In 2026, a big change is coming to Social Security that is going to impact all future retirees. It will affect when and how they can collect benefits. Once the change happens though, it is not likely to ever happen again unless or until Congress makes a very controversial change to the retirement benefits program.
So, what is changing next year? Here’s what you need to know.
This big Social Security change is only happening one more time
The big change to Social Security that is coming in 2026 is a change to the full retirement age. The full retirement age is the age when you can claim your standard Social Security benefit without any reductions because of early filing. If you claim at exactly FRA, you receive your primary insurance amount (PIA), which is based on average wages.
Right now, in 2025, for those who are turning 66 this year, their full retirement age is 66 and 10 months. However, that is changing in 2026. Next year, anyone who turns 66 will see their full retirement age change to 67. All of those seniors turning 66 in 2026 are going to have to wait an extra two months to file for their Social Security benefits in order to avoid penalties that will reduce their monthly income.
Changes to full retirement age have been happening for a long time. Anyone who turned 66 in 2009 to 2020 had a full retirement age of 66. But:
- Those who turned 66 in 2021 had an FRA of 66 and 2 months
- Those who turned 66 in 2022 had an FRA of 66 and 4 months
- Those who turned 66 in 2023 had an FRA of 66 and 6 months
- Those who turned 66 in 2024 had an FRA of 66 and 8 months
- Those who turned 66 in 2025 had an FRA of 66 and 10 months
Government reforms to Social Security in 1983 are the reason for these changes. When lawmakers made modifications to shore up the program’s finances, they wanted to gradually phase in the change to full retirement age. So, they set new FRAs based on birth year and phased in the change over time.
However, the latest they pushed FRA was 67, and that is now the FRA for anyone born in 1960 or later. Since everyone turning 66 next year and beyond will meet that criteria, new retirees will no longer have to deal with this Social Security modification. Anyone who retires in 2026 or beyond is going to have the same full retirement age and they will not need to wait longer than their peers to be able to claim benefits.
Will the full retirement age ever change again?
Right now, 2026 is the last year that a change to FRA will happen. And, that is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future.
While Social Security is once again in financial trouble, lawmakers are not likely to change the full retirement age any time soon. President Trump has promised no cuts to Social Security and pushing FRA later would be a de-facto benefit cut because future retirees would either get hit with early filing penalties or would be forced to wait longer to claim.
If a deal is reached at some point that does change FRA again, it most likely would be phased in over a long time as it was with the reforms in 1983 so most workers today probably will not ever have to deal with a change to FRA again after 2026.
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