I had income 1977-1986 and then again in 2013-2017. In October 2018, SS Statement said I had earned enough credits (finally!) to qualify for SS. Now in 2020, SS Statement says I only have 39 and don't qualify for benefits. I am no longer working. What happens now? I'm 62. (Any idea how many credits I earned in 1977 for income of $768?)
Why would they say I qualify and then say I don't. Is this something I can change? Thank you for any info you can provide.

Hi,

The conflicting information you received from Social Security is in part related to your question about the number of Social Security credits (i.e. quarters of coverage, or QC) you earned with earnings of $768 in 1977. The bottom line is that you may have earned as few as 1 QC or as many as 4 QCs in 1977, assuming that the $768 represents Social Security covered wages and not self-employment earnings. That's because of the way that QCs were earned prior to 1978.

Before 1978, you had to earn at least $50 of Social Security covered wages in an actual calendar quarter (i.e. January-March, April-June, July-September, or October-December) in order to be credited with a QC. Thus, if you only had earnings in a single calendar quarter of a year you couldn't earn more than 1 QC no matter how much you earned in that calendar quarter. Starting with 1978, however, the number of QCs credited for a calendar year is based on total calendar year earnings, regardless of the number of calendar quarters in which a person worked. Therefore, starting with 1978 a person could work 1 day in a year and earn up to 4 QCs, provided that their earnings were high enough. For the amounts needed to earn a QC in years starting with 1978, refer to the following Social Security website: https://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/QC.html.

By the way, the crediting of QCs for self-employment earnings was always done based on calendar year earnings regardless of when the work was done, even before 1978. So, if the $768 you earned in 1977 was self-employment earnings rather than wages, you'd be credited with 4 QCs that year.

Unfortunately, the data used to produce the Social Security statements that are sent to people is not detailed enough to identify the number of QCs earned prior to 1978. I think that's because the statements are produced by private contractors who only receive limited earnings information from Social Security. In any case, Social Security does have your full earnings record in their computer system, including a breakdown of your QCs earned in years prior to 1978. So, you should be able to get an accurate count of your total QCs by contacting Social Security and speaking with one of their employees.

Best, Jerry