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Report On Social Security Military Wage Credit Errors

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deltaj

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  • HadIt.com Elder

I found an interesting report online which was sent to a congressman about how Social Security made errors in calculating additional military wage credits for Social Security. Congress added the following additional military wage credits for veterans who served in the following eras:

Service after September 15, 1940 and before 1957: $160 per month.

Service after 1956 and before 1978: $300 per quarter.

Service before 1977 and before 2002: $100 per month.

Service after 2001 credits eliminated. I am posting this report below but for some reason the footnotes are missing. Perhaps someone else here to post a link to this document.

October 27, 2003

The Honorable E. Clay Shaw, Jr.

Chairman, Subcommittee on Social Security

Committee on Ways and Means

House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Shaw:

I am pleased to provide you with the enclosed report addressing your August 11, 2003

letter, asking our Office to determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA)

is properly including military wage credits when calculating benefits. This report

contains information related to:

• the number of military veterans receiving SSA benefits,

• the complexities of the legal and regulatory environment,

• potential SSA systems limitations that need to be considered in correcting

underpayments/overpayments,

• the status of any open Office of the Inspector General recommendations from

previous reviews of military earnings, and

• SSA’s planned approach to resolve any underpayments/overpayments.

If you have any questions or would like to be briefed on this issue, please call me or

have your staff contact Douglas Cunningham, Executive Assistant, at (202) 358-6319.

Sincerely,

James G. Huse, Jr.

Enclosure

cc:

Jo Anne B. Barnhart

CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSE

REPORT

TITLE II BENEFICIARIES WITH

MILITARY EARNINGS

A-03-04-24049

OCTOBER 2003

Mission

We improve SSA programs and operations and protect them against fraud, waste,

and abuse by conducting independent and objective audits, evaluations, and

investigations. We provide timely, useful, and reliable information and advice to

Administration officials, the Congress, and the public.

Authority

The Inspector General Act created independent audit and investigative units,

called the Office of Inspector General (OIG). The mission of the OIG, as spelled

out in the Act, is to:

Conduct and supervise independent and objective audits and

investigations relating to agency programs and operations.

Promote economy, effectiveness, and efficiency within the agency.

Prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse in agency programs and

operations.

Review and make recommendations regarding existing and proposed

legislation and regulations relating to agency programs and operations.

Keep the agency head and the Congress fully and currently informed of

problems in agency programs and operations.

To ensure objectivity, the IG Act empowers the IG with:

Independence to determine what reviews to perform.

Access to all information necessary for the reviews.

Authority to publish findings and recommendations based on the reviews.

Vision

By conducting independent and objective audits, investigations, and evaluations,

we are agents of positive change striving for continuous improvement in the

Social Security Administration's programs, operations, and management and in

our own office.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 1

Background

On August 11, 2003, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security requested

the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) review the following:

1. The status of ongoing efforts in the Social Security Administration (SSA) to ensure

members of the military and their families receive proper accounting of their

military wage credits toward benefits;

2. The estimated number of members of the military and their eligible family

members who may be affected by failure to properly use military wage credits as

well as the potential impact on their benefits; and

3. The potential amount of under- and overpaid benefits related to inappropriate

application of military wage credits.

This report contains information related to our initial survey of this area. We anticipate

additional military earnings work in the future to fully address all of the above questions.

This particular report will address:

• the number of military veterans receiving SSA benefits,

• the complexities of the legal and regulatory environment,

• potential SSA systems limitations that need to be considered in correcting

underpayments/overpayments,

• the status of any open OIG recommendations from previous reviews of military

earnings, and

• SSA’s planned approach to resolve any underpayments/overpayments.

MILITARY SERVICE AND SOCIAL SECURITY

Military personnel have been covered under Social Security since 1957.1 Although

Social Security benefits are based on average lifetime earnings, members of the military

receive special credits that augment their earnings for the purpose of computing Social

Security benefits. The Congress enacted special credits because it believed that the

military earnings reported to SSA were too low, and that, without the credits, Social

Security benefits for veterans and their dependents would also be too low. Congress

has also provided special credits for veterans who served before the military was

brought under the Social Security system.

