Railroad Retirement Board
Railroad
Retirement Eligibility Requirements Eased for Divorced Spouses
April 2007
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-280
enacted
Currently, an annuity may be payable to the divorced spouse
of a railroad employee if the employee has actually retired and is receiving an
annuity, their marriage lasted for at least 10 consecutive years, both have
attained age 62 for a full month, and the divorced spouse is not currently
married. The amount of a divorced spouse annuity is equal to what social
security would pay in the same situation (tier I only) and therefore less than
the amount of the spouse annuity otherwise payable.
The Pension Protection Act amends the eligibility
requirements for a tier I divorced spouse annuity by eliminating the
requirement that an employee must actually be retired and receiving a railroad
retirement annuity. In such cases, the employee must be fully insured under the
Social Security Act using combined railroad retirement and social security
earnings and the former spouse must be divorced from the employee for a period
of not less than 2 years. As under current law, both the employee and the
former spouse must be age 62 for a full month, the divorced spouse must be
unmarried, and the terminated marriage must have lasted for at least 10
consecutive years. On
In addition to modifying the provisions governing
eligibility for a divorced spouse annuity, the new law adds a provision to the
Railroad Retirement Act related to payments made pursuant to the division of
the tier II portion of an employee’s annuity pursuant to a court order that
characterizes such portions as property subject to distribution. Payments made
pursuant to such court orders are commonly referred to as partition payments
and currently terminate upon the death of either party, whichever occurs first,
unless the court order provides for termination at an earlier date. The
amendment provides that partition payments will only terminate upon the
employee’s death when the court order requires such termination. Consequently,
unless the court order requires termination of payments upon the employee’s
death, effective
To apply for these divorced spouse benefits or to get more
information about them, former spouses should call or visit the nearest RRB
field office. Persons can find the address and phone number of the RRB office
serving their area by calling the automated toll-free RRB Help Line at
1-800-808-0772, or by visiting the RRB’s Web site at www.rrb.gov http://www.rrb.gov/
. Most RRB offices are open to the
public from
Public Affairs 312-751-4777
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