This subpart contains our rules about filing applications for SVB. It explains what an application is, who may sign it, where and when it must be signed and filed, the period of time it is in effect, and how it may be withdrawn. This subpart also explains when a written statement or an oral inquiry may be considered to establish your application filing date.

In addition to meeting other requirements, you must file an application to become entitled to SVB. If you believe you may be entitled to SVB, you should file an application. Filing an application will—

(a) Permit us to make a formal decision on whether you qualify for SVB;

(b) Assure that you receive SVB for any months you are entitled to receive payments; and

(c) Give you the right to appeal if you are dissatisfied with our determination.

To be considered a claim for SVB, an application must generally meet all of the following conditions:

(a) It must be on the prescribed SVB application form (SSA-2000-F6, Application for Special Benefits for World War II Veterans).

(b) It must be completed and filed with SSA as described in § 408.325.

(c) It must be signed by you or by someone who may sign an application for you as described in § 408.315.

(d) You must be alive at the time it is filed.

(a) When you must sign. If you are mentally competent, and physically able to do so, you must sign your own application.

(b) When someone else may sign for you. (1) If you are mentally incompetent, or physically unable to sign, your application may be signed by a court-appointed representative or a person who is responsible for your care, including a relative. If you are in the care of an institution, the manager or principal officer of the institution may sign your application.

(2) If it is necessary to protect you from losing benefits and there is good cause why you could not sign the application, we may accept an application signed by someone other than you or a person described in paragraph (b)(1) of this section.

(a) A person who signs an application for you will be required to give us evidence of his or her authority to sign the application for you under the following rules:

(1) If the person who signs is a court-appointed representative, he or she must give us a certificate issued by the court showing authority to act for you.

(2) If the person who signs is not a court-appointed representative, he or she must give us a statement describing his or her relationship to you. The statement must also describe the extent to which the person is responsible for your care.

(3) If the person who signs is the manager or principal officer of an institution which is responsible for your care, he or she must give us a statement indicating the person's position of responsibility at the institution.

(b) We may, at any time, require additional evidence to establish the authority of a person to sign an application for you.

(a) General rule. We consider an application for SVB filed on the day it is received by an SSA employee at one of our offices, by an SSA employee who is authorized to receive it at a place other than one of our offices, or by any office of the U.S. Foreign Service or by the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in the Philippines.

(b) Exceptions. (1) When we receive an application that is mailed, we will use the date shown by the United States postmark as the filing date if using the date we receive it would result in your entitlement to additional benefits. If the postmark is unreadable, or there is no United States postmark, we will use the date the application is signed (if dated) or 5 days before the day we receive the signed application, whichever date is later.

(2) We consider an application to be filed on the date of the filing of a written statement or the making of an oral inquiry under the conditions in §§ 408.340 and 408.345.

(3) We will establish a deemed filing date of an application in a case of misinformation under the conditions described in § 408.351. The filing date of the application will be a date determined under § 408.351(b).

Your application for SVB will remain in effect from the date it is filed until we make a final determination on it, unless there is a hearing decision on your application. If there is a hearing decision, your application will remain in effect until the hearing decision is issued.

If you file with us under the rules stated in § 408.325 a written statement, such as a letter, indicating your intent to claim SVB, we will use the filing date of the written statement as the filing date of your application. If the written statement is mailed, we will use the date the statement was mailed to us as shown by the United States postmark. If the postmark is unreadable or there is no United States postmark, we will use the date the statement is signed (if dated) or 5 days before the day we receive the written statement, whichever date is later, as the filing date. In order for us to use your written statement to protect your filing date, the following requirements must be met:

(a) The statement indicates your intent to file for benefits.

(b) The statement is signed by you, your spouse, or a person described in § 408.315.

(c) You file an application with us on an application form as described in § 408.310(a), or one is filed for you by a person described in § 408.315, within 60 days after the date of a notice we will send advising of the need to file an application. The notice will say that we will make an initial determination of your qualification if an application form is filed within 60 days after the date of the notice. We will send the notice to you. However, if it is clear from the information we receive that you are mentally incompetent, we will send the notice to the person who submitted the written statement.

(d) You are alive when the application is filed.

We will use the date of an oral inquiry about SVB as the filing date of your application for SVB if the following requirements are met:

(a) The inquiry asks about your entitlement to SVB.

(b) The inquiry is made by you, your spouse, or a person who may sign an application on your behalf as described in § 408.315.

(c) The inquiry, whether in person or by telephone, is directed to an office or an official described in § 408.325(a).

(d) You, or a person on your behalf as described in § 408.315, file an application on a prescribed form within 60 days after the date of the notice we will send telling of the need to file an application. The notice will say that we will make an initial determination on whether you qualify for SVB if an application form is filed within 60 days after the date of the notice. However, if it is clear from the information we receive that you are mentally incompetent, we will send the notice to the person who made the inquiry.

(e) You are alive when the prescribed application is filed.

(a) General rule. You may have considered applying for SVB, for yourself or another person and you may have contacted us in writing, by telephone or in person to inquire about filing an application for SVB. It is possible that in responding to your inquiry, we may have given you misinformation about qualification for such benefits that caused you not to file an application at that time. If this happened and use of that date will result in entitlement to additional benefits, and you later file an application for SVB with us, we may establish an earlier filing date as explained in paragraphs (b) through (f) of this section.

(b) Deemed filing date of an application based on misinformation. Subject to the requirements and conditions in paragraphs (c) through (f) of this section, we may establish a deemed filing date of an application for SVB under the following provisions.

(1) If we determine that you failed to apply for SVB because we gave you misinformation about qualification for or entitlement to such benefits, we will deem an application for such benefits to have been filed with us on the later of—

(i) The date on which we gave you the misinformation; or

(ii) The date on which all of the requirements for qualification to SVB were met, other than the requirement of filing an application.

