 (50 if disabled) usually ends eligibility. Remarrying after that age does not.
A one-time $255 payment can go to a surviving spouse or child who meets SSA’s rules and applies within 2 years of the death.

More in Social Security survivor benefits.

Working while collecting: the earnings limit

If you start benefits before full retirement age and keep working, SSA holds back benefits when your earnings pass a yearly limit. This is the retirement earnings test.

When	2026 limit	2027 limit	Benefits withheld
Under full retirement age all year	$24,480	$25,560	$1 for every $2 over
Year you reach full retirement age, months before it	$65,160	$67,920	$1 for every $3 over
From the month you reach full retirement age	None	None	None

Only wages and net self-employment income count. Pensions, investment earnings, interest, annuities and capital gains do not.

Example. You turn 64 in 2027 (under full retirement age all year). Your benefit is $1,500 a month and you earn $35,560. That is $10,000 over the $25,560 limit, so SSA withholds $5,000. It does this by holding back whole checks from the start of the year, here the first four ($6,000), and paying the $1,000 it held back beyond the $5,000 the next year, the way SSA’s own example works.

The $5,000 is not refunded, but it is not lost: at full retirement age SSA raises your monthly benefit to account for the months it held back. And in one year, usually your first year of retirement, a monthly rule pays a full check for any month you earn no more than a monthly limit, whatever your earnings for the year. For people under full retirement age all year, that limit is $2,040 a month in 2026 and $2,130 in 2027.

More in the Social Security earnings limit. From full retirement age to 70 you can also pause your benefits to earn delayed credits; see suspending Social Security.

Up to 85% of your benefits can be subject to federal income tax. Whether any part is depends on a figure SSA calls combined income and SSA’s researchers call provisional income:

Provisional income = your other income + tax-exempt interest + half of your Social Security benefits

Filing status	Up to 50% taxable above	Up to 85% taxable above
Single, head of household or qualifying surviving spouse	$25,000	$34,000
Married filing jointly	$32,000	$44,000
Married filing separately, lived with your spouse at any time in the year	$0	$0

Married people filing separately who lived apart all year use the single amounts. The thresholds are written into the tax code and are not adjusted for inflation; the Trustees note they “have never been changed.” SSA says about 40% of people who get Social Security pay income tax on their benefits.

Example. A single filer gets $30,000 of Social Security and has $25,000 of other income. Provisional income is $25,000 plus $15,000, or $40,000, which is over $34,000. Following the Publication 915 worksheet, $9,600 of the benefits is taxable: $4,500 from the 50% tier plus $5,100, which is 85% of the $6,000 above $34,000. That is 32% of the benefits. The other $20,400 is tax-free. The $9,600 goes into gross income and is taxed like other ordinary income.

You can have federal tax withheld from each check at 7%, 10%, 12% or 22% (IRS Form W-4V), or pay estimated tax instead.

For 2025 through 2028, people 65 and older can also take a new deduction of $6,000 each, phasing out above modified adjusted gross income of $75,000 ($150,000 for joint filers). It is a deduction, not a change to the test above: Publication 915 for 2025 returns keeps the same $25,000 and $32,000 base amounts.

Taxable withdrawals from IRAs and 401(k)s count as other income, so a required minimum distribution can make more of your benefits taxable; see how RMDs are taxed. Deeper guides: is Social Security taxable? and provisional income.

Benefits rise each year with a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). For 2027 it is 3.6%, after 2.8% for 2026. It starts with the December 2026 benefit, which is paid in January 2027.

The COLA is the rise in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of the last year with a COLA to the third quarter of this year, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent. For 2027 the average went from 317.265 in the third quarter of 2025 to 328.746 in the third quarter of 2026: a 3.6% rise.

On a $2,000 check, 3.6% adds $72, to $2,072. SSA estimates the average retirement benefit rises by $75 a month, from $2,095 to $2,170.

If you have Medicare Part B, the premium is generally deducted from your Social Security check, so the raise you see is the COLA minus any increase in the premium. The 2027 Part B premium had not been published on October 27, 2026; SSA says the 2027 amount will be in the “my Social Security” Message Center starting in late November.

Trust fund	Reserves projected to run out	Share of scheduled benefits payable then	Share by 2100
Retirement and survivors (OASI)	Fourth quarter of 2032	78%	62%
Retirement, survivors and disability combined (OASDI)	Third quarter of 2034	83%	65%

Date of birth	Paid on
1st to 10th	Second Wednesday of the month
11th to 20th	Third Wednesday
21st to 31st	Fourth Wednesday

Item	2026	2027
Cost-of-living adjustment	2.8%	3.6%
Taxable maximum earnings	$184,500	$192,300
Earnings for one credit	$1,890	$1,970
Earnings limit, under full retirement age	$24,480	$25,560
Earnings limit, year you reach full retirement age	$65,160	$67,920
Maximum benefit at full retirement age	$4,152	$4,188
Bend points, by the year you turn 62	$1,286 and $7,749	$1,340 and $8,077

About this guide

Written by the Diversify Guy editorial desk. Diversify Guy is a pen name. It is the byline of our editorial team, not a single individual. We do not publish personal trading records or claim to be your adviser. We tell you where every figure came from so you can check it yourself. How we work and how we get paid.

This guide explains federal rules. It is not personalized tax, legal or financial advice. Diversify Guy earns affiliate commissions and advertising fees from companies featured elsewhere on the site. This page carries no ads and no affiliate links.

Sources and check dates

All sources were fetched and checked on October 27, 2026.

