Railroad Retirement Board
Railroad Retirement Survivor Benefits
October 2009
Monthly benefits may be payable under the Railroad
Retirement Act to the surviving widow(er), children, and certain other
dependents of a railroad employee if the employee was “insured” under that Act
at the time of death. Lump-sum death benefits may also be payable to
qualified survivors in some cases.
The following questions and answers describe the survivor
benefits payable by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) and the eligibility
requirements for these benefits.
1. What are
the general service requirements for railroad retirement survivor benefits?
With the exception of one type of lump-sum death benefit,
eligibility for survivor benefits depends on whether or not a deceased employee
was “insured” under the Railroad Retirement Act. An employee is insured
if he or she has at least 10 years of railroad service, or 5 years performed
after 1995, and a “current connection” with the railroad industry at the time
of retirement or death, whichever occurs first.
Generally, an employee who worked for a railroad in at least
12 months in the 30 months immediately preceding the month his or her railroad
retirement annuity begins will meet the current connection requirement.
If an employee dies before retirement, railroad service in at least 12 months
in the 30 months before death will meet the current connection requirement for
the purpose of paying survivor benefits.
If an employee does not qualify on this basis, but has 12
months of service in an earlier 30-month period, he or she may still meet the
current connection requirement. This alternative generally applies if the
employee did not have any regular employment outside the railroad industry
after the end of the last 30-month period which included 12 months of railroad
service and before the month the annuity begins or the date of death.
Full or part-time work for a non-railroad employer in the
interim between the end of the last 30-month period including 12 months of
railroad service and the beginning date of an employee’s annuity, or the date
of death if earlier, can break a current connection.
Self-employment in an unincorporated business will not break
a current connection; however, self-employment can break a current connection
if the business is incorporated.
Working for certain U.S. Government agencies -- Department
of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board, Surface Transportation
Board, National Mediation Board, Railroad Retirement Board, Transportation
Security Administration -- will not break a current connection. State
employment with the Alaska Railroad, so long as that railroad remains an entity
of the State of
In some cases, a current connection may be deemed for survivor
benefit purposes for employees with 25 years of service who were involuntarily
terminated without fault from the rail industry on or after October 1, 1975,
and did not thereafter decline an offer of employment in the same class or
craft in the rail industry, regardless of the distance to the new position.
Once a current connection is established at the time the
railroad retirement annuity begins, an employee never loses it no matter what
kind of work is performed thereafter.
2. What if
these service requirements are not met?
If a deceased employee did not have an insured status,
jurisdiction of any survivor benefits payable is transferred to the Social
Security Administration and survivor benefits are paid by that agency instead
of the RRB. Regardless of which agency has jurisdiction, the deceased
employee’s railroad retirement and social security credits will be combined for
benefit computation purposes.
3. What are
the age and other eligibility requirements for widow(er)s?
Widow(er)s’ benefits are payable at age 60 or over.
They are payable at any age if the widow(er) is caring for an unmarried child
under age 18 of the deceased employee or a disabled child of any age who became
permanently disabled before age 22. Widow(er)s’ benefits are also payable
at ages 50-59 if the widow(er) is totally and permanently disabled and unable
to work in any regular employment. The disability must have begun within
7 years after the employee’s death or within 7 years after the termination of
an annuity based on caring for a child of the deceased employee, or 7 years
after the termination of an earlier entitlement to a disability annuity.
In most cases, a 5-month waiting period is required after the onset of
disability before disability payments can begin.
Generally, the widow(er) must have been married to the
employee for at least 9 months prior to death, unless she or he was the natural
parent of their child, the employee’s death was accidental or while on active
duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, the widow(er) was potentially entitled to
certain railroad retirement or social security benefits in the month before the
month of death, or the marriage was postponed due to State restrictions on
divorce due to mental incompetence or similar incapacity.
4. Can
surviving divorced spouses and remarried widow(er)s also qualify for benefits?
