Social Security Retirement Age To Change In 2025: What It Means In NJ

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

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

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. The full retirement age has gradually increased by two months each year since in 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 details on retirement benefits and eligibility can be found here on the Social Security Administration website.

Those who don't apply for benefits until after that full retirement age can also get a form of backpay or delayed retirement credits that increase monthly payments.

But the retirement age isn't the only change in store for Social Security. A modest cost-of-living adjustment of 2.5 percent 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 its reported by the Consumer Price Index.

In the Garden State, more than 1.3 million retired residents were collecting social security benefits in 2023, according to the SSA.