Social Security’s Earliest Eligibility Age (EEA) allows retirees to claim reduced benefits as early as age 62. For full benefits, individuals must wait until the Normal Retirement Age (NRA), which was traditionally 65 but is gradually increasing to 67.

An insightful background into development of the EEA is provided in this Boston College study:

The Congressional Budget Office reports the following:
“According to Robert J. Myers, the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration from 1947 to 1970, the reduction in the earliest eligibility age for women in 1956 resulted from a “domino” effect: a desire to help widows under 65 and a desire to provide immediate spousal benefits to wives who were younger than their husbands resulted in pressure to reduce the eligibility ages for those types of benefits; then, it seemed unfair to require female workers to wait until a later age for benefits than female nonworkers. The pressure to reduce the eligibility age for men in 1961 resulted from the high unemployment of that period (CBO, 1999).”

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