With Social Security facing financial trouble, many in the U.S. government are considering a big change: raising the retirement age to 69. This idea has sparked debate, especially as millions of Americans depend on Social Security to fund their retirement years.
While raising the age might help reduce pressure on the system, it also brings serious challenges for future retirees — especially those in physically demanding jobs.
Why Social Security Needs a Fix
The Social Security trust fund, which pays retirement benefits, is expected to run out of money by early 2033. If no changes are made, retirees will only get about 77% of their promised benefits. That’s because more people are retiring, living longer, and collecting benefits for more years, while fewer younger workers are paying into the system.
In the past, similar problems were solved by raising payroll taxes and increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67. Now, there’s talk of raising it again — this time to 69.
What Raising the Retirement Age to 69 Means
If the full retirement age (FRA) goes up to 69, workers will have two main choices:
- Retire later and get full benefits.
- Retire earlier and get reduced benefits.
Right now, people born in 1960 or later can retire at 67 and receive full benefits. They can also start as early as 62, but they’ll get 30% less.
If the age goes up to 69, people who still retire at 62 will lose even more. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), someone born in the 1970s who retires at 65 would get about 13% less than under current rules. Those born in the 1980s could lose around 8% of their lifetime benefits.
How This Affects Different Types of Workers
Office workers may be able to work longer without much trouble. But for people in physically demanding jobs — like construction workers, nurses, or factory workers — working extra years can be tough, if not impossible.
Many of them already retire early because of physical strain or health issues. Asking them to work longer could lead to:
- Taking lower benefits due to early retirement.
- Needing part-time jobs to make up the difference.
- Using Social Security Disability Insurance instead, which lowers the expected savings from this change.
These workers often have shorter life expectancies too, meaning they may receive benefits for fewer years even if they retire later.
Would This Actually Save Social Security?
Raising the retirement age alone won’t completely fix Social Security. The CBO estimates that even if the age goes up to 69, the trust fund will still be empty by 2034. But the good news is that it would help in the long run — cutting the funding gap by about 24% over the next 75 years.
So while the system won’t be “fixed,” raising the age would slow down its decline. To fully save Social Security, more changes — like tax increases or benefit adjustments — may also be needed.
Could This Encourage People to Save More?
There’s a small silver lining to raising the retirement age. People may start planning better for retirement once they realise they’ll have to wait longer for full Social Security benefits. That means:
- More time to make catch-up contributions to retirement accounts.
- A greater push to build personal savings.
- More awareness about retirement planning in general.
But there’s also a downside. Social Security rules are already confusing for many. Adding new changes might cause people to make poor financial decisions — like claiming benefits too early and locking in lower monthly payments for life.
The Bigger Picture
Raising the retirement age is not a simple fix. It will affect different groups of workers in different ways. While it may help Social Security survive a bit longer, it could put a heavy burden on those who are already struggling.
Experts say that any policy change should go hand-in-hand with better financial education so people understand their options and can make smarter choices about retirement.
Raising the Social Security retirement age to 69 might ease some pressure on the system, but it’s not a full solution. It could create new challenges, especially for workers with tough physical jobs and shorter lifespans.
To truly secure Social Security’s future, the government may need a mix of policy changes, including better retirement planning support and financial education for all Americans.
FAQs
Q1. Why is the retirement age being considered for an increase to 69?
Because the Social Security trust fund is running out of money, increasing the retirement age is one way to reduce long-term payouts and keep the system going longer.
Q2. Will I still be able to claim Social Security at 62?
Yes, but your monthly benefits will be even lower than under current rules if the full retirement age increases.
Q3. How will this change affect younger workers?
Younger workers, especially those born in the 1970s and 1980s, could lose up to 8–13% of their expected lifetime benefits if the full retirement age goes up to 69.
Q4. Who will be most affected by this change?
People in physically demanding jobs like construction, nursing, or factory work may find it hardest to keep working longer and could face lower benefits.
Q5. Will raising the retirement age solve Social Security’s financial problems?
It will help reduce the funding gap over time but won’t fully solve the problem. Additional measures will likely be needed.
And we thought we were out of the era of slavery
Make your legislators know the toll of 30 + years of the wear and tear on the body
Social security can be saved if the government looks into those collecting SSI /welfare checks who are able to work but chooses not to because they are getting checks ,reduce housing,food stamps.
I have worked my whole life and have not received any government assistance.I know people who have never worked because they are on the assistance and basically brings home as much with combined benefits as I do working everyday.
