Who is "62 enough"? Identifying respondents eligible for Social Security early retirement benefits in the Health and Retirement Study

• Published in: Social security bulletin Vol. 62; no. 3; pp. 51 - 56
• Main Author: Olson, J A
• Format: Journal Article Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Social Security Board 1999; Superintendent of Documents
• Subjects: Age Factors; Aged - statistics & numerical data; Benefits; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Early retirement; Eligibility; Eligibility Determination - methods; Humans; Longitudinal Studies; Methods; Middle Aged; Old age; Polls & surveys; Reproducibility of Results; Retirement - economics; Retirement benefits; Retirement income; Social insurance; Social policy; Social research; Social security; Social Security - economics; Surveys and Questionnaires; United States; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0037-7910; 1937-4666

Workers are not instantly eligible for Social Security retirement benefits on their 62nd birthdays, nor can they receive benefits in the month they turn 62. This note discusses how well researchers can do using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to identify respondents old enough to receive and report early Social Security retirement benefits. It shows that only some workers aged 62 at the time of an HRS interview will be "62 enough" to have received a Social Security benefit and reported it in the survey. In general, workers become eligible for a retirement benefit the month after they turn 62, and they may receive their first payment the month after that. Until recently, payments were received very early in the month, but in mid-1997 and later, the Social Security Administration (SSA) staggered benefit payments over the course of a month. Therefore, many beneficiaries will not be able to report the receipt of their first benefit payment until the third month after their birthday in more recent HRS interviews. This note describes the best approach for approximating the pool of HRS respondents who are old enough to have reported the receipt of their first retirement benefit. It then applies the procedure to an analysis by Burkhauser, Couch, and Phillips, who used the 1994 HRS data to distinguish between those who took early retirement benefits upon turning 62 and those who postponed the receipt of benefits. Because these authors did not provide for respondents who were not "62 enough" to receive a benefit at the time of the interview, they understated the proportion of respondents who took retirement benefits at age 62.