Born in 1951: your Social Security, Medicare & RMD dates

What is the full retirement age for someone born in 1951?

If you were born in 1951, your full retirement age is 66. You reach it in 2017 — the month you turn 66 — and from then on Social Security pays 100% of your benefit with no earnings test.

Everyone born from 1943 through 1954 shares the same full retirement age of 66, so a year earlier or later makes no difference here.

Born on January 1, 1951? Social Security says you reach each age on the day before your birthday, so you are grouped with 1950. Your full retirement age is still 66, but it arrives a month sooner, in December 2016. The same rule moves every date one month earlier for anyone born on the 1st of a month.

Your key months, by birthday month

For birthdays on the 3rd through the end of the month. Born on the 2nd: you can claim one month sooner. Born on the 1st: every date moves one month earlier.

How much Social Security do I get at 62, 63 … or 70?

Born in 1951, you get 75% of your full benefit if you start in the month you turn 62 and 132% if you wait until 70. Each year you wait past full retirement age adds 8%; each year you claim early costs 6.7% (5% for years more than three years early).

The 62 row assumes you start in the month you turn 62, which only someone born on the 2nd can do. Everyone else — including people born on the 1st, whom Social Security counts as a month older — starts at 62 and 1 month at the earliest, at 75.4%: $754 for each $1,000 of full benefit.

These percentages are locked in now. Your monthly amount only changes with cost-of-living raises — and, if you still work, when a high-earning year replaces a lower one in your record.

Will the earnings limit cut my benefits in 2026 or 2027?

No. The earnings test stopped in the month you reached full retirement age, in 2017. You can earn any amount without Social Security withholding a dollar, and a strong earnings year can even raise your benefit if it replaces a lower year in your record.

When can I get Medicare if I was born in 1951?

You became eligible at 65, in 2016, during a 7-month Initial Enrollment Period around your birthday month. If you skipped Part B then and had no job-based coverage from current work, the late penalty adds 10% of the standard premium for each full 12 months you went without it.

The standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month in 2026 and is projected at $209.50 for 2027 Projected. Higher incomes pay more through IRMAA, based on your tax return from two years earlier — check yours with the IRMAA calculator.

When do my required minimum distributions start?

Your RMD age is 73, so your first RMD was for 2024 (due by April 1, 2025). Since then each RMD is due by December 31. In 2026 you divide your December 31, 2025 balance by 24.6, the IRS factor for age 75. Roth IRAs never require withdrawals while you are alive.

That works out to 4.1% of the balance — $4,065 for every $100,000 — and the share rises every year. Giving to charity? A qualified charitable distribution (QCD) of up to $111,000 in 2026, sent straight from your IRA, counts toward the RMD and stays out of your taxable income — which also helps with IRMAA and the tax on your Social Security.

See your exact amount with the RMD calculator.

Do people born in 1951 get the $6,000 senior deduction?

Yes, for every year it exists, 2025 through 2028. Each person who is 65 or older by December 31 can deduct up to $6,000 on top of the standard deduction, whether or not they itemize. It shrinks by 6% of income above $75,000 ($150,000 for married couples, who must file jointly). You also need a valid Social Security number.

It stacks with the extra standard deduction everyone 65 or older already gets ($2,050 if single, $1,650 per married person in 2026). It lowers taxable income, not the “provisional income” that decides how much of your Social Security is taxed — the taxable Social Security calculator handles both.

How much have cost-of-living raises added since I turned 62?

About 44.9% in total, from 13 cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs): every one from December 2013 — the year you turned 62 — through the 3.6% raise paid from January 2027, with one year of no COLA at all. They apply to your full benefit amount even if you haven’t claimed yet.

• Paid from Jan 20141.5%
• Paid from Jan 20151.7%
• Paid from Jan 2016None
• Paid from Jan 20170.3%
• Paid from Jan 20182.0%
• Paid from Jan 20192.8%
• Paid from Jan 20201.6%
• Paid from Jan 20211.3%
• Paid from Jan 20225.9%
• Paid from Jan 20238.7%
• Paid from Jan 20243.2%
• Paid from Jan 20252.5%
• Paid from Jan 20262.8%
• Paid from Jan 20273.6%

That’s the compounded total; Social Security rounds your benefit down to the dime after each raise, so your actual figure can be a few cents lower. Born January 1, 1951? You reached 62 on December 31, 2012, so the 1.7% COLA effective that December counts for you too.

How long should I plan for my money to last?

Social Security’s actuaries project that a man born in 1951 who reaches 65 lives another 18.5 years on average, and a woman 21.1. Averages hide a long tail: 37.6% of women and 26.9% of men who reach 65 live to 90.

These come from SSA’s cohort life tables (2026 Trustees Report), which build in the improvement in death rates expected over your lifetime. Most websites quote the 2023 period table instead, which freezes death rates at 2023 levels and runs about 0.4 years shorter at 65 for men born in 1951. Our advice: plan to at least 90. Running out of money in your late 80s is a far worse outcome than leaving some behind, and that’s the real case for a bigger, inflation-protected Social Security check.

What is my survivor full retirement age?

If you’re widowed, your survivor full retirement age is 66 — the same as your own full retirement age of 66. Survivor benefits can start at 60 at 71.5% of what the deceased was entitled to, and reach 100% at 66.

The survivor schedule runs two birth years behind the retirement schedule; for your birth year the two happen to line up. A widow or widower can take one benefit early and switch to the other later — for example survivor benefits first and your own, larger benefit at 70. The full survivor table is on our full retirement age chart.

What should people born in 1951 do now?

If you haven’t claimed Social Security, file now — you’ve earned every delayed credit there is, and SSA pays at most 6 months of back benefits. Otherwise the work left is on the tax side: RMDs on time, charitable giving through QCDs, and keeping an eye on IRMAA.

• Check that your RMD for 2026 is out by December 31 — a missed one costs an excise tax of 25% of the shortfall (10% if you fix it promptly).
• Review federal tax withholding on your Social Security and IRA withdrawals once a year.
• Make sure your beneficiary designations are current; they override your will.