Moreover, eligible survivors are also entitled to recurring Social Security  benefit payments. For three of the four hypothetical situations,  the recurring payments for deceased servicemembers’ survivors exceed the  recurring payments that at least one-half of the states provide. In contrast,  the recurring payments for deceased servicemembers’ survivors in the  same three situations are lower than those that at least one-half of the cities  provide. The military provides more types of noncash benefits to survivors  of deceased servicemembers than do civilian government entities provide  to the survivors of deceased general government employees. Servicemembers’ Survivors and General Government Employees’ Survivors Receive Comparable Types of Cash Survivor Benefits, but Benefit Amounts Differ

Survivors of deceased servicemembers and most deceased general  government employees receive lump sum payments through comparable  sources—Social Security, a death gratuity, burial expenses, and life  insurance; the federal government, 16 states, and the District of Columbia  provide additional lump sum payments through their respective retirement  plans (see table 1 for a summary and appendix II for descriptions of how  the payments are calculated for each entity). The  military’s death gratuity ranks above that paid by 55 of the 61 civilian  government entities. The military and the 9 cities do not provide a lump sum survivor benefit as  part of their retirement plans. For the four hypothetical situations, the lump sum payments—excluding  Social Security—for survivors of deceased servicemembers are almost  always higher than those for the survivors of deceased civilian government  employees in general. In most instances, it  would take years of inflation-adjusted recurring payments for the  survivors of those general state and city government employees to reach  the total lump sum and recurring payment benefits provided to the  survivors of the servicemembers. Servicemembers’ Survivors Receive More Noncash Benefits Than Do General Government Employees’ Survivors

The military provides more noncash survivor benefits than do the federal,  state, and city governments, with some benefits being comparable in type  and others differing among the entities (see table 4 for examples of the  most common benefits). Most Federal, State, and City Governments Supplement Their General Survivor Benefits for Employees in High-Risk Occupations

The survivors of civilian government employees in selected high-risk  occupations may receive supplemental benefits beyond those that the  entities provide to government employees in general (see table 5 for a  summary and appendix IV for the descriptions of how the payments are  calculated for each entity). Employees in selected high-risk occupations in  the 61 civilian government entities may receive an additional cash benefit  through the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) Program. When these supplemental cash benefits are added to the benefits for  general government employees, the total cash benefits that the entities  provide to the survivors of deceased civilian government employees in  high-risk occupations may be higher than those provided to deceased  servicemembers’ survivors. Other staff members who made key  contributions to this report are listed in appendix V.

Scope and Methodology

To assess the extent that survivor benefits provided to servicemembers’  survivors differ from those provided to federal, state, and city general  government employees’ survivors, we gathered benefits information that  covered the active duty military and the largest group of employees for  each of 61 civilian government entities: the federal government, 50 states  and the District of Columbia, and the 9 cities with a population of at least  1 million. Although the  civilian government entities typically provide benefits to survivors of those  who die while not in the line of duty, those benefits are not separately  identified from the line-of-duty benefits in this report. Cash Survivor Benefits Provided by Government Entities for Employees in High-Risk Occupations

This appendix describes the cash benefits available to eligible survivors of  civilian government employees who die in the line of duty while performing  in the high-risk occupations of law enforcement or firefighting.
Why GAO Did This Study

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 noted that it was the sense of the Congress that "the sacrifices made by the members of the Armed Forces are significant and are worthy of meaningful expressions of gratitude by the United States, especially in cases of sacrifice through loss of life." In addition to offering expressions of gratitude, the government offers a variety of benefits, including Social Security benefits, to survivors of servicemembers who die while on active duty. GAO was asked to address two questions: (1) To what extent are the survivor benefits provided to servicemembers different from those provided to federal, state, and city government employees in general and (2) To what extent do federal, state, and city governments supplement their general survivor benefits for employees in high-risk occupations?

What GAO Found

The military provides survivor benefits that are comparable in type but not in amount to those provided by 61 civilian government entities (federal government, 50 states and the District of Columbia, and 9 cities with populations of at least 1 million) when employees die in the line of duty. Social Security payments, a death gratuity, burial expenses, and life insurance are four types of lump sum survivor benefits provided by the military and at least some civilian government entities; the federal government and some states additionally provide a lump sum payment through their retirement plans. Recurring payments are also provided by Social Security to the survivors for deceased servicemembers and most deceased government employees in the 61 civilian government entities GAO studied. Other types of recurring payments are specific to the military or civilian government entities. GAO identified two programs with recurring payments for the military and two other types of programs for the civilian government entities. For the four hypothetical situations GAO used to examine the amount of cash payments provided to survivors, survivors of deceased servicemembers almost always obtain higher lump sums than do the survivors of the deceased employees from the 61 civilian government entities. The amount of recurring payments to deceased servicemembers' survivors in three of the four situations exceeds those provided by the federal government, typically exceeds those provided by at least one-half of the states, but are typically less than those provided by over one-half the cities. The military also provides more types of noncash survivor benefits than do civilian government entities, with some benefits being comparable in type and others differing among the entities. The survivors of civilian government employees in some high-risk occupations may receive supplemental benefits--a death gratuity, higher life insurance, higher benefits from the retirement plan, or a combination of the three--beyond those that the entities provide to civilian government employees in general. For example, survivors of federal, state, and city government law enforcement officers and firefighters who die in the line of duty may be entitled to a lump sum payment of more than $267,000 under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Act. Further, 34 states and 5 cities provide survivors of employees in high-risk occupations with additional cash benefits that are not available to survivors of state and city employees in general. The addition of these supplemental cash benefits to those provided to the survivors of deceased general government employees can result in lump sum and recurring payments being generally higher for survivors of government employees in high-risk occupations than for servicemembers' survivors.