Additional social security benefits for veterans

[dtbach]

I found this on the ssa.gov site:

ity.
Under certain circumstances, special extra earnings for periods of active duty from 1957 through 2001 can also be credited to your Social Security earnings record.
• From 1957 through 1967, we will add the extra credits to your record when you apply for Social Security benefits.
• From 1968 through 2001, you don’t need to do anything to receive these extra credits. The credits were automatically added to your record.
• After 2001, there are no special extra earnings credits for military service.
The information that follows explains how you can get credit for special extra earnings and applies only to active duty military service earnings from 1957 through 2001.
From 1957 through 1977, you’re credited with $300 in additional earnings for each calendar quarter in which you received active duty basic pay.
From 1978 through 2001, for every $300 in active duty basic pay, you’re credited with an additional $100 in earnings up to a maximum of $1,200 a year. If you enlisted after September 7, 1980, and didn’t complete at least 24 months of active duty or your full tour, you may not be able to receive the additional earnings. Check with Social Security for details

Does anyone know if this is automatic or if you need to show SS your DD214? Also someone told me you get an extra $100 month but it appears to me that you just get an extra $1200/year bonus on earnings that your benefit is calculated by.

 

[braumeister]

It's automatic. When I did the calculations I found it had already been applied to my account.

 

[eytonxav]

It was automatic for me too being my service started in 68.

 

[finnski1]

I am not a vet but just wanted to thank you guys again for your service!

 

[Nords]

Does anyone know if this is automatic or if you need to show SS your DD214? Also someone told me you get an extra $100 month but it appears to me that you just get an extra $1200/year bonus on earnings that your benefit is calculated by.

This zombie press release gets exhumed every few years and lurches across the Internet for a few months. This is about the 40th time I've seen it on social media in the last two weeks alone.

People who were in the military in 1967 are already receiving Social Security (if they're eligible), so they don't have to worry about the credits.

I remember tracking the military credits in the 1980s and 1990s, but around 1996 the Social Security Administration integrated DFAS's data archives and updated everyone's SS earnings records to reflect their years of military credits.

Vets who are concerned about this can check by comparing their old military W-2s against their SS earnings record.

You're absolutely right that it's a credit to our earnings records, not our disbursements. Adding a $100/month credit to our SS earnings record will only add a few bucks to our monthly SS deposits.

Vets could take their DD-214s to the Social Security office if they want, and a few of the younger civil servants there might marvel at the paper, but it's not necessary.