Survivor benefits may also be payable to a surviving
divorced spouse or remarried widow(er) under certain conditions, but benefits
are limited to social security level tier I amounts and therefore are generally
less than the total of the tier I and tier II benefit amounts otherwise payable
by the RRB. However, a former spouse may be paid a court-ordered
partition amount.
A surviving divorced spouse may qualify for social security
level tier I benefits if she or he was married to the employee for at least 10
years, and is age 60 or older (age 50 if disabled). A surviving divorced
spouse who is unmarried can qualify at any age if caring for the employee’s
child and the child is under age 16 or disabled, in which case the 10-year
marriage requirement does not apply. A widow(er) or surviving divorced
spouse who remarries after age 60, or a disabled widow(er) or disabled
surviving divorced spouse who remarries after age 50 may also receive benefits;
however, remarriage prior to age 60 (or age 50 if disabled) would not prevent
eligibility if that remarriage ended. Such social security level benefits
may also be paid to a younger widow(er) or surviving divorced spouse caring for
the employee’s child who is under age 16 or disabled, if the remarriage is to a
person receiving railroad retirement or social security benefits or the
remarriage ends.
5. When are
survivor benefits payable to children and other dependents?
Monthly survivor benefits are payable to an unmarried child
under age 18, and to an unmarried child age 18 in full-time attendance at an
elementary or secondary school or in approved home schooling until the student
attains age 19 or the end of the school term in progress when the student
attains age 19. In most cases where a student attains age 19 during the
school term, benefits are limited to the two months following the month age 19
is attained. An unmarried disabled child over age 18 may qualify if the
child became totally and permanently disabled before age 22. An unmarried
dependent grandchild meeting any of these requirements may also qualify if both
the grandchild’s parents are deceased or disabled.
Monthly survivor benefits are also payable to a surviving
parent at age 60 who was dependent on the employee for at least half of the
parent’s support. If the employee was also survived by a widow(er),
surviving divorced spouse or child who can qualify for benefits, the parent’s
annuity is limited to the tier I amount.
6. How are
railroad retirement widow(er)s’ benefits computed?
The tier I amount of a two-tier survivor benefit is based on
the deceased employee’s combined railroad retirement and social security
earnings credits, and is computed using social security formulas. In
general, the survivor tier I amount is equal to the amount of survivor benefits
that would have been payable under social security.
December 2001 legislation established an “initial minimum
amount” which yields, in effect, a widow(er)’s tier II benefit equal to the
tier II benefit the employee would have received at the time of the award of
the widow(er)’s annuity, minus any applicable age reduction.
However, such a tier II benefit will not receive annual
cost-of-living increases until such time as the widow(er)’s annuity, as
computed under prior law with all interim cost-of-living increases otherwise
payable, exceeds the widow(er)’s annuity as computed under the initial minimum
amount formula.
The average annuity awarded to widow(er)s in fiscal year
2008, excluding remarried widow(er)s and surviving divorced spouses, was $1,625
a month. Children received $1,153 a month, on the average. Total
family benefits for widow(er)s with children averaged $3,390 a month. The
average annuity awarded to remarried widow(er)s or surviving divorced spouses
in fiscal year 2008 was $914 a month.
A widow(er) who received a spouse annuity from the RRB is
guaranteed that the amount of any widow(er)’s benefit payable will never be
less than the annuity she or he was receiving as a spouse in the month before
the employee died.
7. Are
survivor benefits subject to any reduction for early retirement or disability
retirement?
Yes. A widow(er), surviving divorced spouse or
remarried widow(er) whose annuity begins at full retirement age or later
receives the full tier I amount unless the deceased employee received an
annuity that was reduced for early retirement. The eligibility age for a
full widow(er)’s annuity is gradually rising from age 65 to age 67. The
maximum age reductions will range from 17.1 percent to 20.36 percent, depending
on the widow(er)’s date of birth. For a surviving divorced spouse or
remarried widow(er), full retirement age increases but the maximum reduction is
28.5 percent. For a disabled widow(er), disabled surviving divorced
spouse or disabled remarried widow(er), the maximum reduction is 28.5 percent,
even if the annuity begins at age 50.