(2) Before we may establish a deemed filing date of an application for SVB under paragraph (b)(1) of this section, you or a person described in § 408.315 must file an application for such benefits.

(c) Requirements concerning the misinformation. We apply the following requirements for purposes of paragraph (b) of this section.

(1) The misinformation must have been provided to you by one of our employees while he or she was acting in his or her official capacity as our employee. For purposes of this section, an employee includes an officer of SSA, an employee of a U.S. Foreign Service office, and an employee of the SSA Division of the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in the Philippines who is authorized to take and develop Social Security claims.

(2) Misinformation is information which we consider to be incorrect, misleading, or incomplete in view of the facts which you gave to the employee, or of which the employee was aware or should have been aware, regarding your particular circumstances. In addition, for us to find that the information you were given was incomplete, the employee must have failed to provide you with the appropriate, additional information which he or she would be required to provide in carrying out his or her official duties.

(3) The misinformation may have been provided to you orally or in writing.

(4) The misinformation must have been provided to you in response to a specific request by you to us for information about your qualification for SVB.

(d) Evidence that misinformation was provided. We will consider the following evidence in making a determination under paragraph (b) of this section.

(1) Preferred evidence. Preferred evidence is written evidence which relates directly to your inquiry about your qualification for SVB and which shows that we gave you misinformation which caused you not to file an application. Preferred evidence includes, but is not limited to, the following—

(i) A notice, letter or other document which was issued by us and addressed to you; or

(ii) Our record of your telephone call, letter or in-person contact.

(2) Other evidence. In the absence of preferred evidence, we will consider other evidence, including your statements about the alleged misinformation, to determine whether we gave you misinformation, which caused you not to file an application. We will not find that we gave you misinformation, however, based solely on your statements. Other evidence which you provide or which we obtain must support your statements. Evidence which we will consider includes, but is not limited to, the following—

(i) Your statements about the alleged misinformation, including statements about—

(A) The date and time of the alleged contact(s);

(B) How the contact was made, e.g., by telephone or in person;

(C) The reason(s) the contact was made;

(D) Who gave the misinformation; and

(E) The questions you asked and the facts you gave us, and the questions we asked and the information we gave you, at the time of the contact;

(ii) Statements from others who were present when you were given the alleged misinformation, e.g., a neighbor who accompanied you to our office;

(iii) If you can identify the employee or the employee can recall your inquiry about benefits—

(A) Statements from the employee concerning the alleged contact, including statements about the questions you asked, the facts you gave, the questions the employee asked, and the information provided to you at the time of the alleged contact; and

(B) Our assessment of the likelihood that the employee provided the alleged misinformation;

(iv) An evaluation of the credibility and the validity of your allegations in conjunction with other relevant information; and

(v) Any other information regarding your alleged contact.

(e) Information which does not constitute satisfactory proof that misinformation was given. Certain kinds of information will not be considered satisfactory proof that we gave you misinformation which caused you not to file an application. Examples of such information include—

(1) General informational pamphlets that we issue to provide basic program information;

(2) General information which we review or prepare but which is disseminated by the media, e.g., radio, television, magazines, and newspapers; and

(3) Information provided by other governmental agencies, e.g., the Department of Veterans Affairs (except for certain employees of the SSA Division of the Veterans Affairs Regional Office in the Philippines as provided in paragraph (c)(1) of this section), the Department of Defense, State unemployment agencies, and State and local governments.

(f) Claim for benefits based on misinformation. You may make a claim for SVB based on misinformation at any time. Your claim must contain information that will enable us to determine if we did provide misinformation to you about qualification for SVB which caused you not to file an application. Specifically, your claim must be in writing and it must explain what information was provided, how, when and where it was provided and by whom, and why the information caused you not to file an application. If you give us this information, we will make a determination on such a claim for benefits if all of the following conditions are also met.

(1) An application for SVB is filed with us by you or someone described in § 408.315 who may file. The application must be filed after the alleged misinformation was provided. This application may be—

(i) An application on which we have made a previous final determination or decision awarding SVB, but only if the claimant continues to be entitled to benefits based on that application;

(ii) An application on which we have made a previous final determination or decision denying the benefits, but only if such determination or decision is reopened; or

(iii) A new application on which we have not made a final determination or decision.

(2) The establishment of a deemed filing date of an application for benefits based on misinformation could result in entitlement to benefits or payment of additional benefits.

(3) We have not made a previous final determination or decision to which you were a party on a claim for benefits based on alleged misinformation involving the same facts and issues. This provision does not apply, however, if the final determination or decision may be reopened.

(a) Request for withdrawal filed before a determination is made. You may withdraw your application for SVB before we make a determination on it if—

(1) You, or a person who may sign an application for you under § 408.315, file a written request for withdrawal at a place described in § 408.325; and

(2) You are alive at the time the request is filed.

(b) Request for withdrawal filed after a determination is made. An application may be withdrawn after we make a determination on it if you repay all benefits already paid based on the application being withdrawn or we are satisfied that the benefits will be repaid.

(c) Effect of withdrawal. If we approve your request to withdraw your application, we consider that the application was never filed. If we disapprove your request for withdrawal, we treat your application as though you did not file a request for withdrawal.

You may request to cancel your request to withdraw your application and have your application reinstated if all of the following requirements are met:

(a) You, or someone who may sign an application for you under § 408.315, file a written request for cancellation at a place described in § 408.325;

(b) You are alive at the time you file your request for cancellation; and

(c) A cancellation request received after we have approved your withdrawal must be filed no later than 60 days after the date of the notice of approval.