Working while claiming: the 2026 earnings test

You can work and collect Social Security at the same time, but before full retirement age the earnings test can temporarily withhold part of your benefit. For 2026 the limits are $24,480 before your full-retirement-age year and $65,160 in that year. Withheld money is not lost — it comes back as a higher benefit later.

The 2026 limits

If you are under full retirement age for the entire year, SSA withholds $1 of benefits for every $2 you earn above $24,480 in 2026. In the year you reach full retirement age, the rule loosens: SSA withholds $1 for every $3 you earn above $65,160, and only counts earnings in the months before you reach full retirement age. Starting with the month you reach full retirement age, there is no earnings limit at all — you can earn any amount with no effect on your benefit.

Example: you are 64 in 2026 with a full retirement age of 67, you claim, and you earn $50,000 from work. The excess over $24,480 is $25,520, so $12,760 is withheld from your 2026 benefits. If your annual benefit was $21,600, you would receive $8,840 that year. The withheld $12,760 is not gone — see below.

What counts as earnings

Only wages from a job or net earnings from self-employment count. Bonuses, commissions, and vacation pay count. Pensions, annuities, investment income, interest, veterans benefits, and other government or military retirement benefits do not count. Neither do IRA or 401(k) withdrawals. The test is about work income only, which is why a retiree living on dividends and a pension can earn any amount of investment income without triggering it.

If your earnings will differ from what you originally told SSA, tell them right away — you cannot report a change of earnings online; call SSA or visit an office. Overestimates and underestimates both create corrections later, and a large correction can mean a month with no check.

Withheld benefits come back

This is the most misunderstood part of the rule. Benefits withheld under the earnings test are not permanently lost. When you reach full retirement age, SSA recalculates your benefit upward to credit you for the months benefits were withheld. The recovery arrives as a permanently higher monthly payment from then on, not as a lump sum. The break-even point — when the higher payments have cumulatively replaced what was withheld — typically arrives within a few years after full retirement age.

There is also a special rule for your first year of retirement: SSA can pay a full benefit for any whole month it considers you retired, regardless of your yearly earnings. This helps people who retire mid-year after high earnings earlier in the same year.

Working can also raise your benefit

As long as you keep working, you keep paying Social Security taxes, and SSA rechecks your record every year. If a new year of earnings is high enough to enter your 35 highest years, your benefit is recalculated upward and SSA sends a letter with the new amount. Working in your 60s can therefore raise your benefit twice over: once through a higher AIME, and once through the earnings-test credit at full retirement age.