§4069a Retirement Benefits for Certain Former Spouses

Summary

People who were a former spouse on February 14, 1981, can get retirement benefits if Congress provides the money in advance and they are not disqualified. If the couple was married for the participant’s entire creditable service, the former spouse can get 50% of the participant’s benefit. If they were not married the whole time, the former spouse gets a pro rata share of that 50% based on how long they were married. A former spouse cannot get benefits if they remarried before age 55 or if they were not married at least 10 years during the participant’s creditable service (and at least 5 of those years must have been while the participant was a Foreign Service member. Benefits start on the later of when the participant becomes eligible or the month the divorce or annulment becomes final, and they stop on the earlier of the month before the former spouse dies or remarries before 55, or when the participant’s benefits end. For former spouses of someone receiving a disability annuity, the start date and amount are based on when and how the participant would qualify for regular (non‑disability) benefits or when the disability annuity begins, whichever is later. To get these payments, a written application with any required documents must be filed with the Secretary within 30 months after December 22, 1987 (the Secretary can waive this deadline in some cases). If approved, payments can cover earlier periods of eligibility but not any time before December 22, 1987. These payments are treated like an annuity for certain legal purposes and do not reduce the participant’s own annuity. There is a special rule that former spouses of employees of the United States Information Agency or the Agency for International Development may qualify if the employee retired under the Civil Service Retirement and Disability System before their agency could join the Foreign Service system and the marriage included at least five years with the employee assigned overseas.