In 1983 Congress passed, and then President Ronald Reagan signed a law that increased the full retirement age for Social Security benefits gradually over time from 65 to 67 by the end of 2022. Now that we are past 2022 and the retirement age is now set at 67.
A recent article from the People’s Policy Project examines the common belief that back in 1983 as the retirement age increased for Social Security beneficiaries over time so too would like life expectancy, but that did not occur and life expectancy dropped slightly over time.
“In the lead up to the passage of the legislation, a popular argument for raising the retirement age was that life expectancy had increased, so people should work for longer. The presumption was that the increase in life expectancy since Social Security’s implementation would continue as the retirement age rose. But something peculiar happened,” the article stated.
In 2000 the life expectancy in the United States was 76.8 years old. A little more than 20 years later the life expectancy in the United States dropped by more than two years to 76.4 in 2021. And it marked the second consecutive year life expectancy significantly declined. The COVID-19 pandemic played a major factor to the decline in life expectancy.
Now, instead of life expectancy increasing along with the Social Security retirement age, only the Social Security retirement age has increased now that life expectancy is less than it was over 20 years ago.
