Fraternity-Testvériség, 1959 (37. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1959-04-01 / 4. szám
2 FRATERNITY Earnings for the entire taxable year in which you reach age 72 must be counted in determining if payments can be made for months in that year before your 72nd birthday. Counted as Social Security earnings are all wages from employment and self employment. Not counted are income from savings, investments, pensions and insurance. For any month in which a retired worker is not due a check, no payment will be made to dependents whose benefits are based on his account. However, earnings of a dependent that place him in deduction status will not affect benefits to other members of his family. When will Social Security payments begin? For the wage earner who files a year or more after attainment of age 65 (62 for women), payments will begin 12 months to the date of filing, not the date in which he became eligible. Thus, a retired person who is eligible to receive benefits at age 65, might delay filing an application until age 68. In so doing, he would actually lose up to 24 months’ benefit checks! Insured status is based on the year in which a wage earner attains age 65, not the year in which he files application. FULLY INSURED STATUS How many quarters are required to become fully insured under Social Security? One out of every two quarters (earned at any time after 1936) that have elapsed since 1950, up to your retirement age (62 for women, 65 for men) are required. In counting the number of calendar quarters after 1950, omit: 1. Quarters in which you were under 21 years of age. 2. Quarters in which your earnings record was frozen. You must have a minimum of six quarters coverage and may, under a special rule, become fully insured if you have quarters of coverage in all but four of the calendar quarters after 1954. Here’s a handy five-year table: Reached Quarters Needed Retirement Age Jan. - June July - Dec. 1958 14 15 1959 16 17 1960 18 19 1961 20 21 1962 22 23 Quarters of coverage can be acquired after attainment of retirement age if more are needed for coverage. Take the case of Sam who files in October, 1958, at age 65. Sam’s wage record reveals credits of 13 quarters, most of which were acquired prior to 1954. Since he attained retirement age in October, 1958, he will need 15 quarters of coverage to be fully insured. He could obtain the additional number by working from January through June, 1959. Thus, in July of 1959 (earlier if he worked in the fourth quarter of ’58) he would qualify.
