Basic (07-14)
Under the agreement, if a number holder (NH) has at least six U.S. quarters of coverage (QCs) but not enough to receive regular U.S. benefits, the United States can count the NH's credits under the Slovak social security system to permit the NH to qualify for U.S. Totalization benefits. If the NH has enough QCs under the U.S. system to receive regular U.S. benefits, the United States cannot count Slovak credits.
Take following steps when adjudicating claims under the Slovak Totalization agreement.
When a NH does not have enough U.S. coverage to meet fully insured status, but the NH has at least six QCs, field offices (FOs) must take an initial claim to process the insured status denial.
The initial denial automatically generates a notice to inform the applicant that the NH does not meet the insured status requirement based on U.S. coverage alone, and that SSA will request the Slovak earnings record.
The Modernized Claims Systems (MCS) screen at the FO displays TOT as the ISSUE and notifies the Office of International Operations (OIO) through the Modernized Development Worksheet (MDW).
For more information about processing Totalization insured status notices for claims for U.S. benefits, see GN 01702.315 through GN 01702.325.
OIO requests and converts Slovak periods of coverage on the Slovak earnings record to U.S. QCs before adjudicating the claim.
SSA credits one U.S. QC for every 90 days of coverage certified by the Slovak agency. SSA does not provide credit for:
any Slovak coverage credited for periods prior to 1937;
any month in a calendar quarter that is already credited as a U.S. QC;
more than four QCs for any calendar year; or
any period of coverage not based on contributions.
When SSA establishes U.S. insured status based on combined U.S. and Slovak coverage, SSA computes the amount of the U.S. Totalization benefit using the computation method described in GN 01701.200.
GN 01701.200 Totalization Computations
GN 01702.305 Developing and Processing Claims Under More Than One Totalization Agreement
GN 01702.310 Routing Claims for U.S. Benefits Involving Totalization
GN 01702.315 Processing Totalization Insured-Status Notices in Claims for U.S. Benefits
GN 01702.320 Routing of Claims for Foreign Benefits
GN 01702.325 Summary of Field Office Development and Processing of U.S. Totalization Claims and Foreign Claims (Regular and Totalization)