Americans seem to be getting the message that claiming Social Security benefits at a later age result in a bigger monthly benefit check and could improve retirement security for many people.

“Working longer—when possible—has been generally accepted as good advice for a secure retirement,” a new Issue Brief from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, notes. “It directly increases current income; it allows people to contribute more to their 401(k)s; it shortens the period of retirement; and importantly, delaying claiming of Social Security results in a much higher monthly benefit.”

The issue brief, How Much Have Social Security Claiming Ages Increased, found that over the past two decades there has been a steep drop in the share of people claiming reduced Social Security retirement benefits at the earliest age of 62. The research, published in May 2025, found that people are delaying claiming with average claiming age increasing from 63 to 65.

Although the COVID pandemic pushed many older adults out of the workforce, it did not result in earlier self-reported retirement or Social Security claiming, the report found. Of those claiming benefits in 2019 and 2023, a smaller share of both men and women claimed at age 62 and a much larger share claimed at ages 67 or older. The full retirement age of people born in 1960 and later is 67.

Separately, the latest annual Retirement Confidence Survey found both current workers and retirees are at least somewhat concerned about the U.S. government making significant changes to the American retirement systems that could reduce their future Social Security and Medicare benefits. Most workers—87%–expect Social Security to be a source of income in retirement and nearly all retirees—94%–report Social Security as a source of income.

About three in five workers and more than four in five retirees reported that they have thought about how the age at which they claim Social Security can impact the amount their receive. The median reported and expected claiming age remains age 65, according to the 2025 Retirement Confidence Survey, the longest running survey of its kind sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research.

But the positive trend towards later claiming ages could be short lived as older Americans worry about the future of the Social Security system. During an operational meeting in April, an official at the Social Security Administration said the agency had experienced a “dramatic increase in initial applications for retired worker benefits.” As of April 2025, nearly 600,000 claims for retirement benefits were still pending.

There could be several reasons for the spike in Social Security applications. Demographics are a major driver. Record number of baby boomers, known as Peak 65, are turning 65 as part of the largest retirement boom in history. In addition, the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law on January 5, 2025, provides new or larger Social Security benefits to more than 3.2 million public sector employees affected by the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset rules.

And there is growing concern about the projected exhaustion of the Social Security trust funds in the next 10 years along with worries about the impact of DOGE-mandated staff reductions on processing Social Security benefit claims. The Trump administration has proposed that SSA cut its workforce by 7,000 to 50,000 employees despite its current 50-year staffing low.

The agency now has a new commissioner to oversee the agency’s day-to-day operations. The Senate confirmed financial services executive Frank Bisignano to lead the Social Security Administration despite allegations that he lied during his confirmation hearing about his alleged improper contact with SSA officials and his perceived failure to protect Americans’ private information from DOGE or other federal agencies.

“If Commissioner Bisignano wants to regain the trust of the American people, he should begin by ending the disruptive and counterproductive practices introduced at the Social Security Administration during the so-called ‘DOGE era’,” Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said in a statement. “More than 10,000 Americans reach retirement age every day and every additional month a worker waits for their claim to be processed is a month of earned benefit they will never receive.”