A bill to amend title II of the Social Security Act to repeal the earnings test, to eliminate the special dependency requirements for entitlement to husband's and widower's insurance benefits and make other changes assuring equal entitlement for men and women, to permit the payment of benefits to a married couple on their combined earnings record, to provide that individuals age 65 and over may elect to be exempt from social security coverage, to provide prorated benefits for the month of a beneficiary's death, to eliminate the 5-month waiting period for disability benefits.

Summary

Repeals the earnings test under which benefits under Title II (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act are reduced because of earnings of the eligible individual. Amends such Title: (1) to eliminate the requirement that a husband be receiving at least one-half of his support from his wife, and that a widower be receiving at least one-half of his support from his wife at the time of her death in order to qualify for husband's and widower's insurance benefits; (2) to extend eligibility for such benefits to unmarried divorced husbands and widowers; (3) to extend without regard to any age limitation, husband's benefits to a husband who has in his care a minor child who is entitled to child's insurance benefits under Title II; and (4) to extend to widowers and surviving divorced fathers the same benefits as are available to widows and surviving divorced mothers with minor children in their care. Permits the payment of old-age insurance benefits to a married couple on their combined earnings record. Amends Title II and the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to allow an individual 65 years of age or older who has earned income in a taxable year to elect an exemption from social security coverage and payment of social security taxes during such year. Provides that any individual who is entitled to a monthly benefit under Title II for the month preceding the month in which such eligible individual dies shall be entitled for the month in which he dies to a prorated benefit based upon a specified formula. Eliminates the five-month waiting period for disability benefits.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

1 official file

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 3 May 1977

  Open at official source

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.