1 Servicemen’s and Veterans’ Survivor Benefits Act, Public Law No. 84-881, August 1, 1956; Amended

the Social Security Act by extending regular contributory coverage under the old-age and survivors

insurance program to members of the uniformed services on active duty after 1956.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 2

The OIG has released two reports in recent years on military earnings. In September

1997, we released a report entitled Payment Accuracy Task Force: Earnings Record

Issue Team2 that made 18 recommendations to improve the earnings process, 13 of

which related directly to problems with military earnings. The report noted that military

service earnings errors accounted for the largest dollar amount, about 60 percent, of all

earnings record errors caused by field offices. In Fiscal Year 1995, military service

errors accounted for $52.6 million (30 percent) of the $166.1 million in projected

earnings errors related to the Title II retirement program. These type of errors could

impact SSA’s dollar accuracy of Title II payments—one of the Agency’s performance

indicators.3

The 1997 report highlighted problems in the following areas:

• Ensuring that military wages are posted properly;

• Allowing claimants to verify military service dates;

• Obtaining evidence of military service;

• Preventing the exclusion of post-1956 military service;

• Identifying reserve and National Guard service;

• Identifying military service using SSA’s records; and

• Establishing clear military service policies for use by field offices.

In October 2002, we released a Congressional Response Report entitled Status of

Corrective Actions Taken in Response to Recommendations in Fiscal Years 1997

Through 2000 Payment Accuracy Task Force Reports.4 In this report we noted that

10 of the 13 recommendations provided in the prior report had been implemented, and

the remaining 3 were in the process of implementation, which we will discuss later in

this report.

2 Payment Accuracy Task Force: Earnings Record Issue Team Final Report, (A-13-97-52003),

September 1997. The Payment Accuracy Task Force was created through the cooperative efforts of SSA

and the OIG to improve the accuracy of payments for SSA’s Old-Age Survivors and Disability Insurance

and Supplemental Security Income programs. To guide and support this effort, an Associate

Commissioner level Steering Committee was formed.

3 SSA has a strategic objective, beginning in 2002 and through 2005, to maintain at 99.8 percent the

overpayment and underpayment accuracy based on non-medical factors of eligibility of Old Age Survivors

and Disability Insurance payment outlays.

4Status of Corrective Actions Taken in Response to Recommendations in Fiscal Years 1997 Through

2000 Payment Accuracy Task Force Reports, (A-13-01-21046), October 2002.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 3

Results of Review

Military veterans represent approximately one out of every four Social Security

beneficiaries. A number of changes in legislation have attempted to provide these

veterans with equitable benefits when compared to the rest of the population. However,

these changes have also made the claims process more complex. Furthermore, SSA’s

own systems have limitations which complicate the benefit calculation process. While

the OIG has recommended improvements in Agency procedures for determining military

earnings and credits, these recommendations did not address previous errors. As a

result, SSA is attempting to locate beneficiaries who may have errors in their previous

benefit calculation and resolve these problems.

MILITARY VETERAN RECEIVING SSA BENEFITS

According to SSA’s Office of Policy, approximately 9.3 million military veterans were

receiving SSA benefits in 2000.5 These veterans represented about 25 percent of the

adult Social Security beneficiary population at that time. Furthermore, approximately

42 percent of all Social Security beneficiaries were either veterans or resided with family

members who were veterans. The SSA study also noted that between 1968 and 2000,

while the overall Social Security population almost doubled, the number of veterans

receiving Social Security more than quadrupled.

About 4.7 million of the veterans who receive Social Security benefits are World War II

veterans, most of whom were 75 years or older at the time of the SSA study. In

Figure 1 we provide information on military veterans receiving Social Security benefits

by the war in which they served. Figure 2 shows military veterans receiving Social

Security benefits by age.

5Military Veterans and Social Security, Research and Statistics Note, Note No. 2001-01, Office of

Research, Evaluation, and Statistics, SSA, February 2001.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 4

Figure 1: Military Veterans Receiving

Social Security Benefits by Wartime Service

(As of March 2000)

World War II

51%

Korean War

31%

Vietnam

6%

Other

12%

0 1,000 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000

Number of Veterans Receiving SSA Benefits

(shown in thousands)

Under 50

Age 50-61

Age 62-74

Age 75-84

Over 84

Age of Veterans

Figure 2: Military Veterans Receiving

Social Security Benefits by Age

(As of March 2000)

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 5

COMPLEXITIES OF LEGAL AND REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

Title II of the Social Security Act requires that SSA maintain records of wage amounts

employers pay to individuals as well as each individual’s self-reported income.

