Women may or may not know that they’ll get up to 76 percent morein benefits by waiting till they turn 70 to claim Social Security—but the reality isthat they can’t afford to wait.

Read: Women have to work harder to catch up inretirement saving

That’s according to a Nationwide Retirement Institute pollconducted by Harris Poll, which found that 82 percent of womencurrently collecting benefits took them early—condemning them to alifetime of lower Social Security checks.

Among the pool of respondents, of the nearly 300 women who werealready collecting Social Security, just five had held on till age70 before claiming.

And 24 percent of those who filed early—between ages 64 and66—said that if they had it to do over again, they’d wait and filelater.

However, 46 percent said that an unforeseen life event made itnecessary for them to file for benefits early, while 19 percentsaid their health made it impossible for them to hold out longerand 11 percent said job loss sent them to the Social Securityoffice.

And the picture could get worse, with new legislation thataffects claiming strategies that can help maximize benefits forwomen.

Read: Why women need to improve their financialliteracy

Not that it’s rosy now—38 percent of retired women said theycan’t do what they want in retirement, often because of tightbudgets, and 24 percent are laid low financially during retirementby health care expenses.

A significant number of women—24 percent—also tend tooverestimate how much they’ll get from Social Security, as well ashow much of their retirement expenses those checks will cover(they’re hoping for 53 percent).

On average, those who haven’t yet received any checks expectthat they’ll get $1,457 per month, while the reality is that theaverage amount received by women who waited till their fullretirement age is only $1,376—and those who signed up for benefitsearly report getting an average of just $980.