Printing - FECA-PT2 - National Association of Letter Carriers

2-0800-21 FECA Death Gratuity
21. FECA Death Gratuity.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, Public Law 110-181, amended the FECA,
creating a new section 8102(a). The section establishes a new FECA benefit for eligible survivors of
federal employees and Non-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality (NAFI) employees who die of injuries
incurred in connection with service with an Armed Force in a contingency operation.
The new section 8102(a) states that the United States will pay a death gratuity of up to $100,000 to those
survivors upon receiving official notification of the employee’s death. Section 8102(a) also states that the
United States will pay the death gratuity to the eligible survivors “immediately upon receiving official
notification” of an employee’s death. There is a retroactive payment provision, stating that the death
gratuity will be paid for employees of certain agencies who died on or after October 7, 2001, due to
injuries incurred in connection with service with an Armed Force in the theater of operations of Operation
Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Regulations implementing the FECA death gratuity are
set forth at 20 C.F.R. 10.900-916. The $100,000 death gratuity is offset and reduced by any other death
gratuity paid for the same death.
All claims for benefits under 8102(a) will be processed by the Special Claims Unit in the Cleveland District
Office. As a result, all claims for a death gratuity are to be transferred to Cleveland immediately upon
receipt for handling and response. The original death claim, if applicable, should also be transferred to
Cleveland at that time. Once received in Cleveland, each case will be assigned a specific claim number,
beginning with the prefix “DG.” A DG claim number will be assigned to each person making a claim. That
means that more than one DG claim could be created as the result of one death. This also means that if a
claim for a death gratuity is made in an existing FECA case, a new DG claim number will be assigned to
the death gratuity – distinct from the existing FECA case number.
FECA death benefits payable under section 8133 and burial expenses payable under section 8134 of the
Act do not constitute a dual benefit and, therefore, do not affect this FECA death gratuity payment made
under section 8102(a).
More detailed procedures on processing these cases will be provided in Part 4 (Special Case Procedures) of
the DFEC Procedure Manual.
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