This is difficult to understand --- who came up with this 6 quarters idea? And the only illegals who pay into social security did so by committing felony document fraud --- use of stolen identification documents --- and why should they benefit from committing a felony crime? Or at least it is a crime if an American citizen commits it.
Apparently Mexico's pension plan is going bankrupt much earlier than ours so this is one big huge bailout so the elites won't be run out of power there.
"Apparently Mexico's pension plan "
Fitz, do you suppose Mexico actually has a pension plan, other than our SS that is?
I honestly think it would be more effective to ship arms to the Mexican people and let them overthrow that mess they call a government down there. WHAT is the hold Fox has on Pres. Bush? Doesn't he realize he is not going to get the majority of illegal votes? AND yes, they vote. In Oregon you need NO ID to vote. I suppose there are other states as well.
"is asking to give illegals Social Security benefits only after earning 6 quarters of work credit, whereas U.S. citizens must work 40 quarters to qualify. The absurdity of this is too obvious to debate."
Guess those in the know think American workers are actually 7 times harder working that the Mexicans (just trying to look at the er uh bright side) :-)
"who came up with this 6 quarters idea?"
Sorry I didn't answer your question before. I don't know, but I'm trying to find out. That's what Rohrabacher said on TV. It probably follows the rule that SSA has now, that if one is younger, or less work experience, they do not have to work as long as the rest of us to qualify. As in SSI...the welfare portion of SSA (which should NOT be part of SSA), one does not have to work at all to receive disability benefits. More on this at:
http://www.ssa.gov/dibplan/dqualify2.htm
"The number of work credits you need to qualify for disability benefits depends on your age when you become disabled. Generally, you need 40 credits, 20 of which were earned in the last 10 years ending with the year you become disabled. However, younger workers may qualify with fewer credits.
IMPORTANT: Remember that whatever your age is, you must have earned the required number of work credits within a certain period ending with the time you become disabled. Your Social Security Statement shows whether you meet the work requirement at the time it was prepared. If you stop working under Social Security after the date of the Statement, you may not continue to meet the disability work requirement in the future. "
See post #104 for a partial explaination of totalization. I believe all a person need to earn is 6 quarters before he can combine his work credits from Mexico and USA to get SS benefits.
When an illegal alien works under a fraudulent SSN, they keep the W2s. When they become legal and get a valid SSN, they come into the Social Security office with a slew of W2's and SSA has to add all those W2s to their earnings record. Here is some of the SSA policies for correcting earnings records. It does not explain everything.
http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0103870001!opendocument
It was very common for the alien to get temporary legal status and apply for and get the benefits before the legal status expired. Once they got legal status the benefits could not stop. The law has changed recently. Now it says something like, if you loose your legal status and are caught illegaly working, your benefits will stop. I can't remember exactly what the new law says and am too tired to look it up tonight.
I'm sure there will be negotiations between the Mexican government and the Bush administration to reduce it to a misdemeanor for Mexicans