Protecting Surviving Spouses with the Love Lives On Act
The Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs passed the Love Lives On Act, clearing the way for the bill to go to the full Senate floor for a vote. If signed into law, the Love Lives On Act would make a major change to military education benefits and related options by eliminating a “remarriage penalty” affecting surviving military spouses.
That penalty, under laws current at press time, ends certain military benefits for surviving spouses if they remarry before age 55.
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Protecting Surviving Spouses with the Love Lives On Act
The bill, if passed into law, would provide a series of protections for surviving spouses. First, it allows spouses to keep Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) regardless of the age at which a survivor remarries.
DIC is the tax-free benefit paid to survivors of those who died in the line of military duty. Currently, over 530,000 surviving spouses receive DIC. A notable portion of this group faces financial insecurity because they cannot legally remarry without losing their primary source of income.
Survivor Benefit Plan Options, Fry Scholarship Options
The act would also protect Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuities. Current regulations end these payments in qualifying circumstances upon remarriage before age 55. The new legislation would allow these payments to continue or resume.
The act also includes measures to keep healthcare benefits for these military spouses, letting survivors who remarry keep TRICARE eligibility if their subsequent marriage ends due to death or divorce. The act also removes the remarriage expiration date for the Marine Gunnery Sergeant John David Fry Scholarship.
Official Summary of the Love Lives On Act
Congress.gov includes a summary of the bill, which includes the following:
- The Love Lives On Act “extends entitlement for various benefit programs and services for surviving spouses of deceased members of the Armed Forces or veterans.”
- The bill says “the remarriage of a surviving spouse must not bar the furnishing of dependency and indemnity compensation or special pension benefits to such spouse.”
- Additionally, the Department of Defense “may not terminate an annuity payment to a surviving spouse under the Survivor Benefit Plan solely because the surviving spouse remarries.”
The bill expands the definition of a dependent under TRICARE. It would, if passed, include a remarried widow or widower whose subsequent marriage has ended due to death, divorce, or annulment.
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What’s Next?
The legislation has broad bipartisan support with 145 cosponsors in the House of Representatives. Until the full House and Senate schedule votes, the age 55 rule remains the law of the land.
Advocacy groups like the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) have lobbied for these changes for years, arguing military survivor benefits are an earned benefit for the loss of a loved one and should not be conditional on a survivor remaining single. This is an ongoing story.
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About the author
Editor-in-Chief Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter/editor for Air Force Television News and the Pentagon Channel. His freelance work includes contract work for Motorola, VALoans.com, and Credit Karma. He is co-founder of Dim Art House in Springfield, Illinois, and spends his non-writing time as an abstract painter, independent publisher, and occasional filmmaker.
