For years after 1977, we treated all non-agricultural wages, agricultural wages, railroad compensation, and self-employment income (SEI) the same for purposes of crediting QC. The number of QCs assigned to a calendar year depends upon the amount of earnings credited to a calendar year, regardless of the type of earnings credited. If the individual's total earnings for the calendar year equal at least four times the quarterly increment in effect for that year, each quarter is a QC. We assign QCs on the first day of the each quarter.

Assignment of QCs is flexible. We can assign a QC to any quarter in the calendar year, subject to the limitations in RS 00301.240. Assign a QC to a specific calendar quarter whenever necessary to meet:

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  fully, or currently insured status discussed in RS 00301.105 through RS 00301.110,

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  disability insured status discussed in RS 00301.120 through RS 00301.140, and

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  a computation or recomputation of the number holders (NH) Primary Insurance Amount (PIA).

EXAMPLE: Henry (date of birth 05/23/1948) filed for retirement insurance benefits (RIB) in May 2010. His last posted QC was for the fourth quarter of 2009, and he did not work in 2010. He lacked one QC for fully insured status, and we disallowed his claim. In December 2010, he earned $1,500 and another QC. He returned to the field office to report his additional earnings, and he provided a pay stub as proof of the earnings. We will assign the QC to the first quarter of 2010, and award benefits based on the disallowed application he filed in May 2010, since, by our assignment of the QC to the first quarter of 2010, Henry meets fully insured status at the time of filing. We determine QCs by the amount of earnings credited to a calendar year and assign them to the quarters most advantageous to the NH.