Effective Dates: 04/12/2023 - Present Previous | Next

TN 2 (04-23)

GN 01731.120 U.S. Totalization Benefits under the U.S. - Finnish Agreement

A. Benefit qualification

Under the Agreement, if a Number Holder (NH) has at least six quarters of U.S. coverage, but not enough to be insured for regular U.S. benefits, the NH's credits under the Finnish Earnings-Related Pension system can be added to the NH's U.S. coverage to permit the NH (and any eligible dependents or survivors) to qualify for U.S. Totalization benefits. Residence-based credits under the National Pension are not usable to determine entitlement to U.S. Totalization benefits.

B. Crediting Finnish coverage

The Social Security Administration (SSA) will credit one U.S. Quarter of Coverage (QC) for every 3 months of Finnish coverage in a year. Finland measures coverage in months. However, SSA will not credit coverage for:

  • •

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

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    More than 4 QCs for any calendar year.

C. Computing benefits

When SSA establishes U.S. insured status based on combined U.S. and Finnish coverage, SSA will determine the amount of the U.S. Totalization benefit using the computation method described in GN 01701.200.

D. Adjudicating claims under the Agreement

 

1. Field office responsibility for processing claims under the Agreement

The field office (FO) technicians must take an initial claim and process an initial insured status denial (see GN 01702.315 - GN 01702.325) when the worker has at least six QCs, but is not insured based on U.S. coverage alone. This denial will produce a notice advising the claimant that they do not meet insured status based on U.S. coverage alone and that SSA is requesting the foreign coverage record.

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

The Division of International Operations (DIO) will request the Finnish coverage record. When DIO receives the record, it will convert the Finnish coverage to QC's and finally adjudicate the claim.

 

E. References

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    GN 01702.315, Processing Totalization Insured-Status Notices in Claims for U.S. Benefits.

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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/0201731120
GN 01731.120 - U.S. Totalization Benefits under the U.S. - Finnish Agreement - 04/12/2023
Batch run: 04/19/2023
Rev:04/12/2023