Most married men claim Social Security benefits at age 62 or 63, well short of Social Security's Full Retirement Age or the age at which they would get the most value from their benefits. The economic sacrifice isn't great for the men -- their benefit is less than 4 percent less than what it could optimally be if they waited to collect Social Security -- but for their widows, the impact is much more severe. The survivor benefit is on average nearly 20 percent less than its value would have been had the men waited to collect.

Very low incomes among elderly widows are already a major problem. If married men continue to claim as early as they do now, the problem could worsen as Social Security's Full Retirement Age rises, warns the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Courtesy of ElderLawAnswers.com