For millions of people, getting a yearly boost from the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is great. But there’s another way that many Americans might not know about that will raise their Social Security checks to $461.
Through cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs), Social Security retirement payments are raised almost every year, though the rise isn’t that big most of the time. Last year, the average benefit went up by $59 a month, and the COLA for 2025 is expected to be much lower.
Retirees can increase their Social Security benefits after they leave in ways other than COLAs, which is good news. You can choose a different option that could boost your monthly payment by up to $461, but there is a catch.
What you need to know about the option to increase your Social Security checks by $461
You may have heard that the amount of your Social Security check is based on how old you were when you signed up. The age at which you can get your full Social Security income is called your full retirement age (FRA). For workers today, that age is 66 to 67.
You don’t have to make a claim at that age, though. You can start getting Social Security benefits before age 62, but the amounts you get will be less. You lose 5/9 of 1% every month for the first 36 months after you file early. You lose an extra 5/12 of 1% every month if you file your claim early.
So, based on your FRA, people who start getting benefits right away will see their monthly checks drop by 25% to 30%. You can also wait to get your Social Security checks until you are 70 years old. Your checks will go up by two-thirds of 1% per month during this time.
In general, you should file your claim early if you can’t wait or if you have a major health problem. Delaying application, on the other hand, gives most people a bigger lifetime gain. You can’t change your mind about applying for Social Security later either. If you have been getting checks for more than a year, you can’t go back and undo your choice.
You might still be able to choose to stop getting checks after you reach your FRA, though, if you’re below it. If you do this, you won’t get any more checks until you turn 70, at which point you can ask for them to start coming again. During this time, you will earn the delayed retirement points we talked about earlier.
If a 67-year-old person gets an average monthly Social Security income of $1,919, that amount will go up by about $461 when they start getting benefits again at age 70. A little more than $69,000 in Social Security checks would have been lost when payments were stopped.
That being said, they would still get $2,380 a month. They would still make money even if the person lived to be 85 years old if they stopped benefits. They could have kept getting benefits and would have gotten $414,504 from age 67 to 85. Instead, they decided to stop getting benefits and would have gotten $428,400 from age 70 to 85.
How do you know if this option to increase Social Security checks is right for you?
A good estimate of how long someone will live can help with the choice to stop benefits, but other things, including the most important one, must also be thought about before the decision is made.
For many seniors, the question is whether they can afford to stop getting Social Security payments for a while. One-third or more of people aged 65 and up get at least half of their retired income from Social Security. They probably won’t be able to afford to skip Social Security checks for a long time.
But a senior who works and gets Social Security payments might not have a hard time stopping this source of income. You can choose to wait the whole three years and get bigger Social Security checks, but you don’t have to.
Gains can be put on hold for a year or even a few months if you wish. The raise won’t change how much your Social Security checks grow, but it will last forever and may mean that you get a bigger benefit over your lifetime.
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