Members of the U.S. military were not added to the Social Security program until 1957.6

Although this allowed U.S. veterans to benefit from the program, it also raised concerns

about whether their benefits were adequate since the veterans (1) lacked military

earnings credit history prior to 1957 and (2) had lower recorded wages than other

workers in the economy.7

As a result, Congress passed a number of laws to provide military veterans with

gratuitous wage credits8 and deemed wages,9 and thereby higher retirement benefits.

For example, under the new provisions the amount added to a veteran’s earnings

records would depend on when they served in the military.

• Service after September 15, 1940 and before 1957: $160 per month.

• Service after 1956 and before 1978: $300 per quarter.

• Service after 1977 and before 2002: $100 per month.

• Service after 2001: credits eliminated.

We further describe some of these provisions in Appendix C.

Whether or not to apply a credit or deemed wages as part of the benefit calculation can

be complicated by other factors as well. For example, SSA claims representatives (CR)

processing claims may need to determine whether (1) a veteran was honorably

discharged from the military,10 (2) the service lasted at least 90 days,11 (3) the earnings

were used towards any other Federal pension,12 and/or (4) the veteran was on active

duty or annual training.13 Each of these elements can impact the benefit calculations.

6 See Footnote 1.

7 The recorded wages were lower, in part, because military service basic pay was very low and did not

reflect the value of food, shelter, and other benefits.

8 Veterans are eligible for "gratuitous military wage credits" of $160 for each month of active duty if they

were on active duty in the uniformed services after September 15, 1940, and before January 1, 1957.

9 Deemed wages are noncontributory wages added to veterans wage records who served in the military

after 1957 and had covered military earnings reported.

10 Program Operations Manual System (POMS) reference RS 01701.060 “Pre-1957 Wage Credits –

Types of Discharge or Release.”

11 POMS reference RS 01701.055 “Pre-1957 Wage Credits – Length of Service Requirements.”

12 POMS reference RS 01701.080 “Bars to SSA Wage Credits.”

13 POMS reference RS 01701.140 “[Deemed Military Wage] Requirements After 1956 But Before 2002.”

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 6

An additional issue that must be considered is whether the military earnings were

properly posted to SSA’s earnings records. The Master Earnings File (MEF) contains

all earnings data reported by employers and self-employed individuals. However, as we

have noted, military veterans were not covered under SSA’s program until 1957, and

earnings between 1957 and 1967 do not always show sufficient detail to determine

whether the earnings relate to military service. Furthermore, sometimes military service

wages are missing from SSA’s earnings records if the name and Social Security

number combination on the reported wages does not match SSA’s records. In such

cases, the wages are posted to SSA’s Earnings Suspense File (ESF) until the earnings

can be resolved.14

In each case where military service is being developed, the military veterans or their

dependents may be required to provide evidence of military service. SSA attempts to

obtain evidence of military service from the claimant first,15 which may eliminate the

need to contact other sources. This verification may slow down the claims process if

the information is not readily available. Fortunately, SSA now has a variety of ways to

obtain the necessary military evidence. For example, SSA can query Department of

Veterans Affairs military service information via an online system.16 Furthermore, a

request for evidence can be sent to the Department of Defense.17 And, if necessary, a

local courthouse may even be able to provide the evidence. Nonetheless, this

additional work may complicate and delay the claims process.

SSA SYSTEMS LIMITATIONS

SSA has a number of systems limitations that impact the calculation of benefits for

military veterans, including (1) lack of a military identifier on earnings prior to 1968;

(2) lack of earnings detail on the Agency’s earnings system prior to 1978; and

(3) reporting problems related to military-related Employer Identification Numbers

(EIN).18

14 For more on the ESF, see our Congressional Response Report: Status of SSA’s Earnings Suspense

File (A-03-03-23038), November 2002.

15 To determine whether the earlier wages are military-related, the claimant may provide documentation

such as a Report of Transfer or Discharge (DD-214).

