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Chapter: 1400 Technical Requirements Program: FS 4 Individuals may be credited with qualifying quarters from the following sources:

1. individual’s work history; 2. quarters earned by a spouse during the period of the legal marriage, unless the marriage ends in divorce; 3. unremarried surviving spouses may count quarters earned during the period of their legal marriage; and 4. quarters earned by parents (biological and adoptive) while the individual was under 18 years of age and unmarried (include quarters earned by the parents prior to the individual’s birth.)

Note: The stepparent’s relationship to the child is based on the marital relationship to the child’s natural parent. If the marital relationship ends, other than by death, the stepparent relationship also ends.

Information regarding the current and preceding years’ quarters of coverage may not be available in the verification system due to the date the tax return from the employer or from the self- employment was filed. This could be up to seven quarters and will need to be taken into consideration when determining eligibility.

The eligibility specialist must verify income to determine any quarters credited which do not appear in the Social Security Administration’s records. Sources of verification include:

1. W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement) or W-2c (Statement of Corrected Income and Tax Amount); 2. employer prepared earnings statement; 3. statements of earnings signed by the custodian of the employer’s records; 4. IRS copy of the employee’s tax return; 5. timely filed tax return for a self-employed individual; 6. other evidence of self-employment that allows the eligibility specialist to determine that a business did exist and that a profit was earned; 7. pay envelopes, vouchers, and similar unsigned employer earnings statements to the employee, a state or federal agency; 8. union records; 9. individual’s copy of a federal or state tax return; 10. records of state unemployment insurance agencies; 11. individual’s personal records and statements; and 12. any other evidence of probative value.

The FLORIDA system will verify quarters earned by members of the standard filing unit (SFU) but a manual determination must be made for individuals outside the SFU whose quarters may be used. The individual’s statement regarding work history and earnings of individuals outside the SFU is accepted in determining the 40 qualifying quarters until the information is verified by the Social Security Administration.

No work history from countries other than the U.S. or qualifying quarters earned after December 31, 1996, during a period when the individual was receiving a federally means tested public assistance program such as TCA, food stamps, Medicaid, or SSI, will be credited toward the 40 qualifying quarters computation.

If there is a dispute regarding the information received from SSA, the individual in question may continue to receive food stamps for up to six months to allow SSA time to research the information.