§ 232.306 Commutation of annuity.

When awarded on or after September 6, 1958, a monthly spouse's annuity that is less than $5 may be paid quarterly or in a lump sum equal to its commuted value as determined by the Board.

[Board Order 60-13, 25 FR 1674, Feb. 26, 1960]

Subpart D-Payment of Annuities

§ 232.401 Statutory provisions.

The spouse's annuity provided in subsection (e) shall, with respect to any month, be subject to the same provisions of subsection (d) as the individual's annuity, and, in addition, the spouse's annuity shall not be payable for any month if the individual's annuity is not payable for such month (or, in the case of a pensioner, would not be payable if the pension were an annuity) by reason of the provisions of said subsection (d). Such spouse's annuity shall cease at the end of the month preceding the month in which (i) the spouse or the individual dies, (ii) the spouse and the individual are absolutely divorced, or (iii), in the case of a wife under age 65 (other than a wife who is receiving such annuity by reason of an election under subsection (h)), she no longer has in her care a child who, if her husband were then to die, would be entitled to an annuity under subsection (c) of section 5 of this Act (section 2(g) of the act).

[Board Order 60-13, 25 FR 1674, Feb. 26, 1960]

§ 232.402 Loss of annuity with respect to any month.

A spouse's annuity shall not be paid with respect to any month in which an individual in receipt of an annuity under section 2(e) of the act shall:

(a) Render compensated service to an employer or to the last person by whom such spouse annuitant was employed prior to the date on which the annuity began to accrue, or

(b) The retirement annuity of the employee annuitant is not payable, or in the case of a pensioner such pension would not be payable if it were an annuity subject to the provisions of section 2(d) of the act.

[Board Order 55-89, 20 FR 3712, May 27, 1955]

§ 232.403 Entitlement ends.

Entitlement to a spouse's annuity under the act shall cease at the end of the month preceding the month in which any of the following events

occurs:

(a) The spouse annuitant dies.

(b) The wife or husband of the spouse annuitant dies.

(c) The marriage of the spouse annuitant and the annuitant or pensioner is ended by absolute divorce.

(d) A wife annuitant under age 65 (other than a wife who is receiving the annuity by reason of an election under section 2(h) of the act) no longer has in her care a child who, if her husband were then to die, would be entitled to an annuity under section 5(c) of the act.

[Board Order 55-89, 20 FR 3712, May 27, 1955, as amended by Board Order 60-13, 25 FR 1674, Feb. 26, 1960]

(b) If there is no such widow or widower, then such annuities shall be payable to: (1) Any person or persons, equitably entitled thereto, to the extent and in the proportions that he or they shall have paid the burial expenses of the employee and to the extent that he or they will not have been reimbursed under section 5(f)(1) of the act for having paid such expenses. If there is no such person or persons or if the total of such annuities exceeds the amount payable under this subparagraph, such total, or the remainder thereof, as the case may be, shall be paid in the order named and in equal shares to the person or persons in the following groups whose relationship to the employee will have been determined by the Board and who will not have died before receiving payment of such annuities; (2) children; (3) grandchildren; (4) parents; (5) brothers and sisters.

§ 234.2 Spouse annuities due but unpaid at death.

(a) Annuities which will have become due a spouse but will not have been paid at the spouse's death, if such death shall have occurred after September 1958, shall be paid to the employee from whose employment such spouse's annuity derived and who will not have died before receiving payment of such annuities.

(b) If the employee died before receiving payment, such annuities shall then be paid as provided in § 234.1(b) as if they were annuities due the employee but unpaid at the time of such employee's death.

(b) If there is no such widow or widower, such annuities shall be paid in the order named and in equal shares to the person or persons in the following groups whose relationship to the employee will have been determined by the Board and who will not have died before receiving payment of such annuities: (1) Children; (2) grandchildren; (3) parents; (4) brothers and sisters.

§ 234.4 Joint and survivor annuities due but unpaid at death.

Survivor annuities pursuant to an election which will have become due a survivor of an employee but will not have been paid at the survivor's death, if such death shall have occurred after September 1958, shall be paid in the order named and in equal shares to the person or persons in the following groups whose relationship to the employee will have been determined by the Board and who will not have died before receiving payment of such annuities: (a) Children; (b) grandchildren; (c) parents; (d) brothers and sisters.

