404.241—1977 simplified old-start method.
(a) Who is qualified.
To qualify for the old-start computation, you must meet the conditions in paragraphs (a) (1), (2), or (3) of this section:
(ii)
Have attained age 21 after 1936 and before 1950, or attained age 22 after 1950 and earned fewer than 6 quarters of coverage after 1950;
(iii)
Have not had a period of disability which began before 1951, unless it can be disregarded, as explained in § 404.320 of this part; and,
(iii)
No person is entitled to benefits on your earnings record in the month before the month you or your survivor becomes entitled to benefits.
(3)
A recomputation is first effective for June 1992 or later based on your earnings for 1992 or later.
(b) Steps in old-start computation.
(1)
First, we allocate your earnings during the period 1937-1950 as described in paragraph (c) of this section.
(3)
Next, we apply the old-start formula to your average monthly wage, as described in paragraph (e)(1) of this section.
(4)
Next, we apply certain increments to the amount computed in step (3), as described in paragraph (e)(2) of this section.
(5)
Next, we find your primary insurance amount in the benefit table in appendix III, as described in paragraph (f)(1) of this section.
(6)
Then, we apply automatic cost-of-living or ad hoc increases in primary insurance amounts to the primary insurance amount found in step (5), as described in paragraph (f)(2) of this section.
(c) Finding your computation base years under the old-start method.
(1)
Instead of using your actual year-by-year earnings before 1951, we find your computation base years for 1937-1950 (and the amount of earnings for each of them) by allocating your total 1937-1950 earnings among the years before 1951 under the following procedure:
(i)
If you reached age 21 before 1950 and your total 1937-1950 earnings are not more than $3,000 times the number of years after the year you reached age 20 and before 1951 (a maximum of 14 years), we allocate your earnings equally among those years, and those years are your computation base years before 1951.
(ii)
If you reached age 21 before 1950 and your total 1937-1950 earnings are more than $3,000 times the number of years after the year you reached age 20 and before 1951, we allocate your earnings at the rate of $3,000 per year for each year after you reached age 20 and before 1951 up to a maximum of 14 years. We credit any remainder in reverse order to years before age 21 in $3,000 increments and any amount left over of less than $3,000 to the year before the earliest year to which we credited $3,000. No more than $42,000 may be credited in this way and to no more than 14 years. Those years are your computation base years before 1951.
(iii)
If you reached age 21 in 1950 or later and your total pre-1951 earnings are $3,000 or less, we credit the total to the year you reached age 20 and that year is your pre-1951 computation base year.
(iv)
If you reached age 21 in 1950 or later and your total pre-1951 earnings are more than $3,000, we credit $3,000 to the year you reached age 20 and credit the remainder to earlier years (or year) in blocks of $3,000 in reverse order. We credit any remainder of less than $3,000 to the year before the earliest year to which we had credited $3,000. No more than $42,000 may be credited in this way and to no more than 14 years. Those years are your computation base years before 1951.
(v)
If you die before 1951, we allocate your 1937-1950 earnings under paragraphs (c)(1) (i) through (iv), except that in determining the number of years, we will use the year of death instead of 1951. If you die before you attain age 21, the number of years in the period is equal to 1.
(vi)
For purposes of paragraphs (c)(1) (i) through (v), if you had a period of disability which began before 1951, we will exclude the years wholly within a period of disability in determining the number of years.
(2)
(i)
All years after 1950 up to (but not including) the year you become entitled to old-age insurance or disability insurance benefits (or through the year you die if you had not become entitled to old-age or disability benefits) are also computation base years for you.
(ii)
Years wholly within a period of disability are not computation base years unless your primary insurance amount would be higher if they were. In such situations, we count all the years during the period of disability, even if you had no earnings in some of them.
Code of Federal Regulations
(d) Computing your average monthly wage under the old-start method.
(1)
First, we count your elapsed years, which are the years beginning with 1937 (or the year you reach 22, if later) and ending with the year before you reach age 62, or become disabled or die before age 62. (See § 404.211(e)(1) for the rule on how we treat years wholly or partially within a period of disability.)
(2)
Next, we subtract 5 from the number of your elapsed years, and this is the number of computation years we must use. We then choose this number of your computation base years in which you had the highest earnings. These years are your benefit computation years. You must have at least 2 benefit computation years.
(3)
Then we compute your average monthly wage by dividing your total creditable earnings in your benefit computation years by the number of months in these years and rounding the quotient to the next lower dollar if not already a multiple of $1.
(e) Old-start computation formula.
We use the following formula to compute your primary insurance benefit, which we will convert to your primary insurance amount:
(1)
We take 40 percent of the first $50 of your average monthly wage, plus 10 percent of the next $200 of your average monthly wage up to a total average monthly wage of $250. (We do not use more than $250 of your average monthly wage.)
(2)
We increase the amount found in paragraph (e)(1) of this section by 1 percent for each $1,650 in your pre-1951 earnings, disregarding any remainder less than $1,650. We always increase the amount by at least 4 of these 1 percent increments but may not increase it by more than 14 of them.
(f) Finding your primary insurance amount under the old-start method.
(1)
In column I of the benefit table in appendix III we locate the amount (the primary insurance benefit) computed in paragraph (e) of this section and find the corresponding primary insurance amount on the same line in column IV of the table.
(2)
We increase that amount by any automatic cost-of-living or ad hoc increases in primary insurance amounts effective since the beginning of the year in which you reached age 62, or became disabled or died before age 62. (See §§ 404.270 through 404.277.)