BENEFITS

OPM will allow same-sex spouses of deceased federal employees a chance to apply for survivor benefits

Nicole Ogrysko | @nogryskoWFED

November 16, 2021 8:45 am
4 min read

Some same-sex spouses of deceased federal employees and retirees will have another shot at earning survivor benefits from the federal government, the Office of Personnel Management announced this week.

A new notice, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Wednesday, describes how widows or widowers who meet a specific set of criteria can apply for federal survivor benefits that they were previously ineligible for or, in some cases, denied.

Under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), a widow or widower must have been married to a federal employee or annuitant at least nine months before the employee or retiree’s death in order to be eligible for survivor benefits.

But provisions under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and now unconstitutional state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage made meeting that requirement a challenge for some survivors, individuals who perhaps could have met the eligibility criteria had they been able to marry.

The Supreme Court in 2013 since struck down the DOMA provision that allowed the federal government to treat same-sex marriages differently from opposite-sex marriages for the purposes of granting federal benefits.

But that decision, United States v. Windsor, didn’t address the constitutionality of laws in certain states that did not recognize same-sex marriage. The Supreme Court eventually struck down those laws and declared them unconstitutional in 2015 through United States v. Obergefell.

Now moving forward, OPM will allow widows and widowers of same-sex spouses to apply or resubmit an application for federal survivor benefits.

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