General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Retirement bottom line: Many will have to work until 70 [View all]Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)Oh, well.
If you take early Social Security and keep working, they take 50% of your earnings above $14,460 (2012 limit). For some older workers, that is not a problem because they are earning very little.
Current full retirement age is 66, and under current law it is increasing to 67. I see this as being quite a problem for low income elderly workers. They will go on Medicare at 65, but some will have problems paying the monthly premium from their current incomes, but if they take early SS they will be penalized.
If you have to take SS early to pay the Medicare premiums, then you will get penalized later when you are really old and not able to work in the form of lower benefit checks. But if you can't afford to take Medicare at 65, you will be penalized in the form of higher Medicare premiums.
I think there ought to be a rescue clause for older low-income retirees.