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| Parent's Benefits | 404.370 – 404.384 | ||||||||||||||||
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Secs. 202, 203(a) and (b), 205(a), 216, 223, 225, and 702(a)(5) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 402, 403(a) and (b), 405(a), 416, 423, 425, and 902(a)(5)).
44 FR 34481, June 15, 1979, unless otherwise noted.
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Subscribe to: 20 CFR Part 404 Subpart D - Parent's Benefits
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You may be entitled to parent's benefits on the earnings record of someone who has died and was fully insured. You are entitled to these benefits if all the following conditions are met:
(a) You are related to the insured person as his or her parent in one of the ways described in § 404.374.
(b) You are at least 62 years old.
(c) You have not married since the insured person died.
(d) You apply.
(e) You are not entitled to an old-age benefit equal to or larger than the parent's benefit amount.
(f) You were receiving at least one-half of your support from the insured at the time he or she died, or at the beginning of any period of disability he or she had that continued up to death. See § 404.366(b) for a definition of one-half support. If you were receiving one-half of your support from the insured at the time of the insured's death, you must give us proof of this support within 2 years of the insured's death. If you were receiving one-half of your support from the insured at the time his or her period of disability began, you must give us proof of this support within 2 years of the month in which the insured filed his or her application for the period of disability. You must file the evidence of support even though you may not be eligible for parent's benefits until a later time. There are two exceptions to the 2-year filing requirement:
(1) If there is a good cause for failure to provide proof of support within the 2-year period, we will consider the proof you give us as though it were provided within the 2-year period. Good cause does not exist if you were informed of the need to provide the proof within the 2-year period and you neglected to do so or did not intend to do so. Good cause will be found to exist if you did not provide the proof within the time limit due to—
(i) Circumstances beyond your control, such as extended illness, mental or physical incapacity, or a language barrier;
(ii) Incorrect or incomplete information we furnished you;
(iii) Your efforts to get proof of the support without realizing that you could submit the proof after you gave us some other evidence of that support; or
(iv) Unusual or unavoidable circumstances that show you could not reasonably be expected to know of the 2-year time limit.
(2) The Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 provides for extending the filing time.
(a) You are entitled to parent's benefits beginning with the first month covered by your application in which you meet all the other requirements for entitlement.
(b) Your entitlement to benefits ends with the month before the month in which one of the following events first occurs:
(1) You become entitled to an old-age benefit equal to or larger than the parent's benefit.
(2) You marry, unless your marriage is to someone entitled to wife's, husband's, widow's, widower's, mother's, father's, parent's or disabled child's benefits. If you marry a person entitled to these benefits, the marriage does not affect your benefits.
(3) You die.
[44 FR 34481, June 15, 1979, as amended at 49 FR 24116, June 12, 1984]
Your parent's monthly benefit before any reduction that may be made as explained in § 404.304, is figured in one of the following ways:
(a) One parent entitled. Your parent's monthly benefit is equal to 821⁄2 percent of the insured person's primary insurance amount if you are the only parent entitled to benefits on his or her earnings record.
(b) More than one parent entitled. Your parent's monthly benefit is equal to 75 percent of the insured person's primary insurance amount if there is another parent entitled to benefits on his or her earnings record.
You may be eligible for benefits as the insured person's parent if—
(a) You are the mother or father of the insured and would be considered his or her parent under the laws of the State where the insured had a permanent home when he or she died;
(b) You are the adoptive parent of the insured and legally adopted him or her before the insured person became 16 years old; or
(c) You are the stepparent of the insured and you married the insured's parent or adoptive parent before the insured became 16 years old. The marriage must be valid under the laws of the State where the insured had his or her permanent home when he or she died. See § 404.303 for a definition of permanent home.