Personal Finance & Estate › Social Security › When to claim Social Security: 62 vs. 67 vs. 70
Retirement earnings test (working before FRA)
Before full retirement age· Concept or strategy
Law or rule (2026)Set by statute, regulation or the agency; numbers change yearly.
If you claim Social Security before full retirement age and keep working, SSA temporarily withholds part of your benefit above an earnings limit.
See it on the Personal Finance & Estate map →How it works
In 2026, if you are under full retirement age all year, SSA withholds $1 for every $2 earned above $24,480. In the year you reach full retirement age, it withholds $1 for every $3 above $65,160, counting only earnings before that birthday month. Only wages and self-employment earnings count, not rents, interest, pensions or IRA withdrawals. The money is not lost: at full retirement age SSA raises your check to credit the withheld months.
Why it matters for you
It makes claiming early while still drawing a big paycheck largely pointless, and it surprises people who did not know benefits could be held back.
Think of it like
Like a held-back security deposit: withheld now, returned later through a higher monthly check.
Rules, limits and sources (2026)
SSA's annual booklet 'How Work Affects Your Benefits' lists the limits, which rise each year with national average wages under the Social Security Act.
Watch out for
Whether you get the withheld money back in full depends on living long enough after full retirement age to collect the higher checks.
Connections (2)
▸Retirement earnings test (working before FRA) complicates When to claim Social Security: 62 vs. 67 vs. 70Law or rule (2026)
How they connect
Anyone still earning wages or self-employment income above the limit loses part of an early benefit to withholding. That often makes claiming before full retirement age pointless while working, though rental and investment income don't count against the limit.
When it applies
The test dates to the original program's requirement that beneficiaries be retired; today's dollar limits rise yearly with national wages.
The rule
SSA's booklet 'How Work Affects Your Benefits' and its annual limits; withheld months show up later as benefit recalculations.
Watch out for
Some economists say the test discourages work because people mistake withholding for a tax; others say it keeps benefits for those actually retired.
▸Retirement earnings test (working before FRA) ends at Full retirement age (67 if born 1960 or later)Law or rule (2026)
How they connect
The earnings test stops the month you reach full retirement age. From then on you can earn any amount with no withholding, and SSA recalculates your benefit upward to credit any months that were withheld.
When it applies
The Senior Citizens' Freedom to Work Act of 2000 ended the test at full retirement age; before, it applied until 70.
The rule
SSA's annual earnings-limit announcements and its booklet 'How Work Affects Your Benefits' state the cutoff.
Watch out for
Because withheld benefits come back gradually, people who die soon after full retirement age effectively lose them.