(a) OWCP may rely on quarterly wages information reported to the Social Security Administration to establish a covered Part E employee's presumed average annual wage (see Sec. 30.810) and the duration and extent of any years of wage-loss that are compensable under Part E of the Act (see Sec. 30.811). OWCP may also rely on other probative evidence of a covered Part E employee's wages, and may ask the claimant for additional evidence necessary to make this determination, if necessary. For the purposes of making these two types of determinations, OWCP will consider all monetary payments that the covered Part E employee received in a quarter from employment or services, except for monetary payments that were not taxable as income during that quarter under the Internal Revenue Code, to be ``wages.''
(b) OWCP also requires the submission of rationalized medical evidence of sufficient probative value to establish that the period of wage-loss at issue is causally related to the covered Part E employee's covered illness.