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A dependent grandchild or step-grandchild may receive benefits on the record of a grandparent if the following requirements are met:

• The grandchild's natural or adoptive parents are deceased or disabled: 
  • At the time the grandparent became entitled to retirement or disability insurance benefits or died; or 
  • At the beginning of the grandparent's period of disability which continued until he or she became entitled to disability or retirement insurance benefits or died.
• The grandchild was legally adopted by the grandparent's  surviving spouse in an adoption decreed by a court of competent jurisdiction within the U.S.
• The grandchild's natural or adopting parent or stepparent must not have been living in the same household and making regular contributions to the child's support at the time the grandparent died.
• The grandchild must have lived with the grandparent in the U.S. before reaching age 18 and received at least one-half support from the grandparent for the year before the month the grandparent began receiving retirement or disability benefits or died.