You get a choice of when to claim Social Security, with benefits available beginning at age 62, although your full retirement age will be much later than that.

The conventional wisdom is that claiming Social Security earlier makes sense if you are in poor health. When you put off claiming benefits, you get higher checks, but it takes a while for the higher monthly payments to make up for the income you passed up by not claiming benefits right away. If you won't live long enough to get many larger Social Security checks, claiming early and getting as much money as possible right away could make sense.

However, there's an important caveat to this. If you are married, putting off Social Security benefits when you are in poor health could actually be the better move. Here's why. 

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Source Fool.com