Military Survivor Benefits: What Your Family Receives and Who Pays It

This guide covers a death on active duty. If your loved one was a military retiree or a veteran, several of these programs still apply but under different rules, and that situation benefits from a conversation about the differences. If your loved one was a federal civilian employee, even one working alongside the military, an entirely different system applies; that is the federal civilian guide.

Start with your Casualty Assistance Officer

The military assigns a Casualty Assistance Officer, a CAO, to your family. This person's role is to guide you through arrangements and to prepare and file most of the claims below with you. They are your first call for anything you are unsure of, and their involvement is the biggest practical difference between the military process and every other survivor process: you do not have to originate this paperwork alone.

The one-time payments

The death gratuity: $100,000, within days

The Department of Defense pays a one-time death gratuity of $100,000, usually within days of the death, to help the family immediately. It is not taxed.1 It goes to whoever your spouse named on the Record of Emergency Data, Form DD-93, and one detail matters here: a service member may split this designation among up to ten people, so the spouse is not automatically the sole recipient. Your CAO can pull the DD-93 and confirm exactly who was named.1

Life insurance: SGLI, up to $500,000

Most service members carry Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance. Coverage is automatic at the $500,000 maximum unless the member reduced or declined it, and the payout to beneficiaries is tax-free.2 The claim is filed on Form SGLV-8283 with the Office of Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance. Two things to confirm rather than assume: the amount actually carried, and the named beneficiary, which is set in the SGLI election paperwork, not on the DD-93. Those are separate designations, and families are sometimes surprised by the difference.

The monthly income

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation: the tax-free foundation

DIC is a monthly, tax-free benefit paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs to the surviving spouse. It is a flat rate, the same regardless of rank. As of 2026 the base rate is $1,699.36 per month, plus $421.00 per month for each child under 18, and a transitional addition of $359.00 per month for the first two years if you have children under 18 at home.3 The application is VA Form 21P-534a for an active-duty death, and your CAO helps you complete it.4

The Survivor Benefit Plan: the largest monthly check for many families

The SBP is a monthly annuity paid by the Defense Department through DFAS. For an active-duty death it is automatic and cost-free; nothing your spouse did or did not elect changes that. It pays 55 percent of what your spouse's retired pay would have been, so unlike DIC, the amount depends on rank and years of service, and it is taxable income.5

Two pieces of recent history are worth knowing because outdated information about both still circulates. First, for many years the SBP was reduced dollar for dollar by DIC, a rule widely called the widow's tax. That offset was phased out and has been fully eliminated since 2023: you now receive the full SBP and the full DIC together.6 Second, families used to be able to direct the SBP annuity to the children instead of the spouse as a workaround to that offset. Congress repealed that optional election along with the offset, effective in 2023. For an active-duty death today, the surviving spouse is the SBP beneficiary by law; children receive it only in specific circumstances, such as the spouse's death.6 If you read older advice describing a spouse-versus-children choice, it no longer exists, and that is good news: the reason for it is gone.

Social Security survivor benefits: they stack on top

Social Security pays survivor benefits on your spouse's earnings record: a benefit for each child, and a caregiver benefit for you while you are caring for a child under 16, generally 75 percent of your spouse's full benefit amount each, subject to a family maximum.7 These are not reduced by your military survivor benefits; they add to them. Your own caregiver benefit, though, is subject to an earnings limit if you work: in 2026, the spouse’s benefit is reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn above $24,480. The children's benefits are not reduced by your earnings.8 Survivor claims are filed by phone at 1-800-772-1213, not online, and the one-time $255 death payment must be claimed within two years.9

The ongoing protections

TRICARE: coverage continues, in two stages

You and the children remain covered. For the first three years you are a transitional survivor, covered as active-duty family members with the same plan options and costs as before. After three years, a surviving spouse remains eligible but converts to survivor status at retiree-family rates. The children's coverage does not step down: they remain covered as active-duty family members until they age out or otherwise lose eligibility.10 Keep DEERS current, since it drives all of this.

Housing allowance: one more year

The Basic Allowance for Housing, or the family housing itself, continues for 365 days after the death, whether you stay or move.11 That is a full year to make the housing decision without financial pressure, and it is worth taking your time rather than deciding immediately.

Education: an important and permanent decision

Two VA programs cover education for survivors: the Fry Scholarship, which mirrors the Post-9/11 GI Bill with tuition, a housing allowance, and books, and the Survivors' and Dependents' Educational Assistance program, DEA, which pays a monthly stipend. A surviving spouse who is eligible for both must choose one, and the election is irrevocable: once made, it cannot be switched later.12 This is one of the few true decisions in this entire guide, there is no deadline forcing it early, and it deserves an unhurried comparison against your actual education plans before anything is filed.

Burial and memorial benefits

The military provides for the funeral, transportation, and burial, including a plot in a national cemetery, a headstone or marker, and a burial flag, at no cost to the family.13 Your CAO coordinates this. Keep receipts for anything you pay out of pocket, since some expenses are reimbursable.

Considerations if you choose to remarry

No one plans this in the first year, but contradictory information about remarriage is widely circulated, so here is the full picture in one place. Remarrying before age 55 ends DIC, though it can be reinstated if that marriage later ends; remarrying at 55 or later does not affect DIC.14 The SBP annuity is suspended by remarriage before 55 and can be reinstated if that marriage ends.5 TRICARE eligibility for you ends on remarriage, unless the new spouse is also a TRICARE sponsor; the children's coverage is unaffected.10 Social Security has its own, different age line: remarriage after 60 does not affect survivor benefits there.7 Because each program has a different rule, this decision deserves a benefits review before, not after.

What to confirm rather than assume

• The SGLI amount and beneficiary. The coverage election and beneficiary form is your source of truth; verify both.
• The DD-93 designations. Who receives the death gratuity, and their proportional shares.
• Rank and years of service. These set the Survivor Benefit Plan amount, so they turn the largest unknown into a number we can plan for.
• Any Thrift Savings Plan balance and its named beneficiary. If your spouse contributed, the TSP passes to the beneficiary on file with the TSP itself, and how you receive it affects when you can reach the money and how it is taxed. That choice has no deadline.