§404.421. How are deductions made when a beneficiary fails to have a child in his or her care? — Inbound Citations

(c) We will compute your reinstated benefit amount and determine benefits payable under the applicable paragraphs of §§ 404.201 through 404.480 with certain exceptions—

(1) We will reduce your reinstated benefit due in a month by the amount of the provisional benefit we already paid you for that month. If your provisional benefit paid for a month exceeds the reinstated benefit, we will treat the difference as an overpayment under §§ 404.501 through 404.527.

(2) If you are reinstated on your own earnings record, we will compute your primary insurance amount with the same date of onset we used in your most recent period of disability on your earnings record.

(4) If you are under age 62, there is no longer a child of the insured who is under age 16 or disabled and entitled to child's benefits on the insured's earnings record. (See paragraph (c) of this section if you were entitled to wife's or husband's benefits for August 1981 on the basis of having a child in care.) (If you no longer have in your care a child who is under age 16 or disabled and entitled to child's benefits on the insured's earnings record, your benefits may be subject to deductions as provided in § 404.421.)

(2) There is no longer a child of the insured who is under age 16 or disabled and entitled to a child's benefit on the insured's earnings record. (See paragraph (c) of this section if you were entitled to mother's or father's benefits for August 1981.) (If you no longer have in your care a child who is under age 16 or disabled and entitled to child's benefits on the insured's earnings record, your benefits may be subject to deductions as provided in § 404.421.)

(2) Failure of certain beneficiaries receiving wife's or mother's insurance benefits to have a child in her care (see § 404.421);

(a) Deductions because of earnings or work (see §§ 404.415 and 404.417); failure to have a child “in his or her care” (see § 404.421); as a penalty for failure to timely report noncovered work outside the United States, failure to report that he or she no longer has a child “in his or her care,” or failure to timely report earnings (see §§ 404.451 and 404.453); or because of unpaid maritime taxes (see § 404.457) are made: * * *

(1) Before making any reductions because of the maximum (see § 404.403),

(2) Before applying the benefit rounding provisions (see § 404.304(f)), and,

(3) Except for deductions imposed as a penalty (see §§ 404.451 and 404.453), before making any adjustment necessary because an error has been made in the payment of benefits (see subpart F). However, for purposes of charging excess earnings for taxable years beginning after December 1960 or ending after June 1961, see paragraph (b) of this section and § 404.437 for reductions that apply before such charging.

Deductions provided for in §§ 404.415, 404.417, and 404.421 (as modified in § 404.458) are made by withholding benefits (in whole or in part, depending upon the amount to be withheld) for each month in which an event causing a deduction occurred. If the amount to be deducted is not withheld from the benefits payable in the month in which the event causing the deduction occurred, such amount constitutes a deduction overpayment and is subject to adjustment or recovery in accordance with the provisions of subpart F of this part.

If more than one of the deduction events specified in §§ 404.415, 404.417, and 404.421 occurred in any 1 month, each of which would occasion a deduction equal to the benefit for such month, only an amount equal to such benefit is deducted.

If a deduction event described in §§ 404.415, 404.417, and 404.421 occurs in more than 1 month, the total amount deducted from an individual's benefits is equal to the sum of the deductions for all months in which any such event occurred.

(b) Failure to have a child in his or her care (as described in § 404.421).

(b) Any person receiving wife's, husband's, mother's, or father's insurance benefits which are subject to a deduction (as described in § 404.421) because he or she did not have a child in his or her care shall report the occurrence of such an event to the Social Security Administration before the receipt and acceptance of a benefit for the second month following the month in which the deduction event occurred.

(a) If an individual (or the person receiving benefits on his behalf) fails to comply with the reporting obligations of § 404.450 within the time specified in § 404.450 and it is found that good cause for such failure does not exist (see § 404.454), a penalty deduction is made from the individual's benefits in addition to the deduction described in § 404.417 (relating to noncovered remunerative activity outside the United States) or § 404.421 (relating to failure to have care of a child).

Notwithstanding the provisions described in §§ 404.415, 404.417, 404.421, 404.451, and 404.453 about the amount of the deduction to be imposed for a month, no such deduction is imposed for a month when the benefits payable for that month to all persons entitled to benefits on the same earnings record and living in the same household remain equal to the maximum benefits payable to them on that earnings record. Where making such deductions and increasing the benefits to others in the household (for the month in which the deduction event occurred) would give members of the household less than the maximum (as determined under § 404.404) payable to them, the amount of deduction imposed is reduced to the difference between the maximum amount of benefits payable to them and the total amount which would have been paid if the benefits of members of the household not subject to deductions were increased for that month. The individual subject to the deduction for such month may be paid the difference between the deduction so reduced and his benefit as adjusted under § 404.403 (without application of § 404.402(a)). All other persons in the household are paid, for such month, their benefits as adjusted under § 404.403 without application of § 404.402(a).