§4049 Death in Service

Summary

If a participant dies and no regular annuity is payable, their lump-sum credit is paid as a one-time benefit under the retirement rules. If the participant had at least 18 months of civilian service and died before leaving service, a surviving spouse or qualifying former spouse gets an annuity equal to 55 percent of the annuity the participant would have had. If the participant had under 3 years of service, the annuity is figured using the average pay for all of that service. If a surviving spouse or parent of a surviving child exists, each child may get a child’s annuity under the retirement rules. If there is no spouse or qualifying former spouse but there are children, the children get annuities under the child rules. If the participant had under 20 years of service, the annuity is calculated as if they had 20 years, but added credit cannot exceed the difference between the person’s age at death and age 60. If a retired person was recalled to duty and died, survivor payments are figured as if the recall ended on the day of death; special choices and supplemental survivor annuities may apply for spouses married during recall service. If there is a qualifying former spouse, the spouse’s annuity may be limited by the system’s survivor rules. Annuities start, stop, and resume under the normal retirement procedures.