Congress reported that the Government Accountability Office ( GAO) showed that many individuals do not understand that claiming Social Security benefits at age 62 when you stop working or when you reach full retirement age at 66 or 67 may be a big mistake. Claiming benefits too early may be the most important error many will make due to lack of realizing the financial consequences.
Few understand that benefits can rise by about 8% each year that they delay claiming their benefits up to age 70. 8% a year is a rather significant amount of money. As an example, if a person at age 62 would file, they would receive about $1,200 a month, but if they would continue working until age 70, their benefit could reach $2,112, an additional $912 per month.
However, not everybody may not be able to hold off that long and may need a lesser amount of money for living purposes, but it is estimated that about a third of individuals have sufficient assets that would permit them to delay taking benefits. It all depends on the individuals financial situation. The main point is that if you are able to delay taking benefits even by a few years this would certainly pay off.