In a recent article on the link between spousal survivor benefits and the ability for a surviving spouse to continue FEHB coverage after an employee/retiree’s death, I mentioned that survivor benefits for eligible children could allow a spouse to continue FEHB coverage even if the spouse was not, in their own right, entitled to continue coverage. Several readers inquired as to what constituted an eligible child; here’s the definition of eligible child for the purpose of receiving a survivor benefit:
- Dependent;
- Unmarried; and
- Under age 18; or
- Under age 22 if a full-time student; or
- Any age if disabled and incapable of self-support as the result of a disability that occurred before age 18.
There are two levels of survivor benefits for children. The amount of the benefits is adjusted each year for inflation. The following figures are for 2016.
If one parent is still living, the child will receive the lesser of:
- $510 per month per child; or
- $1532 per month divided by the number of eligible children.
If no parent survives, the child will receive the lesser of:
- $613 per month per child; or
- $1839 per month divided by the number of eligible children.
A surviving child would also be likely to be eligible for Social Security survivor benefits. Congress, in its wisdom, has defined eligible child differently for different types of benefits and the Social Security definition of eligible child is:
- Dependent;
- Unmarried; and
- Under age 18; or
- Under age 19 if a full-time student in high-school or below; or
- Any age if disabled and incapable of self-support as the result of a disability that occurred before age 22.
Social Security children’s survivor benefits are generally larger than FERS children’s survivor benefits and there is a dollar for dollar offset of Social Security children’s survivor benefits against FERS children’s survivor benefits. This normally eliminates any FERS children’s survivor benefit. However, if the child is still a full-time student at any level of education at the age of 19, they will be able to collect the FERS children’s survivor benefit up to the age of 22 as long as they remain a full-time student.
Some of this article was taken from the FERS coursebook that is utilized by Federal Career Experts in pre-retirement seminars that they present for federal agencies. If your agency has not offered a pre-retirement seminar recently, ask them to contact Federal Career Experts and request a proposal.