§8102a Death Gratuity for Injuries Incurred in Connection with Employee’s Service with an Armed Force

Summary

The United States will pay up to $100,000 as a death gratuity right away after getting official notice when an employee dies from injuries connected with the employee’s service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation. The Secretary in charge may choose to apply this rule to deaths that happened on or after October 7, 2001 and before the law was passed if the death was from injuries in the theaters of Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom. The amount paid will be reduced by any death gratuity already paid under section 413 of the Foreign Service Act of 1980, section 1603 of the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006, or any other U.S. law for the same death. The money goes first to the living survivor highest on this list: the spouse; the children (split equally); any person or persons the employee named (which can include parents or people who acted as parents, brothers, or sisters); the parents or people who acted as parents (split equally); then brothers and sisters (split equally). Children include legitimate, adopted, certain stepchildren, and some illegitimate children under specific proof rules. Only one father and one mother (or their stand-ins) count, and preference is given to those who acted as parents when the person became an employee. An employee may name someone else to get part of the money, but the split must be in 10 percent steps and the rest is paid by the order above. If a person who should get the money dies before payment, the money goes to the next person on the list. If the employee has a spouse but named another person to get all or part of the money, the agency must tell the spouse. “Contingency operation” and “employee” have the meanings given in 10 U.S.C. 1482a(c) and 5 U.S.C. 8101 (including certain nonappropriated fund employees under 10 U.S.C. 1587(a)(1)).