SSA has agreed to routinely certify to the Austrian agencies the amount of retirement, disability or survivors benefits that a person is receiving.

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  Month of Entitlement - for purposes of this instruction, month of entitlement pertains to the first month for which the beneficiary received his /her full monthly benefit amount (but no earlier than November 1991).

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  Monthly Benefit Amount - defined as the monthly benefit credited (MBC), i.e. the monthly amount before SMI premiums or taxes are withheld.

Certify the amount of benefits that a person is receiving on any SSN in all initial claims packages sent to an Austrian liaison agency or in response to an Austrian liaison agency's request.

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  Obtain a current MBR printout for the SSN on which the claim has been filed or the assistance request has been received.

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  If the claimant or person about whom the information has been requested is the widow(er) or divorced widow(er) of the worker on this SSN, obtain a current MBR printout on that person's SSN also.

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  Refer to the HISTORY field of the MBR. (The first column of that field contains the effective date of each benefit amount or change of status, the fifth column contains codes to explain the status of the benefits and the seventh (last) column contains the MBC amount.)

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  Find the first line in the HISTORY field that contains a status code of “01”. (The effective date and MBC found in that line are the date and monthly amount to be certified to the Austrian agency. Enter them on the SSA-e2960-U3-AU in accordance with GN 01730.220.D.4.)