§8109 Beneficiaries of Awards Unpaid at Death; Order of Precedence

Summary

If a person had an approved disability award, filed the claim while alive, and then died from something other than the injury before their scheduled benefit period ended, any unpaid scheduled payments must be paid for that scheduled period. The money goes to people alive at the time of death in the order the law gives: if there are no children, the spouse gets it; if there is a spouse and children, half goes to the spouse and half to the children; if there is no spouse, the children get it; if none of those survivors exist, it goes to parents or other fully dependent relatives as the rules say; if there are still no eligible survivors and no burial allowance, up to the burial-allowance amount can be paid to someone who fairly paid the funeral bills (but not to an insurer, a government body, or someone legally required to pay the funeral). Payments for time after the person’s death use the basic disability rate, even if the person had a higher augmented rate before dying; payments for periods before death stay the same. Except for the funeral reimburser, beneficiaries must be alive to receive the money and do not have a guaranteed, permanent right to it. If a beneficiary later loses the right to death compensation under the law, their share stops and any unpaid amount is paid to the remaining eligible people in the same order.