Educate Your SBP Beneficiaries
The Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) was created to provide financial support to military spouses and/or children when a military member dies while on active duty or after retirement. If you elected SBP coverage, it’s important for your survivors to understand how to initiate the benefit and how to manage it once they start receiving an annuity. This article has important information for you to share with your loved ones.
The nature and extent of the SBP benefit
SBP provides eligible beneficiaries with a monthly payment known as an annuity. The amount of the benefit is a percentage of your retired pay (up to 55%) and it depends upon whether you chose full or reduced coverage. The recipient of your SBP annuity is referred to as the annuitant.
The SBP entitlement begins upon your death and ends either when your designated beneficiary becomes ineligible to receive the annuity, or when your beneficiary dies.
What initiates the SBP benefit and what will my beneficiary have to do?
Your designated beneficiary becomes eligible to receive SBP benefits on the day after your death. The first step a beneficiary must take to start benefits is to report your death. Please see our website for how to report a death.
What happens if there is a delay in reporting a retiree's death?
Late notification of a retiree's death may result in delays in finalizing a member's account, payment of arrears of pay or the establishment of an SBP annuity.
A retiree's entitlement to retired pay ends on the date he or she dies. Therefore, delayed reporting of a retiree's death may result in an overpayment that will be collected from a financial institution, the member's estate, or from the annuitant if he/she has received the retired pay funds.
Reasons payment may be temporarily stopped
Each year we mail annuitants a Certificate of Eligibility (COE) if they are under the age of 55, living outside the United States or have a legal representative (e.g., Power of Attorney, representative payee, court appointed guardian). We use the information we request on that form to determine an annuitant's continued eligibility for monthly payments. If we don’t receive the COE by the deadline on the form, we will stop payment until we receive a properly completed COE. You can get a COE form on our website at:
www.dfas.mil/retiredmilitary/forms
Reasons payment can be permanently stopped
Annuity payments stop when your beneficiary dies or becomes ineligible to receive the annuity. For example, payments stop for children covered under the SBP annuity when they reach age 18 if they are not in school full-time, or if they marry or join the military. Payments also stop for spouses covered under SBP if they remarry before age 55.
Continuing children's benefits after age 18
Payments typically stop for children covered under SBP when they reach age 18, unless they are in school full-time. If a child attends an accredited college or university full-time, the payments continue until they reach age 22. Each semester, we mail a Child Annuitant's School Certification form to verify the child is still enrolled. If we don’t receive the form by the deadline listed, we will stop all payments until we receive a properly completed form. School Certification forms are available on our website at:
www.dfas.mil/retiredmilitary/forms
Effects of remarriage on a spouse annuity
If a spouse annuitant remarries before age 55, annuity payments will stop. However, if the annuitant's marriage later ends, for any reason, even after age 55, the annuity payment will restart from the date the marriage ends.
The annuitant is responsible for notifying DFAS of any changes to their marital status. When you notify us, be sure to include supporting documents, such as marriage certificates, divorce decrees, or death certificates.
Benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) is a monetary benefit offered by the VA.
Spouse SBP annuitants, except for those who remarry after age 57 (or in other specific circumstances), cannot receive full SBP and DIC at the same time. DIC payments made directly to children, or to a guardian on behalf of children, do not affect SBP child annuity payments.
Please see the article “The Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance (SSIA) for Surviving Spouses is now a Permanent Benefit” for more information about DIC. [>>Link “The Special Survivor Indemnity Allowance (SSIA) for Surviving Spouses is now a Permanent Benefit” to article]