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Question of Whether Survivor Benefit Plan Annuities Should Be Offset by Social Security Benefits

B-190348 Mar 08, 1978
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Highlights

A decision was requested as to whether a widow's Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuity should be offset by social security benefits received as the mother of a dependent child under 18 years of age. A military survivor annuity must be reduced by an amount equivalent to the mother's payment from the social security program. However, the child was not living with the mother and was not in her care. Since she was not entitled to the mother's benefit, her survivor's benefit annuity was not reduced. Another widow, aged 62, questioned whether her SBP annuity would be offset by social security survivors' benefits she was entitled to through her deceased husband's military service. The SBP annuity must be offset by the social security benefits attributable to the deceased member's military earnings.

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