A new service from MetLife Inc. helps people approaching retirement decide when to begin taking Social Security benefits.
The MetLife Social Security Decision Tool "is the first online tool to combine life expectancy tables with a Social Security benefits calculation for consumers," the company said Tuesday.
It takes into account age, gender, years of employment, income, and average life expectancy to calculate the financial impact of starting Social Security at a given age.
For example, a 50-year-old woman who made $50,000 in her last full year of work could benefit significantly by waiting until age 66 to begin taking benefits.
If she started receiving benefits at age 62, her monthly payment would be $1,087. The benefit would be $1,584 per month if she waited until age 66, an increase of almost 50%.
MetLife said that it has a patent pending on the calculator and that since it began a pilot program for it in March more than 20,000 individuals have visited the service's Web page.
