It seems that the yearly limit on these HITs has changed. I only see the following requirements now: AnswerQualityQualification is greater than 79 Total approved HITs is not less than 5000 IsOkayQualification is 1 HIT approval rate (%) is greater than 94 The qualification limiting you to 12500 a year ($500) is no longer there.
No, we are speaking of two different things. My year-to-date number reset to zero at the first of the year, as you describe. The last time I looked for RER HITs (two weeks ago), I had a year-to-date figure for 2013 as my 5th qualification. It was about $12 worth of HITs. Today, that 5th qualification is no longer there. This has only changed in the past couple of weeks.
I never noticed about the additional qualification you are talking about, but I know for sure I started getting access to work on his HITs after 1st Jan. The total number of hit limitation got reset and I was able to work on the HITs as before.