16 This system—the Veterans Benefits Administration Query—was first introduced in May 2002.

17 This may not be possible for some Army or Air force veterans whose records were destroyed in a fire.

The fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri destroyed 75 to 80 percent of the

records for: Army veterans discharged before 1960 and Air Force veterans surnamed “Hubbard” through

“Z” who were discharged between September 25, 1947 and December 31, 1963.

18 The EIN is a 9-digit number assigned by the Internal Revenue Service to sole proprietors, corporations,

partnerships, estates, trusts, and other entities for tax filing and reporting purposes.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 7

Identifying Military Earnings Prior to 1968

Prior to 1968, military earnings were shown in SSA’s systems as regular wages rather

than military wages. As a result, military wages reported from 1957 through 1967 have

not always been properly identified and used to provide appropriate credits. Beginning

in 1968, SSA modified its systems to specifically identify military earnings to ensure

appropriate credits were automatically added to an individual’s earnings record. SSA

staff informed us that the U.S. military places an identifier on their wage reports before

sending them to SSA so that the wages can be recognized by SSA as military wages.

To resolve the issue of unidentified military wages from 1957 to 1967, SSA created the

Disability, Railroad, Alien and Military Service (DRAMS)19 file—a separate database

used to identify proven military service during this period. During the benefit claims

process, the CR requests information about military service and places beginning and

ending dates of service into DRAMS. As part of the automated benefit calculation

process, wage credits related to the periods of service shown in DRAMS, if material, are

added to the veteran’s earnings record and treated as regular covered wages for

insured status purposes. However, unlike military wages posted after 1968, military

wage credits are not automatically noted in SSA’s system when a CR performs a

manual benefit calculation. As a result, errors are more likely to occur in calculations

using this pre-1968 military wage data.

Earnings Record Details Prior To 1978

The MEF does not provide details on military earnings, or any earnings, prior to 1978.

The wages are bundled together by year earned, but details such as employer name or

EIN are not posted to each individual’s earnings history. This makes it difficult for the

CR—who may be using the earnings information to understand a worker’s earnings

history—to determine whether an individual has been credited for each year of military

service.20 If the documentation is not available, SSA may request the Office of Central

Operations (OCO) begin a process called “Feedback,”21 which is used to identify and

post the quarterly earnings detail from each employer for the requested years to SSA's

MEF.22

19 DRAMS is an SSA file that contains information from other government agencies and prior SSA claims.

DRAMS provides information, by Social Security number, about (1) alien deportation actions from the

Immigration and Naturalization Service (now the Department of Homeland Security); (2) Japanese

internment from 1941 through 1946; (3) military service from 1940 through 1967; (4) prior periods of

disability from 1957 to present (excluding FREEZE only periods after 1977); and (5) Railroad Retirement

Board Jurisdiction information.

20 In our 1997 report, we noted that SSA should modify policy to require review of pre-1978 military

wages.

21 Feedback is a process used where OCO checks its microfilm files for an earnings detail of a number

holder between 1937 and 1977.

22 If the missing earnings are not posted as the result of Feedback, SSA’s ESF can be queried. Military

wages located in the ESF can be reinstated to the earnings record.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 8

Military Employer Identification Numbers

SSA personnel told us that hundreds of EINs have been used by the Federal

Government over the years when reporting military wages. However, SSA staff noted

that not all of the military-related EINs were properly identified in SSA’s systems nor

recognized by SSA staff. For example, some of the military wages have been reported

as regular wages under the EIN of a private company. In a recent case, SSA

discovered that a private employer’s EIN was incorrectly used by the Department of the

Army for active military reservists for the years 1958 through 1966—impacting as many

as 11,000 wage earners. As a result, appropriate credits may be missing from the

veterans’ earnings records.

SSA advised us that 1972 amendments to the Social Security Act,23 which extended

deemed wage credits to military service personnel from 1957 to 1967, introduced

several factors which have contributed to the issues faced by the Agency, including:

• SSA did not have a systematic way to identify military earnings already reported

and posted for years 1957 through 1967. As a result, the Agency determined

that the only way to administer the provision was to require claims

representatives to obtain proof of military service and credit military service as

part of the claims process.

• Until the 1972 legislation, there was no legal requirement to maintain a record of

military earnings for the years 1957 through 1967. As a result, the systems

limitations related to a lack of a military identifier on the earnings records prior to

1968 and the EIN reporting issues, resulted from the retroactive application of the

deemed military wage provision.

