Special Minimum Benefits

Special Minimum Benefit Tables "Special minimum" benefits are payable to certain individuals with long periods of relatively low earnings. To qualify for such benefits, an individual must have at least 11 "years of coverage." To earn a year of coverage for purposes of the special minimum, a person must earn at least a certain proportion (25 percent for years before 1991, and 15 percent for years after 1990) of the "old-law" contribution and benefit base. Tables showing the range of special minimum primary insurance amounts and corresponding maximum family benefit amounts are available for 1973 and later.

Primary Insurance Amount and Maximum Family Benefit,
Effective for December 2017

Number of years of coverage	Primary Insurance Amount	Maximum family benefit
11	$40.80	$62.10
12	83.30	126.10
13	125.90	190.10
14	168.30	253.60
15	210.50	317.10
16	253.30	381.20
17	295.80	445.40
18	338.30	508.80
19	380.80	572.70
20	423.50	636.00
21	466.00	700.40
22	508.20	764.00
23	551.50	828.80
24	593.90	892.00
25	636.00	955.30
26	679.30	1,020.10
27	721.30	1,083.70
28	763.80	1,147.20
29	806.40	1,211.50
30	848.80	1,274.60