Fact Check

Obama Raises the Retirement Age to 73

A disreputable web site started a false rumor holding that President Obama was raising the Social Security retirement age to 73 in order to assist refugees.

Published Sept. 19, 2016

 (FLICKR)
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Claim:
President Obama has raised the Social Security retirement age to 73 in order to help refugees.

On 16 September 2016, the disreputable web site Departed promulgated a false rumor holding that the President Obama had raised the Social Security retirement age to 73 in order to assist refugees (ostensibly by requiring Americans to "work more"). Departed's "article" consisted solely of a tweet issued by the account @TrumpThe45th, which linked to an article with no content (other than a reproduction of the same tweet):

obama retirement

Departed and its shill Twitter accounts frequently post falsified claims about Democratic politicians such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, including tweets falsely asserting that President Obama had said the United States deserved the 9/11 attacks and that the Statue of Liberty had been removed because it offended Muslims.

While other fake news outlets at least make up a fictional backstories to accompany their outlandish claims, Departed simply uses shill Twitter accounts post to false clickbait headlines on social media and drive users to their content-free articles.

President Obama has not raised the retirement age to 73. Americans can still begin collecting Social Security retirement benefits at age 62, and retirees born in 1960 or later are eligible for full Social Security benefits at age 67.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.