SSA, Retirement Benefits (Publication No. 05-10035, January 2026): https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10035.pdf
SSA, How You Earn Credits (Publication No. 05-10072): https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10072.pdf and Social Security credits: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/credits.html
SSA, Survivors Benefits (Publication No. 05-10084): https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10084.pdf and What you could get from Survivor benefits: https://www.ssa.gov/survivor/amount
SSA, How Work Affects Your Benefits (Publication No. 05-10069, 2026): https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10069.pdf
SSA, Schedule of Social Security Benefit Payments 2027 (Publication No. 05-10031): https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10031-2027.pdf
SSA, 2027 COLA fact sheet: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/cola/factsheets/2027.html and 2026 COLA fact sheet: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/cola/factsheets/2026.html
SSA press release, October 14, 2026, Social Security Announces 3.6 Percent Benefit Increase for 2027: https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2026-10-14.html
SSA Office of the Chief Actuary: latest COLA https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/latestCOLA.html, PIA formula https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/piaformula.html, bend points https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/bendpoints.html, benefit formula https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/Benefits.html, quarter of coverage https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/QC.html, taxable maximum https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/cbb.html, earnings test https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/rtea.html, normal retirement age https://www.ssa.gov/oact/progdata/nra.html, claiming-age percentages https://www.ssa.gov/oact/ProgData/ar_drc.html
SSA Benefits Planner: early https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html, delayed https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/delayret.html, filing rules https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/claiming.html, suspension https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/suspend.html
SSA, What you could get from Family benefits: https://www.ssa.gov/family/amount
SSA blog, Do You Qualify for Social Security Spouse’s Benefits?, July 11, 2024: https://www.ssa.gov/blog/en/posts/2024-07-11.html
SSA, Social Security Fairness Act: WEP and GPO update, last updated July 21, 2025: https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/social-security-fairness-act.html
SSA, Request to withhold taxes: https://www.ssa.gov/manage-benefits/request-withhold-taxes and Cancel your benefits application: https://www.ssa.gov/manage-benefits/cancel-your-benefits-application
Social Security Handbook, section 724 (basic reduction formulas): https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.07/handbook-0724.html and section 723 (reduced benefits continue after full retirement age): https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.07/handbook-0723.html
SSA Program Operations Manual System (POMS) RS 00615.010, reduction of the excess spouse’s benefit: https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0300615010 and RS 00615.020, dual entitlement (Method C): https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0300615020
SSA, What You Need to Know When You Get Retirement or Survivors Benefits (Publication No. 05-10077, January 2026): https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10077.pdf
20 CFR 404.143 (credits), 404.211 (indexing and computation years), 404.271 (cost-of-living increases), 404.310, 404.313 (delayed retirement credits), 404.330, 404.331 and 404.333 (spouse and divorced spouse), 404.335, 404.338 and 404.339 (widow’s and widower’s benefits; mother’s and father’s benefits), 404.410 (reductions), eCFR, title 20 up to date as of October 23, 2026: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/part-404
SSA, Benefits Planner, Benefit reduction for early retirement (quick calculator table): https://www.ssa.gov/oact/quickcalc/earlyretire.html
Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 57, No. 2 (1994), Taxation of Social Security Benefits Under the New Income Tax Provisions: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v57n2/v57n2p44.pdf
SSA, View benefit payment schedule: https://www.ssa.gov/manage-benefits/view-benefit-payment-schedule
Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, Public Law 118-273, 138 Stat. 3232, approved January 5, 2025: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-118publ273/html/PLAW-118publ273.htm
Internal Revenue Code section 86 (taxation of benefits), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapB-partII-sec86.htm
Social Security Act section 1840 (Part B premiums deducted from benefits): https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title18/1840.htm
Medicare.gov, Medicare costs (2026 Part B premium; no 2027 amount on October 27, 2026): https://www.medicare.gov/basics/costs/medicare-costs
IRS Publication 915 (2025), Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf
IRS fact sheet, Working Families Tax Cuts: Tax deductions for working Americans and seniors: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/working-families-tax-cuts-tax-deductions-for-working-americans-and-seniors
The 2026 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TR/2026/tr2026.pdf
Our Social Security calculator, run on October 27, 2026 for the linked examples: /calculators/social-security-calculator/

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Gold IRA fees

Before you retire

At retirement

In retirement

Gold and silver

How we rate

Social Security benefits: how they work, what you get and when to claim

Full retirement age by birth year

Claiming at 62, 67 or 70: how much you get at each age

Spousal benefits: up to half of your spouse’s full benefit

Divorced spouse benefits

Survivor benefits

Working while collecting: the earnings limit

About this guide

Sources and check dates

About this byline

The Fine Print

More in Retirement

RMD table: the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, ages 72 to 120+

Will Social Security run out? What trust fund depletion means for your check

Medicare open enrollment: what you can change by December 7

How Social Security benefits work

Who qualifies: Social Security credits

How is your Social Security benefit calculated?

Full retirement age by birth year

Claiming at 62, 67 or 70: how much you get at each age

Spousal benefits: up to half of your spouse’s full benefit

Divorced spouse benefits

Survivor benefits

Working while collecting: the earnings limit

Is Social Security taxable?

Social Security COLA for 2027: 3.6%

The Social Security Fairness Act: WEP and GPO are gone

Is Social Security running out of money? The 2026 Trustees Report

How and when to apply for Social Security

When Social Security payments arrive

Key Social Security numbers for 2026 and 2027

About this guide

Sources and check dates

About this byline

The Fine Print*

More in Retirement

RMD table: the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, ages 72 to 120+

Will Social Security run out? What trust fund depletion means for your check

Medicare open enrollment: what you can change by December 7

The Fine Print