§ 234.5 Time of filing application.

An application for annuities due but unpaid at death must be filed with the Board on its prescribed form no later than the second anniversary of the death of the person to whom such annuities were originally due.

§ 234.6 Escheat.

If there is no person to whom can be made all or part of a payment described in §§ 234.1, 234.2, 234.3, and 234.4, such payment or part thereof shall escheat to the credit of the Railroad Retirement Account.

PART 236-PAYMENTS OF BENEFITS OF $1,000 OR LESS

Sec.

236.1 Payment with or without formal administration.

236.2 Waiver and release by creditor. 236.3 Direction of payment to other indi

viduals.

236.4 Selection under State allowance or exemption laws.

AUTHORITY: Sec. 10, 50 Stat. 314, as amended; 45 U.S.C. 228j.

§ 236.1 Payment with or without formal administration.

When the amount payable under the Railroad Retirement Act to the estate of a deceased individual is $1,000, or less, and no administrator or executor has been or is expected to be appointed, or where the estate of the deceased has been closed and reopening thereof is not expected, the director of retirement claims, and any employee designated by him for the purpose, is hereby authorized to require formal administration of the estate in the first case, or reopening of the estate in the other; or to make certification for payment, without such requirements, to such person or persons and in such proportions as would be the case if the estate were administered under the laws of the state of last domicile of the deceased.

[Board Order 48-437, 14 FR 294, Jan. 20, 1949]

§ 236.2 Waiver and release by creditor.

If, in the judgment of the Board, any creditor of the estate of the deceased possesses rights superior to those of his surviving spouse or kindred, payment shall not be made without formal administration unless and until such creditor has, on a form prescribed by the Board, waived and released his claim against such estate with the same effect as if it had heretofore been paid and fully satisfied: I Provided, however, That payment may be made to a creditor or creditors, on a proportionate basis, for burial expenses or medical expenses of the last illness of the deceased in the order of priority under the applicable law: Provided further, That where several persons are creditors by virtue of having contributed small amounts of $25 or less each to a fund administered by a custodian for payment of the burial expenses of the deceased, payment may be made to such custodian without requiring formal assignments or waivers signed by each such person. [Board Order 55-89, 20 FR 3713, May 27, 1955]

§ 236.3 Direction of payment to other individuals.

If it is determined by the Board that the benefit is payable to two or more individuals mentioned in § 236.1, any one or more of such individuals may, if he wishes, upon a form approved by the Board, direct the payment of his interest to any other of such individuals.

[4 FR 1493, Apr. 7, 1939. Redesignated by Board Order 47-1, 12 FR 469, Jan. 23, 1947]

§ 236.4 Selection under State allowance or exemption laws.

Whenever, under the laws of the State in which the deceased was last domiciled, the surviving spouse or kindred is, in the judgment of the Board, entitled to allowance or exemption, the benefit may become payable without court proceedings, in accordance with the provisions of such allowance or exemption laws, if such spouse or kindred executes and files with the Board a prescribed form in which he selects and accepts the benefit as a first payment toward the allowance or exemption, and agrees in the event of any proceedings concerning the administration or distribution of assets of the estate of the deceased to notify the probate court or other proper authority of such selection and accept

Sec.

237.807 Individual deterred from filing ap

plication.

237.808 Application deemed to have been filed.

237.809 Application where individual is in

competent.

237.810 Cancellation of application.

Subpart I-Miscellaneous

237.901 Statutory provisions.

237.902 Act of March 7, 1942 (56 Stat. 143, 144).

237.903 Payment of insurance annuity in lump sum.

237.904 Meaning of "retirement annuity". 237.905 Proof of continuance of disability of child age 18 or over.

237.906 Rounding of insurance annuity. 237.907 Effect of felonious homicide. 237.908 Escheat.

AUTHORITY: Secs. 3, 10, 50 Stat. 310, as amended, 314, as amended; 45 U.S.C. 228c, 228j.

Subpart A-Insured Status

§ 237.101 Statutory provisions.

