TN 15 (03-12)

A. Benefit amount policy

1. General policy for mother/father benefit amount

The mother's/father's benefit is 75 percent of the number holder’s primary insurance amount (PIA).

2. Family maximum

If a reduction in the amount is required because maximum family benefits are involved, see details in RS 00615.730 Maximum Family Benefits and RS 00615.801 Saving Clauses (SC) Which Affect Benefit Amounts.

Surviving divorced mother's/father's benefits, which the family maximum provisions limit, differ from surviving divorced wife's/husband's and widow(er)'s benefits, which are not reduced for the family maximum. For policy on the family maximum, see RS 00615.730.

3. More than one claimant

If more than one claimant qualifies for these benefits based on the same earnings record (E/R), each qualifies for an entire mother's/father's benefit computed in the usual manner and adjusted for the maximum. For benefits payable beginning 1/1991, we pay the legal widow(er) in a legal/deemed or legal/putative simultaneous entitlement situation outside the family maximum for the first and all subsequent months of entitlement.

B. Policy about simultaneous entitlement

1. General policy on benefits involving different E/Rs

A mother/father or surviving divorced mother/father may receive other types of benefits involving different E/Rs (e.g., retirement insurance benefits (RIB) and disability insurance benefits, (DIB), spouse's, and parent's benefits).

2. Mother's/Father's Benefit and RIB or DIB

A claimant entitled to both a RIB or DIB and a mother's/father's benefit will receive the RIB or DIB, plus the amount that the mother's/father's benefit exceeds it. If the claimant becomes entitled to a RIB benefit that equals or exceeds the full mother's/father's benefit, we terminate entitlement to the mother's/father's benefit. We suspend entitlement to a mother's/father's benefit if the claimant becomes entitled to an equal or higher DIB.

3. Mother's/Father's benefit and CDB or parent's or spouse's benefits

1. When a mother/father or surviving divorced mother/father is entitled to both mother's/father's benefits and a higher childhood disability benefit (CDB), or parent's or spouse's benefit, she or he is not eligible to receive the mother's/father's benefit.

2. Entitlement at a later date to a higher CDB, parent's or spouse's benefit will result in nonpayment of the mother's/father's benefits. For details, see RS 00209.015, Payment Provisions for Parent’s Benefits.

3. The above limitations do not mean that entitlement to the larger benefit terminates entitlement to the other. The limitation is a cause for suspension since termination of entitlement to the higher benefit (for a reason that does not terminate entitlement to the lower benefit) automatically reinstates the right to receive the lower benefit.

There is no need for a new application. Entitlement to the higher benefit precludes eligibility to receive the lower benefit, even during those months of non-payment of the higher benefit because of deduction events. It is immaterial that those events are not cause for deductions on the record that yields the lower benefit.