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Social Security: Coverage

You must be insured under the Social Security program before retirement, survivors, or disability insurance benefits can be paid to you or your family.

Your lifetime earnings on record are reported under your Social Security Number (SSN). The number of quarters you have covered credits determine if you have enough credits for insured status.

Insured status is required before you can receive any type of benefit. "Fully insured status" is only one requirement for determining whether you receive a particular type of benefit. However, it does not mean that you can receive all types of benefits on your Social Security record, or does it have anything to do with the amount of benefits that are paid.

Becoming Fully Insured

You are fully insured if:

A. You have at least one credit for each calendar year after 1950; or
B. If later than 1950, you have at least one credit for each calendar year after you turned 21 and the earliest of the following:

The year before your turn 62;
The year you die; or
The year you become disabled.

You can obtain covered credits and count them in any year.

Exceptions
The following individuals are also fully insured:

A. Males born before January 2, 1911, need one credit for each year after 1950 up to the year below that occurs first:

They turn 65;
They die; or
They become disabled; and

B. Males born from January 2, 1911, through January 1, 1913, need one credit for each year after 1950 up the year below that occurs first:

1975;
They die; or
They become disabled.

In determining the number of years to be used in computing your credits, any year (all or part of a year) that was included in a period of disability is not counted.

In order to be considered for fully insured status, you need at least six credits. No more than 40 credits are required, regardless of your date of birth.

If you turned 72 before 1972, you may be entitled to a special cash monthly payment. This is true even if you are not fully insured.

You are entitled to retirement insurance benefits if you:

Are at least age 62 throughout your first month of entitlement and are fully insured; and
Have filed an application for retirement insurance benefits.

If you met the requirements in (1) above before the month you filed the application, you may be entitled to retirement insurance benefits back to the first month in which you met those requirements. There are certain limitations.