So who is the slaves people like myself working paying taxes so these programs can be funded
You have got to be kidding you have an asshole in office right now that is stealing in our faces and you gonna blame the black man
The pass presidents have all been white this system has been robbed for years . But it’s Obama ‘s fault. Give me a freaking break. The Republicans has always been against the poor working class especially the maga and the orange piece of shit y’all put in office
Would you like us to work until we die so you don’t allow us to have what is rightfully ours because it is taken from our paychecks for what is supposed to be our retirement.. you are literally robbing us. I’m hate this government. The Republicans are the worst, especially Trump. I have no money because I had to stop working. For a number of years to take to be a caregiver to a mother with Alzheimer’s and a father with CHF and went through all the money I had including having to cash in what little 401k I had, so Social Security is all I would have to live on. I am 63 yrs old and not well and want to be able to retire at least by the time I reach 70 which is when right now, I would get the maximum amount of money from Social Security, but now you want to raise the age yet again. I am literally forcing myself to work now and God Forbid I end up like my mother with Alzheimer’s, then what. I am single with no children and no one to help me. Would you like for people like me to commit suicide because we have no way to take care of ourselves.. Real nice.
Yes I agree. Are they going to go to 100 next. They’ve worked us to death now. I say no!
Since you are raising the retirement age to 70 something you should let me to serve in the United States Army S-4 mos is 92-Y my military rank should be Pvt E-1 Private Fuzzy and pay grade issues are not a problem with me just as long as I only pay the minimum amount of money to play golf on base and to eat at the base defac I like the Army mess hall way better than the air force side Army cooks are better than Air Force cooks.
That sounds like a good idea, though they will need someone to work in S-6 Commo and another one to work at the Motorpool! Cs there may be some Newbies who need to pick up a Box Of Grid Squares from you at Supply, a can of Liquid Squelch from S-6 Commo, and a Skyhook from the Motorpool Sergeant!😁🤣😆😝😂
Whatever happened to Workfare?,Workfare use to help people on Welfare get jobs, buy having the recepitiants train and work for a job while receiving Welfare! If they didn’t do Workfare their Welfare was going to get cut! Therefore they had to work to receive some Welfare!
Also people just coming into Country get cards loaded, apartments, and anything else needed, while you still have homeless in the streets!
Also trying to be the World Police aint helping noone in your own back hard!
Make it make sense, cs the Math ain’t Mathing?🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
They couldn’t care less. Greed is their mantra.
Great idea! But can we get enough people to help make the change?
You’re going to have to become a millionaire if you want to live comfortably. Seems like they want us to die off so that we won’t be in the retirement system long.
This bull crap. They get rid of SS and now make the people work longer. Make Obama pay it back. Y’all stole it all
Please check your facts, it was the Bush era Presidencies that raided Social Security for that worthless Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the equally fruitless war in Afghanistan… (Can anyone read history long enough to figure out that even the 80’s/90’s era Russians got their asses handed to them?) The Republican lead Congress of that time raided Social Security like a personal bank and never paid it back.
Extremely true I remember when Bush did it if the federal government paid back all the money it raided practically stole from social security and said the federal government would pay it back and never did if the federal government paid back all the money it stole from social security from the first George Bush presidency until now social security would have plenty of money social security had a surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars until the first president Bush raided it if the federal government paid back all the money it took from supposedly borrowed the money from social security at the time and never paid it back if the government paid back social security all the money it owed social security social security would not be in debt it would have plenty of money hundreds of millions in surplus money
Yeah!
This really doesn’t mean that anybody has to work longer, and that’s not where the savings comes from.
You can still retire at 62. A lot of people do and that has never been the “retirement age“
What this does is change the math at whatever age you retire.
For people who retire early, early is defined relative to your full retirement age. Now 62 will be even earlier than it was before and the math will have them take out two more years worth of penalty, if you want to call it that.
On the other hand after full retirement age your benefit would go up by 8% a year until age 70 if you put off retirement. When the full retirement age was 65 a person could get a 40% boost by waiting until 70. If the retirement age goes up to 69, then waiting to 70 only gives you an 8% boost.
And THAT is where the cash flow savings comes in.
How come we have funds to feed the poor and the prison population and house them plus let immigrants live tax free for up to so many years and so much more! But have a problem paying people who paid in our country what they rightfully paid into? Move the government funds around like they did to strip us of our money!
And yet they admitted they’ve spent 27 trillion on underground cities all over the world for the “elites” to survive when the depopulate the surface. Of course the dumb sheeple always overlook things like that. Thease people are all Alastair Crowley satanist masons and they believe that as long as they tell us what they will do to us they are no longer punishable by the universe even if they say it quietly once. Look at at all the money for the mass invasion ect.
Idiocracy. Tax billionaires and warmongering Treasury raiders and deficit spenders who point the finger. Right, Reaganites?
Idiocracy. Tax billionaires appropriately and warmongering Treasury raiders…deficit making big spenders who point the finger elsewhere. Right, Reaganites?
Greed beyond human decency causes poverty and homelessness.
I understand the reasoning for the future of S.S., but to go from 67 to 69 is quite a big jump and will be discouraging to most of the senior population to face either working till then or facing even more reduced benefits.
So out of the 1000’s and 1000’s of people who worked to retirement age and never collected their retirement, for whatever reason, and that went back into the “SSI” bucket, how can social security be in such dire straits?
This not fair to us waiting to retire .I’m 66 waiting on 67 now I’m being told to wait till I’m 69 . All the they are trying do wait long enough for most of us will be dead . Enough is enough.