Survey: 45% of Non-Retired Americans Plan to Claim Social Security Before 67 as 2032 Shortfall Nears

Americans are not waiting for Congress to fix Social Security. Many are filing early to get their money first.

A Schroders survey of 1,500 investors ages 30 to 79, conducted in March and April, found that 45% of not-yet-retired Americans plan to claim before age 67, the federal full retirement age. Only 10% plan to wait until 70, when monthly checks are largest.

The most popular claiming age is already 62, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

The 2032 problem

The Social Security Trustees project the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund will deplete its reserves in the fourth quarter of 2032 under current law. Continuing income would then cover about 78% of scheduled retirement and survivor benefits, an automatic 22% reduction. Fidelity estimates that at roughly $10,560 a year for the average married couple.

That is a funding shortfall, not a shutdown. Payroll taxes keep coming in. But the cut is real money, and it lands about six years from now.

Fidelity attributes the gap largely to demographics: people live longer and have fewer children, so fewer workers support each retiree.

Fear is moving the claiming data

The Urban Institute found new Social Security claims rose dramatically in the first half of fiscal 2025. AARP research found that half of Americans who claimed in the past year, or planned to, cited reports that the program faces insolvency.

Deb Boyden, head of U.S. defined contribution at Schroders, said people are making decisions "based on current cashflow needs in retirement and uncertainty, rather than maximizing their lifetime benefits." She pointed to inflation, with prices up roughly 30% since the start of the decade, and to worry about the program's future.

The worry is widespread. A Harris Poll survey for Athene, fielded June 26 to July 7 among 2,022 adults ages 40 to 61 with at least $100,000 in investable assets, found 63% fear Social Security will be depleted before they are eligible to collect.

The math on filing early

A retirement planner writing in Fortune, who identified himself only as Ray, described a couple he calls Jeff and Julie, both 62. Julie asked whether Social Security would even exist if they waited until 70.

His answer: a possible 22% cut is not avoided by taking a certain one. Under SSA's formula, starting benefits at 62 instead of 67 means a 30% reduction in the monthly check, permanently. He noted that most of his clients are affluent and can afford to wait, and that nearly all of them raised the same fear this year.

Economists say a retiree of average longevity collects the most lifetime money by waiting until 70, according to retirement research cited by USA Today. Joel Eskovitz of the AARP Public Policy Institute called claiming a "lifetime decision" and warned that for people with no other retirement income, an early claim "can be really devastating."

The other side of that choice is cash flow. Boyden's point is that many retirees feel too stretched to go without the money now, and the Schroders respondents said so. Someone who needs income at 62 is not making an optimization error. They are making a budget decision.

The agency's own record

SSA is not helping its case. A September audit by the agency's Office of Inspector General examined fiscal 2023 cases and found 46% of the retirement, survivor and disability overpayment notices it reviewed failed to meet agency requirements. Some contained inaccurate amounts. Others omitted information on reconsideration and waiver rights.

These are letters telling people they owe money back. Getting more than four in ten wrong is a failure of basic administration, and it feeds the distrust driving some of these claiming decisions.

What Congress has done

Nothing has been enacted. The House and Senate have introduced two bipartisan bills in 2026, and Fidelity says both aim at the process for reaching a solution, not a solution itself.

Other proposals would ask higher earners to pay more, change how benefits are calculated, bring more workers into the system, or gradually raise the full retirement age, which is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Some would raise benefits for certain groups and some would cut them.

The open question is which of those levers lawmakers will pull before the fourth quarter of 2032, and whether they will move before more people file early out of fear.