SSR 75-23: SECTION 202(d)(1)(B) (42 U.S.C. 402(d)(1)(B)) -- CHILD'S INSURANCE BENEFITS -- REQUIREMENT FOR ENTITLEMENT -- MARRIAGE STATUS AT TIME OF FILING OF APPLICATION
20 CFR 404.320(a)(3) and 404.607(a)
SSR 75-23
- For purposes of determining initial entitlement of a claimant who had married 2 months before applying for child's insurance benefits as a disabled child, held, claimant's application should have the same effect as though it had been filed in the earliest month in which she would have been entitled during the 12-month period immediately preceding the filing of the application.
A question has been raised in the case where an applicant for child's insurance benefits was married 2 months prior to filing her application. She was still married at the time of filing. Her claim was denied on the basis of that provision of Section 202(d)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act which requires that, at the time of filing an application for child's insurance benefits, the claimant must be unmarried.
Even though a claimant no longer meets all of the conditions for entitlement to a monthly benefit at the time of filing an application, entitlement can be established for any month in the retroactive life of the application in which all of the requirements were met. As here pertinent, Section 202(j)(1) of the Social Security Act provides:
- An individual who would have been entitled to a benefit under subsection . . . (d) [202(d)] . . . . for any month after August 1950 had he filed application therefor prior to the end of such month shall be entitled to such benefit for such month if he files application therefor prior to the end of the twelfth month immediately succeeding such month. . . .
Further, pursuant to the above-cited provision of the act, Social Security Administration Regulations No. 4, Section 404.607(a), 20 CFR 404.607(a), provides that an application for monthly benefits shall be accepted as an application for purposes of entitlement to such benefits for any month in which the applicant would otherwise have been entitled in the 12-month period immediately prior to the filing of the application, and it states that:
- For purposes of determining whether the individual has met all conditions of entitlement in such prior months, the application shall have the same effect as though it had been filed in such months. (Emphasis supplied.)
Moreover, no legal reason is seen for a change in position because of the Social Security Amendments of 1956. Section 101(a) of those amendments amended section 202(d)(1) of the act to do no more than include as a condition of entitlement to child's insurance benefits the disability of a child which began before such child attained age 18. There is no effect on the applicability of section 202(j)(1) of the Act and Section 404.607(a) of Regulations No. 4 to an application for child's insurance benefits under section 202(d)(1) of the Act. Accordingly, such child is deemed to have filed an application for child's insurance benefits under section 202(d)(1) of the Act in the earliest month of the 12-month retroactive period of the application in which there coexist all of the conditions of benefit entitlement except for the filing of an application.
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