• The 1972 legislation expanded the universe of beneficiaries covered by the

deemed military wages provisions, which contributed to the overall size of the

problem.

STATUS OF OPEN RECOMMENDATIONS

As stated earlier, our September 1997 report24 stated that Fiscal Year 1995 military

service errors accounted for $52.6 million (30 percent) of the $166.1 million in projected

Title II retirement earnings errors. About $19.7 million in deficiencies, or 37 percent,

were caused by a lack of clear military service policies for use by the field offices.

Another $12.7 million in deficiencies, or 24 percent, related to the need for field office

staff to ensure that military wages were posted properly to the earnings record.

23 Public Law No. 92-603, §120(a)(2).

24 Payment Accuracy Task Force: Earnings Record Issue Team Final Report, (A-13-97-52003),

September 1997.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 9

At the time of our October 2002 report,25 SSA had implemented 10 of the

13 recommendations we made related to military earnings. In September 2003, SSA

provided an update on the remaining three recommendations:26

• Automate the feedback procedure used to prove alleged military service during

1957-1967 – SSA said resource limitations have not allowed the Agency to

implement the change;

• Generate a systems alert when the claimant alleges no military service, and the

system can identify possible military service – SSA said they will be able to

implement this recommendation in April 2004; and

• Establish an intercomponent team to improve military service procedures – SSA

said it hopes to issue revised procedures in the summer of 2004.

We provide the full text of SSA’s responses to all 13 recommendations in Appendix D.

While the recommendations we made in the 1997 report should assist SSA as it

processes future benefit claims involving military earnings, past errors are not likely to

be resolved as a result of these improvements. As a result, the military service of

veterans who applied for Social Security retirement benefits in the past may need to be

revisited to ensure benefit calculations fully considered the impact of noncontributory

wage credits and/or deemed wages.

As noted earlier, about 4.7 million of the veterans who receive Social Security benefits

are World War II veterans, most of whom were 75 years or older at the time of the

March 2000 SSA study. Furthermore, according to the Center for Disease Control and

Prevention’s National Vital Statistics Reports,27 males who had reached age 75 in the

year 2000 had an average life expectancy of approximately 10 years. Hence, the

Agency has a narrow window to correct past Social Security retirement benefits for this

elderly group of veterans.

SSA advised that most World War II veterans are not adversely affected by missing

military service wage credits. The reason is that most benefit calculations for

beneficiaries in this age group consider only earnings after 1950. Therefore, military

wage credits for the World War II era are seldom used in benefit calculations. For the

most part, only those World War II veterans who had active military service after 1950

are potentially affected by missing military credits. SSA noted that this group would

include veterans who also served in the Korean Conflict or had an extended military

career, which is a fraction of the 4.7 million World War II veterans receiving benefits.

25 Congressional Response Report: Status of Corrective Actions Taken in Response to

Recommendations in Fiscal Years 1997 Through 2000 Payment Accuracy Task Force Reports,

(A-13-01-21046), October 2002.

26 These were recommendations 7, 12, and 13, respectively.

27 Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2001, National Vital Statistics Reports, Center for Disease Control and

Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Volume 51, Number 5, March 14, 2003.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 10

SSA’s APPROACH TO RESOLVING MILITARY WAGE ERRORS

SSA’s Office of Quality Assurance and Performance Assessment (OQA) has a number

of ongoing efforts to identify missing noncontributory and contributory military wage

credits and determine their potential impact on current and future Title II beneficiaries.

OQA is attempting to locate military earnings errors by analyzing employer wage

reporting trends, reviewing areas known to be problematic in the past, and validating the

information in SSA’s records. As noted earlier, adjusting benefits for military earnings is

particularly difficult due to the complex statutory requirements as well as limitations

within SSA's systems.

In one of its reviews, OQA has profiled a 1 percent sample of individuals currently

receiving Title II payments on SSA’s Master Beneficiary Record (MBR) 28 to identify

those individuals most likely to have served in the U.S. military.29 For example, if an

individual’s MEF record showed 3 years of military service, from 1968 to 1970, and

detail on the earnings before 1968 was never added to the MEF, the record might be

selected for further review to ensure the early earnings did not also relate to military

service.