8. Are these benefits subject
to offset for the receipt of other benefits?
Under the Railroad Retirement Act, the tier I portion of a
survivor annuity is subject to reduction if any social security benefits are
also payable, even if the social security benefit is based on the survivor’s
own earnings. This reduction follows the principles of social security
law which, in effect, limit payment to the highest of any two or more benefits
payable to an individual at one time.
The tier I portion of a widow(er)’s annuity may also be
reduced for the receipt of any Federal, State or local government pension based
on the widow(er)’s own earnings. The reduction generally does not apply
if the employment on which the public pension is based was covered under the
Social Security Act throughout the last 60 months of public employment.
(There are some exceptions to this 60-month requirement.) However, most
military service pensions and payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs
will not cause a reduction. For those subject to the public pension reduction,
the tier I reduction is equal to 2/3 of the amount of the public pension.
A survivor annuitant should notify the RRB promptly if she
or he becomes entitled to any such benefits.
9. What if a
widow(er) was also a railroad employee and is eligible for a railroad
retirement employee annuity as well as monthly survivor benefits?
If both the widow (er) and the deceased employee started
railroad employment after 1974, the survivor annuity payable to the widow(er)
is reduced by the amount of the employee annuity.
If either the deceased employee or the survivor annuitant
had some service before 1975 but had not completed 120 months of railroad
service before 1975, the employee annuity and the tier II portion of the
survivor annuity would be payable to the widow(er). The tier I portion of
the survivor annuity would be payable only to the extent that it exceeds the
tier I portion of the employee annuity.
A special guaranty applies if either the deceased employee
or the survivor annuitant completed 120 months of railroad service before
1975. In effect, the widow, or dependent widower, would receive both an
employee annuity and a survivor benefit, without a full dual benefit reduction.
10. What types of lump-sum death
benefits are payable under the Railroad Retirement Act?
A lump-sum death benefit is payable to certain survivors of
an employee with 10 or more years of railroad service, or less than 10 years if
at least 5 years were after 1995, and a current connection with the railroad
industry if there is no survivor immediately eligible for a monthly annuity
upon the employee’s death.
If the employee did not have 10 years of service before
1975, the lump sum is limited to $255 and is payable only to the widow(er)
living in the same household as the employee at the time of the employee’s
death.
If the employee had less than 10 years of service but had 5
years after 1995, he or she must have met social security’s insured status
requirements for the lump sum to be payable.
If the employee had 10 years of service before 1975, the
lump sum is payable to the living-with widow(er). If there is no such
widow(er), the lump sum may be paid to the funeral home or the payer of the
funeral expenses. These lump sums averaged $989 in fiscal year 2008.
The railroad retirement system also provides, under certain
conditions, a residual lump-sum death benefit which ensures that a railroad
family receives at least as much in benefits as the employee paid in railroad
retirement taxes before 1975. This benefit is, in effect, a refund of an
employee’s pre-1975 railroad retirement taxes, after subtraction of any
benefits previously paid on the basis of the employee’s service. This
benefit is seldom payable.
11. How does a person get an
estimate of, or apply for, survivor benefits?
Active or retired employees who are concerned about the
amount of benefits which would be payable to their survivors may receive
estimates from the nearest RRB field office.
Applications for railroad retirement or survivor benefits
are generally filed at one of the RRB’s field offices, or with an RRB
representative at one of the office’s Customer OutReach Program (CORP) service
locations, or by telephone and mail. Persons can contact an office of the
Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) by calling toll free at 1-877-772-5772 or at www.rrb.gov.
Most RRB offices are open to the public from
Public Affairs 312-751-4777
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