i am a military veteran with 38 work credits.is there any way i couls use my military service credits to upgrade my credits to the required 40.?

Hi,

I would need more information about your dates of service to give you a definite answer. The military service credits that you would likely receive are called deemed military wages (DMW), which are additional fictitious wages that are credited to your Social Security earnings record in addition to your actual military wages for your periods of active duty (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.09/handbook-0953.html). DMWs were automatically added to the earnings records of military veterans starting in 1968, so If all of your active duty was after 1967 then all of your DMWs should already be included in the calculation of your Social Security quarters of coverage (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/COLA/QC.html).

If you had any active duty prior to 1968 then you could receive credit for additional DMWs by submitting proof of your active duty to Social Security, but it's unlikely that would give you any additional quarters of coverage (QC). About the only way that military service credits could add QCs is if a veteran had active duty prior to 1957, in which case they could receive military wage credits (https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.09/handbook-0954.html) for their periods of active duty.

Best, Jerry