Once it identified this group with military service, OQA recalculated benefits for those

cases where it appeared relevant military wages and/or qualifying credits were not

taken into account as part of their initial benefit computation. Changes due to these

recalculations were immediately posted to the beneficiary’s account. This military

service profiling will be used to extract all potential records from SSA's MBR for further

investigation and possible benefit recalculation.

In the months to come, OQA will expand this review to more cases to properly quantify

the full impact on retired and disabled beneficiaries, as well as any auxiliary

beneficiaries on their record. Such a review will entail additional resources to (1) obtain

feedback on wages prior to 1978 and (2) recalculate benefits where wages and/or

credits were not properly included.

Additional efforts by OQA may involve reviewing the military EINs used in SSA’s MEF,

verifying SSA’s military information against other government databases, and/or

determining additional profiling techniques to find earnings errors. We asked SSA for

both an early estimate of underpayments and/or overpayments related to current and

planned projects, but were told by Agency staff that this information was not yet

available. However, based on early indications, OQA expects underpayments related to

military earnings to be considerably larger than overpayments.

28 The MBR is an electronic file containing information related to SSA beneficiaries’ retirement, survivors,

or disability benefits.

29 Some military service performed in foreign militaries might also qualify for military credits. For example,

service in the Philippines military may make an individual eligible for credits. See 20 C.F.R. §§

404.1312(d)-(e) and 404.1322(d).

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049) 11

Conclusions

Military veterans represent a large number of Social Security beneficiaries. The

complexity of the credits and deemed wages, as well as system limitations, also make

determining benefits for this group difficult at times. While past OIG recommendations

can help with future calculations, past errors will need to be resolved through OQA’s

efforts to identify beneficiaries with errors in their previous benefit calculations.

SSA should be commended for its proactive approach in this area. Regardless of the

complexities involved in implementing legislative mandates, military veterans are

entitled to full credit for the service they provided to the United States. Based on

projections in the 1997 review, military earnings errors in Fiscal Year 1995 caused

approximately $52 million in payment errors. If similar errors have occurred over the

years, the impact of these errors could have a significant impact on benefit

computations. Furthermore, since many of the veterans who may be impacted by these

recalculations are among the Agency’s older beneficiaries, SSA management will need

to ensure sufficient resources are made available to expedite OQA’s work.

We will continue to monitor the Agency’s progress in this area to ensure military service

is properly credited to past and future Title II beneficiaries.

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049)

Appendices

Appendix A – Acronyms

Appendix B – Scope and Methodology

Appendix C – Selected Legal Provisions Related to Military Earnings

Appendix D – Status of Previous Payment Accuracy Task Force

Recommendations

Title II Beneficiaries with Military Earnings (A-03-04-24049)

Appendix A

Acronyms

C.F.R. Code of Federal Regulations

CR Claims Representative

DMW Deemed Military Wages

DRAMS Disability, Railroad, Alien and Military Service

EIN Employer Identification Number

EMS Earnings Modernization System

ESF Earnings Suspense File

MBR Master Beneficiary Record

MCS Modernized Claims System

MEF Master Earnings File

OCO Office of Central Operations

OIG Office of the Inspector General

OQA Office of Quality Assurance and Performance Assessment

POMS Program Operations Manual System

SSA Social Security Administration

U.S.C. United States Code

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  • HadIt.com Elder

These quarters can help Veterans who are close to qualifying for SS but are short of a quarter or 2. I know that SS is bad about applying and generally they will tell a Veteran that they did it when they did not.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Thank you Delta.

I'll save this to my research files. Hopefully it will help other vets like it helped me.

The SSA will argue & argue with vets telling them they applied the benefit, but will refuse to put on paper to prove it.

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These quarters can help Veterans who are close to qualifying for SS but are short of a quarter or 2. I know that SS is bad about applying and generally they will tell a Veteran that they did it when they did not.

My husband had to take a forced retirement at 62 and is receiving SS. As I recall, he took his DD-214 with him and was told everything was figured in but now I wonder. I'm also getting questions from other veterans after I showed them this Report. What would you suggest, if you're already receiving SS in order to make sure that you're receiving the correct amount? It's bad enough having to deal with the VA...now, the SSA? :huh:

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