GN 01763.120 U.S. Totalization Benefits under the Agreement with Iceland

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 periods of work under the Icelandic 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 Icelandic credits.

A. Adjudicating claims under the Agreement

1. Field office responsibilities for claims processing under the 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 office (FO) technicians must take an initial claim to process the insured status denial. The initial denial automatically generates a notice to inform the applicant that he or she does not meet the insured status requirement based on U.S. coverage alone, and that we will request the applicant’s Icelandic earnings record.

For more information about processing Totalization insured status notices for claims for U.S. benefits, see GN 01702.315 through GN 01702.325.

2. Division of International Operations (DIO) responsibilities for claims processing under the agreement

DIO requests and converts Icelandic periods of coverage on the Icelandic earnings record to U.S. QCs before adjudicating the claim.

B. Crediting Icelandic coverage under the agreement

The Social Security Administration (SSA) credits one U.S. QC for every three months of coverage certified by the agency of Iceland. SSA does not provide credit for the following:

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Icelandic coverage credited for periods prior to 1937;
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any month in the calendar quarter that is already credited as a U.S. QC;
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more than four QCs for any calendar year; or
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any period of coverage not based on work under Icelandic laws.

C. Computing benefits

SSA computes the amount of the U.S. Totalization benefit using the computation method as described in GN 01701.200.

D. References

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GN 01702.315 Processing Totalization Insured-Status Notices in Claims for U.S. Benefits, through
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GN 01702.325 Summary of Field Office Development and Processing of U.S. Totalization Claims and Foreign Claims (Regular and Totalization)

To Link to this section - Use this URL:
http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0201763120

GN 01763.120 - U.S. Totalization Benefits under the Agreement with Iceland - 04/25/2019
Batch run: 04/25/2019
Rev:04/25/2019

Program Operations Manual System (POMS)