What Raising Retirement Age to 69 Would Do to Social Security

Raising the retirement age from to 69 from 67 would result in retirees receiving a smaller amount of Social Security benefits over their lifetime, but the reduction in Social Security benefits would improve the program’s finances, according to a just-released report by the Congressional Budget Office.

The report analyzes the effects of phasing in an increase to FRA, starting with Americans born in 1965, until it reached age 69 for workers born in 1972 or later. Reduced benefits would still be available starting at age 62; claming could be delayed until 72. The plan would not change the projected 2034 depletion date of the combined old-age and disability trust funds, CBO found.

The report, requested by House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., found that Republican Social Security plans would result in “steep benefit cuts for American workers while failing to extend the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund.”

CBO found that raising the retirement age to 69 — as proposed by the Republican Study Committee, the Heritage Foundation and other Republican groups — would result in an average yearly benefit reduction of about 13% for those subject to the full cut, Boyle said Wednesday, commenting on the report.