§404.110. How we determine fully insured status. — Inbound Citations

(a) This subpart explains what we mean when we say that a person has insured status under the social security program. It also describes how a person may become fully insured, currently insured or insured for disability benefits. Your insured status is a basic factor in determining if you are entitled to old-age or disability insurance benefits or to a period of disability. It is also a basic factor in determining if dependents' or survivors' insurance benefits or a lump-sum death payment are payable based on your earnings record. If you are neither fully nor currently insured, no benefits are payable based on your earnings. (Subpart D of this part describes these benefits and the kind of insured status required for each.) In §§ 404.110 through 404.120 we tell how we determine if you are fully or currently insured. The rules for determining if you are insured for purposes of establishing a period of disability or becoming entitled to disability insurance benefits are in §§ 404.130 through 404.133. Whether you have the required insured status depends on the number of quarters of coverage (QCs) you have acquired.

(a) You may use the following table to determine the number of quarters of coverage (QCs) you need to be fully insured under § 404.110. Paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section tell you how to use this table.

In determining if you are fully insured for purposes of paragraph (b), (c), (d), or (e) of § 404.130 on disability insured status, we use the fully insured status requirements in § 404.110, but apply the following rules in determining when the period of elapsed years ends:

(i) Have one “quarter of coverage” (see §§ 404.101 and 404.110 of this part) before 1951;

(b) You have enough social security earnings to be fully insured as defined in §§ 404.110 through 404.115; and

(a) If you are a woman, or a man born after January 1, 1913, the period of elapsed years in § 404.110(b) used in determining the number of quarters of coverage (QCs) you need to be fully insured ends as of the earlier of—

(1) The year you become age 62; or

(i) Your period of disability begins;

(ii) Your waiting period begins (see § 404.315(d)); or

(b) The QCs you need for fully insured status are in column II opposite your date of birth in column I. If a worker dies before reaching retirement age as described in § 404.110(b)(2), the QCs needed for fully insured status are shown in column IV opposite—

(1) The year of death in column III, if the worker was born before January 2, 1930; or

(c) If you had a period of disability established for you, it affects the number of QCs you need to be fully insured (see § 404.110(c)). For each year which is wholly or partly in a period of disability, subtract one QC from the number of QCs shown in the appropriate line and column of the table as explained in paragraph (b) of this section.