An employee will have been "completely insured" if it appears to the satisfaction of the Board that at the time of his death, whether before or after the enactment of this section, he will have completed ten years of service and will have had the qualifications set forth in any one of the following paragraphs:

(i) a current connection with the railroad industry; and a number of quarters of coverage, not less than six, and at least equal to one-half of the number of quarters, elapsing in the period after 1936, or after the quarter in which he will have attained the age of twenty-one, whichever is later, and up to but excluding the quarter in which he will have attained the age of sixty-five years or died, whichever will first have occurred (excluding from the elapsed quarters any quarter which is not a quarter of coverage and during any part of which a retirement annuity will have been payable to him); and if the number of such elapsed quarters is an odd number such number shall be reduced by one; or

(ii) a current connection with the railroad industry; and either will have had forty or more quarters of coverage or would be fully insured under title II of the Social Security Act if his service as an employee after December 31, 1936, were included in the term "employment" as defined in that Act; or

(iii) a pension will have been payable to him; or a retirement annuity based on service of not less than ten years (as computed in awarding the annuity) will have begun to

accrue to him before 1948. (Section 5(1)(7) of the act.)

An employee will have been "partially insured" at the time of his death, whether before or after the enactment of this section, if it appears to the satisfaction of the Board that he will have completed ten years of service and (i) will have had a current connection with the railroad industry; and (ii) either will have had six or more quarters of coverage in the period ending with the quarter in which he will have died or in which a retirement annuity will have begun to accrue to him and beginning with the third calendar year next preceding the year in which such event occurs, or would be currently insured under title II of the Social Security Act if his service as an employee after December 31, 1936, were included in the term "employment" as defined in that Act. (Section 5(1)(8) of the act.)

An individual shall be deemed to have “a current connection with the railroad industry" at the time an annuity begins to accrue to him and at death if, in any thirty consecutive calendar months before the month in which an annuity under section 2 begins to accrue to him (or the month in which he dies if that first occurs), he will have been in service as an employee in not less than twelve calendar months and, if such thirty calendar months do not immediately precede such month, he will not have been engaged in any regular employment other than employment for an employer in the period before such month and after the end of such thirty months. For the purposes of section 5 only, an individual shall be deemed also to have a "current connection with the railroad industry" if he is in all other respects completely insured but would not be fully insured under the Social Security Act, or if he is in all other respects partially insured but would be neither fully nor currently insured under the Social Security Act, or if he has no wage quarters of coverage. (Section 1(0) of the act.)

The term "quarter of coverage" shall mean a compensation quarter of coverage or a wage quarter of coverage, and the term "quarters of coverage" shall mean compensation quarters of coverage, or wage quarters of coverage, or both: Provided, That there shall be for a single employee no more than four quarters of coverage for a single calendar year. (Section 5(1)(3) of the act.)

The term "compensation quarter of coverage" shall mean any quarter of coverage computed with respect to compensation paid to an employee after 1936 in accordance with the following table.

If upon computation of the compensation quarters of coverage in accordance with the above table an employee is found to lack a completely or partially insured status which he would have if compensation paid in a calendar year were presumed to have been paid in equal proportions with respect to all months in the year in which the employee will have been in service as an employee, such presumption shall be made. (Section 5(1)(4) of the act.)

The term "wage quarter of coverage" shall mean any quarter of coverage determined in accordance with the provisions of Title II of the Social Security Act. (Section 5(1)(5) of the act.)

[Board Order 59-232, 25 FR 479, Jan. 21, 1960; 25 FR 1073, Feb. 6, 1960]

§ 237.102 Completely insured status.

(a) Payments based upon, and existence of, completely insured status. (1) All insurance annuities and lump sums, other than a residual lump sum, for survivors are conditioned upon an employee's insured status. This status is determined by the employee's service, compensation, and wage history. Unless the employee was completely insured at death, his widow cannot become entitled to a widow's insurance annuity, her widower cannot become entitled to a widower's insurance annuity, and his or her surviving parent cannot become entitled to a parent's insurance annuity on the basis of the employee's earnings.

(2) For the purpose of determining whether an employee was completely insured at death, it is immaterial whether his death occurred before, on, or after the enactment date of section 5 of the act.

(3) An employee was completely insured at death if: