Effective Dates: 10/03/2022 - Present Previous | Next

TN 10 (10-22)

GN 01705.120 U.S. Totalization Benefits under the U.S. - Italian Agreement

A. Benefits qualification and claims adjudication under the agreement

Under the agreement, if a Number Holder (NH) has at least six U.S. Quarters of Coverage (QC), but not enough to receive U.S. benefits, the Social Security Administration (SSA) can count the NH's periods of work under the Italian social security system. These periods may permit the NH (and any dependents or survivors) to qualify for U.S. Totalization benefits. If the NH has enough QCs under the U.S. system to qualify for U.S. benefits, SSA cannot count Italian credits.

1. Field office responsibilities for processing claims 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 the applicant does not meet the insured status requirement based on U.S. coverage alone. It also informs them that we will request the applicant’s Italian 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

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

B. Crediting Italian coverage under the agreement

SSA credits one U.S. QC for every thirteen weeks of Italian coverage in a calendar year, not to exceed four per calendar year.

NOTE: The Italian social security system measures coverage in weeks.

SSA does not provide credit for the following:

  • •

    Italian coverage credited for periods before 1937; or

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    Any week in a calendar quarter that is already credited as a U.S. QC; or

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    Any period of coverage not based on work under Italian laws.

C. Computing benefits

SSA computes the amount of the U.S. Totalization benefits 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/0201705120
GN 01705.120 - U.S. Totalization Benefits under the U.S. - Italian Agreement - 10/03/2022
Batch run: 03/03/2025
Rev:10/03/2022