Division of Federal Employees' Compensation (DFEC)
Death Gratuity Page
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Amendment to the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, 5 U.S.C. § 8102a – Death Gratuity
This new provision creates a death gratuity for federal employees (and employees of non-appropriated fund instrumentalities) by authorizing the United States to pay up to $100,000 to the survivors of "an employee who dies of injuries incurred in connection with the employee's service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation." On January 28, 2008, the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) was amended by adding a new section 8102a (5 U.S.C. § 8102a - Death Gratuity). (See section 1105 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2008, Public Law 110-181) This new provision creates a death gratuity for federal employees (and employees of nonappropriated fund instrumentalities) by authorizing the United States to pay up to $100,000 to the survivors of "an employee who dies of injuries incurred in connection with the employee's service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation." The $100,000 amount must by law be reduced and offset by any other federally provided death gratuity. - Unlike other death gratuities, this death gratuity was placed within FECA and, for that reason, will be administered by the Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP) as part of the FECA program. This provision became effective on the date of enactment, and OWCP published an interim final rule implementing the amendment in the Federal Register on August 18, 2009 at 74 F.R. 41617, http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=0900006480a0c37a. This one-time death gratuity is to be disbursed to the survivors of the employee in a specific, and somewhat complicated, order of precedence set forth in the statute. It is important to note that these beneficiary stipulations are unique to this new statutory provision, and no previously existing DOL rules or guidelines cover these circumstances.
- No designation is necessary if an employee wishes the death gratuity to be distributed in accordance with the order of precedence set out in section 8102a; although the statutory order of precedence is extensive, the legal spouse of an employee at the time of death will receive 100% of the benefit payable unless some portion of the benefit (up to 50% in 10% increments as explained below) is designated to an alternate beneficiary on the CA-40. If the employee has no legal spouse and a CA-40 is not completed, the employee's children share the available benefit. The statutory order of precedence thereafter is to other specified family members.
- The statute also provides the employee the opportunity to change the order of precedence in regard to certain survivors as well as designate up to 50 percent of the benefit to any person. Since the death gratuity is now in effect and the interim final rule has been published, designations are to be completed on the new form CA-40, which has previously been provided to the agencies and is available at: http://www.dol.gov/owcp/dfec/regs/compliance/CA-40.pdf. See interim final rule 20 C.F.R. Subpart J10.909. The instructions accompanying the form explain the order of precedence that governs awarding the death gratuity and the optional designations that an employee can make. We recommend that any time a Federal employee is deployed overseas or otherwise assigned to provide service to an Armed Force in a contingency operation, as defined in this provision, he or she be informed of this death gratuity and be given the opportunity to complete on the CA 40 form if desired. Employees already so assigned should also be given this opportunity. An employee desiring to designate one or more alternate beneficiaries of a death gratuity payable under this provision must complete and sign a copy of this form, and give the original to his or her employer to be completed and maintained by the employer in the employee's official personnel file, or a related system of records, in case it is needed in future. The employee should retain a copy of the completed form.
Link to designation form: Designation Form
