United States

Office of

Personnel Management

The Federal Government’s Human Resources Agency

Retirement and Insurance Service

Benefits Administration Letter 

Number: 00-105 Date: May 10, 2000 

Subject: New procedures to expedite payments to spouses of Federal employees

who have died.

Purpose: Effective immediately, we will expedite payments to surviving spouses

of Federal employees, based on information that you, the employing

agency, send us via either fax at (724) 794-1112, or our web site at

http://www.opm.gov/retire (under the “Contacting Us” menu). These

expedited payments will alleviate financial hardship during the difficult

time in which families are adjusting to the loss of a loved one.

Background: Historically, we have not paid any benefits to survivors of employees who

die until we receive a complete application package. For CSRS

employees, we currently start paying interim monthly benefits to surviving

spouses once we receive their applications, and continue them until we

complete work on the claim. But for FERS employees, we have not been

able to provide interim payments to surviving spouses due to system

limitations, so they have had to wait even longer to receive any survivor

benefits including the Basic Employee Death Benefit.

A pilot project with the Department of Defense showed that, by

immediately sharing information between the agency and OPM and

initiating benefits before we receive the hard-copy documentation, we can

begin payments in days rather than weeks. For example, we

Civil Service Federal Employees Federal Employees Federal Employees

Retirement Group Life Health Benefits Retirement

System Insurance Program System
authorized CSRS interim payments in an average of 12 days rather than

the 54 days under normal procedures. This success demonstrated that the

alternative procedure works well and should be made available to all

agencies.

Procedures

for Agencies: After the death of a CSRS employee with an eligible surviving spouse,

notify OPM immediately by providing the information requested on the

attached “CSRS Death-In-Service Quick Pay” form via fax at

(724) 794-1112, or our web site at http://www.opm.gov/retire under the

“Contacting Us” menu. There you can access the necessary form(s), fill

them in on line, and send them (in electronically encrypted format) to our

Retirement Operations Center (ROC) for processing.

Provide the surviving spouse with the SF 2800, Application for Death

Benefits. 

After the death of a FERS employee send the attached “FERS Basic

Death-In-Service” form via fax at (724) 794-1112, or our web site at

http://www.opm.gov/retire under the “Contacting Us” menu.

Provide the surviving spouse with a SF 3104, Application for Death

Benefits, and SF 3104B, Documentation and Elections in Support of

Application for Death Benefits when Deceased was an Employee at the

Time of Death. 

If the employee was enrolled in the Federal Employees’ Group Life

Insurance Program, provide survivors/designated beneficiaries with the

FE-6, Claim for Death Benefits, and tell them to submit the form, as

well as the certified death certificate, directly to the Office of Federal

Employees’ Group Life Insurance (OFEGLI) at 200 Park Avenue,

New York, NY 10166-0188. (The FE-6 instructions say return the

form to the agency, however, we plan to revise the FE-6 once agency

participation in the expedited payment process becomes widespread).

You still need to do your part and certify and send the SF 2821, Agency

Certification of Insurance Status, to OFEGLI at the above address, along
with designations of beneficiary, applicable court orders, assignment

forms, and all other life insurance documents you normally send OFEGLI.

 We hope that OFEGLI’s earlier receipt of survivors’ claim forms and the

certified death certificate will expedite payment of FEGLI benefits. But

OFEGLI cannot make any payments until it receives the certification and

other life insurance documents from you. Please send them as soon as

possible.

You should continue to provide assistance with the necessary paperwork

to the surviving spouse, who must still complete the appropriate

Application for Death Benefits and attach any other forms and/or evidence

as the application or circumstances require. If the survivor is able to

complete the full application package while at the agency, forward it to us

with your records.

If the survivor is unable to complete the application, do not delay in

sending your records to us. Tell the survivor to complete the

application and send it directly to us at:

 Office of Personnel Management

 Retirement Operations Center

 Attention: Employee Survivor Team

 Post Office Box 45

 Boyers, Pennsylvania 16017-0045

Please help us in making sure the survivor knows that we need their

application within 60 days. Otherwise, we will not be able to continue

interim payments.

OPM Procedures: When we receive the CSRS Death-In-Service Quick Pay information, we

will immediately authorize interim monthly benefits to the surviving

spouse. If the deceased employee had a family health benefits enrollment,

we also will transfer the coverage under the same plan to the surviving

spouse’s name. 

When we receive the FERS Basic Death-In-Service information, we will

immediately establish a survivor account. Due to tax implications,

payment of the Basic Employee Death Benefit cannot be authorized prior

to receipt of the signed election forms from the survivor. Therefore, it is

extremely important whenever possible to have the survivor complete the
forms during your counseling session. After receipt of these completed

forms, we will authorize payment of the Basic Employee Death Benefit.

We will subsequently complete final processing of survivor annuity

benefits, if eligible, upon receipt of the remaining required documentation.

The information that you send us via fax or our web site will also be

helpful when we need to contact either you or the survivor for clarification

and/or additional information.

________________________________________________

If you or the survivor need further assistance, you may continue to call the Retirement

Operations Center at (724) 794-2005, Extension 3012. The Governmentwide goal to receive

all required documentation from you is still 30 days from date of death. 

Attachments