HB 8490 proposes caregiver Social Security credits
- Rep. Brad Schneider introduced H.R. 8490 on April 23, with Sens. Chris Murphy and Kirsten Gillibrand rolling out a Senate partner days later. - The bill would give unpaid caregivers deemed Social Security wages for up to 60 months if they provide at least 80 hours monthly. - It targets a real retirement gap — years spent caregiving often become low- or zero-earnings years in benefit formulas.
Social Security is built around wages. That sounds obvious, but it creates a real problem for people who leave work or cut hours to care for a child, parent, spouse, or disabled relative. Those caregiving years often show up in the system as years with little or no earnings — which can drag down retirement benefits for the rest of someone’s life. H.R. 8490 is a new attempt to patch that hole. Rep. Brad Schneider introduced the House bill on April 23, 2026, and Sens. Chris Murphy and Kirsten Gillibrand reintroduced a Senate version on April 27. (congress.gov) ### What is this bill actually trying to fix? Social Security retirement benefits are based on a worker’s earnings history. So when someone steps out of paid work to provide unpaid care, the system usually treats that as an earnings gap, not as socially necessary labor. The basic idea behind H.R. 8490 is simple — if caregiving keeps(congress.gov)ure retirement benefit instead of acting like dead air in your record. (congress.gov) ### Who introduced it? In the House, the bill was introduced by Schneider with Reps. Grace Meng and Eleanor Holmes Norton. In the Senate, Murphy and Gillibrand said they were reintroducing bicameral legislation with the same goal. That matters because this is not a one-off concept surfacing from nowhere — it is part of a recurring p(congress.gov)ilies to absorb the penalty alone. (congress.gov) ### Who would qualify? The threshold in the bill is at least 80 hours of unpaid care in a month. The care has to be for a “dependent relative,” and the bill text uses a broad family definition that includes children and other relatives in the family network. It also says support provided under the VA’s family caregiver program would not count as disqualifying monetary compensation for this purpose. (congress.gov) ### How much credit does it give? The headline number is five years. More precisely, the bill would allow up to 60 qualifying months of deemed wages for caregiving. That is the core mechanic — instead of leaving those months as zeros or near-zeros in a worker’s Social Security record, the government would assign wage credit for bene(congress.gov)benefits depend on the rest of that person’s lifetime earnings history too. (congress.gov) ### Is there an age limit? Yes — and this is one of the most important details. A “qualifying month” does not include any month ending after the person reaches retirement age. So this is aimed at working-age caregivers whose future retirement benefits are still being built, not at adding new credit after someone has already reached retirement age. (congress.gov) ### Why does 80 hours matter? Because the bill is trying to draw a line between occasional help and substantial care work. Eighty hours a month is roughly 20 hours a week — enough to signal that caregiving is materially affecting someone’s ability to stay in paid employment. The catch is that any hard threshold creates edge cases. S(congress.gov) part would likely matter a lot in implementation. (congress.gov) ### Why is this showing up now? The politics are pretty straightforward. Lawmakers and advocacy groups have spent years arguing that unpaid caregivers save families and public systems huge amounts of money, but take the financial hit themselves. Murphy’s office pointed to an AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving estimate that 63(congress.gov)or disability. That gives the bill a big potential constituency, even if passing it is another story. (murphy.senate.gov) ### Does this have a clear path? Not yet. Right now, H.R. 8490 has been introduced and referred to the House Ways and Means Committee. That is newsworthy, but it is still the opening move, not a late-stage bill. Congress introduces lots of ide(murphy.senate.gov)nances. (congress.gov) ### Bottom line? This bill would not create a paycheck for caregivers. It would do something narrower, but still important — stop some unpaid caregiving years from shrinking a person’s future Social Security check. For families juggling work and care, that is the whole point. (congress.gov)
