Effective Dates: 01/15/1997 - Present Previous | Next

TN 3 (02-95)

GN 01703.246 Processing Cases Involving Railroad Coverage

A. Introduction

It is important to ascertain the amount of railroad (RR) coverage in totalization claims in order to:

  • •

    determine insured status for a U.S. claim, and/or

  • •

    forward accurate and complete coverage information to the foreign agency.

B. Policy

The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) transfers to SSA the coverage of Railroad (RR) workers who have less than 120 months of RR service. This coverage and the resulting QCs are combined with Title II coverage and will be considered by the foreign country if, under the agreement, it uses U.S. QCs.

C. Process

When a U.S. earnings record is requested and NHs are uninsured based on Social Security coverage, OCRO:

  • •

    Prorates RR QCs, and

    Note: This action is confirmed by a numerical entry in the RQSM column in the “Computational Yearly Earnings” field on the earnings record.

  • •

    Includes the creditable RR QCs under “HAS” in the “Ins Stat” field of the earnings record.

D. Procedure - liaison clerk

1. RR service

Liaison Clerk - In order to provide a complete earnings record to the foreign agency, check for the possibility of RR service. At the time the totalization earnings record is requested:

  • •

    check the folder for any indication of RR service, and

  • •

    check any earnings record in file for an entry in the “Computational Yearly Earnings” field which indicates the worker had some RR service.

2. RR service months

In order to ascertain the exact number of U.S. QCs, identify all RR service months (SM) unless the specific agreement chapter does not require certification of all U.S. QCs; e.g. Norway. Follow these steps to accomplish this:

  1. a. 

    Review the U.S. ER

    • •

      If OCRO has identified RRSM as described in C. above, release ER to the foreign agency.

    • •

      If OCRO has not displayed alleged RR coverage in the manner described in C above, direct the LC to request a breakdown of service months by completing Form SSA-790-RR.

  2. b. 

    When the RR-90 is received from the RRB, route it to a CA so that the SMs can be converted to QCs.

    Certify the total number of QCs to the foreign agency.

E. Procedure - claims authorizer

Claims Authorizer:

When the RR-90 is received, take the following steps:

  • •

    Convert non-coinciding RR SMs to QCs.

  • •

    Change affected quarters from “N”s to “C”s.

  • •

    Enter RR compensation on the E/R for the applicable year(s) under the RR column

  • •

    Use RR QCs combined with regular QCs to determine the number of foreign quarters needed to meet insured status.

  • •

    Route the folder to the LC.

To Link to this section - Use this URL:
http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0201703246
GN 01703.246 - Processing Cases Involving Railroad Coverage - 01/15/1997
Batch run: 10/17/2016
Rev:01/15/1997