§2052 Death in service

Summary

When an Agency employee dies, any lump-sum credit and voluntary contributions with interest are paid out to people in the order the law sets for distributing a deceased employee’s money if no annuity applies. If the worker dies before leaving the Agency and is survived by a spouse or a former spouse who qualifies, that spouse gets an annuity equal to 55% of a computed annuity. The annuity starts the day after death and stops the last day of the month before the spouse dies or remarries before age 55, and other payment and restoration rules in the law also apply. The annuity is calculated the usual way but must be at least the smaller of 40% of the worker’s high-3 average pay or the amount you get if you add extra years of service equal to the difference between the worker’s age at death and age 60. Special limits apply when there is a qualifying former spouse, and if a former spouse becomes eligible for a different survivor annuity under another rule, that other annuity replaces this one. If the worker left children, rules depend on the date of death. For deaths before April 1, 1992, children get annuities either because there is a surviving spouse or because there is not, under two different calculations in the law. For deaths on or after April 1, 1992, children get annuities only if a surviving spouse or former spouse is the child’s natural or adoptive parent; otherwise a different child annuity rule applies. “Former spouse” means any ex-wife or ex-husband, no matter how long the marriage lasted or how much service the worker had.