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[Questions of Suspension of Survivor Benefit Plan Annuity]

B-207764 Feb 08, 1983
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Highlights

A Navy Finance Center disbursing officer requested a decision as to whether a deceased officer's dependent should continue to receive the Survivor Benefit Plan annuity to which she was entitled as the result of her physical disability. The agency argued that, since she had become gainfully employed, she was capable of supporting herself and was no longer entitled to the annuity. However, the dependent pointed out that her own ordinary living expenses, because of her physical disability, included additional necessary expenditures for the purchase and maintenance of special equipment. She suggested that the net pay of her new job was insufficient to cover her own ordinary living expenses and that she was not, therefore, capable of self-support. GAO held that there was no basis for the suspension of her annuity since the record did not indicate that the salary of her job was sufficient for her own personal needs. Furthermore, GAO stated that an annuity eligibility determination should consider the relevant facts of a particular case rather than adhere to relatively strict and often inflexible guidelines. Accordingly, the Survivor Benefit Plan annuity may not be suspended in the circumstances.

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