Retirement Plan

That forced many to claim retirement benefits at 62, their first year of eligibility, instead of waiting to collect at the full retirement age of 66.
Also fueling the increase was the leading edge of the baby boom generation, more than 3.4 million boomers who turned 62 in 2009, Johnson said. That was 9 percent more than in 2008 — the first year that any baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, were eligible for Social Security retirement benefits.
Because of the recession, trustees of the Social Security trust fund warned last year that the diminished 2009 surplus would "stay about constant in 2010 because of the economic recession" and "rise only briefly before declining and turning to cash flow deficits beginning in 2016 that grow as the baby boom generation retires."
The program's shaky finances were one reason that Arlie Collins, a retired plumbing contractor from Greensboro, Ga., applied for his benefits three months before he turned 62 in December.
Collins was among 1.3 million men age 62 and older whose retirement benefits began in 2009, according to Urban Institute research.
That was up 20 percent from 2008 and the most new male beneficiaries in any year since Social Security payments began back in 1940, Johnson said.
Collins, a retired plumbing contractor, didn't mind that Social Security would reduce his monthly payments by about 25 percent, or roughly $250, for starting to collect at 62 instead of 66. After talking with an accountant, Collins determined that he was better off getting less money now, than he would be if he waited for larger monthly checks later.