Military Pensions

Military Pensions. A. The Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard pay military pensions to military retirees and survivors normally on the first day of the month. B. There are three categories of beneficiaries who may be entitled to military payments: 1. Retiree. A person with 20 years of service who meet the requirements for entitlement. 2. Annuitant. A Survivor who is designated by the retiree to receive benefits upon the death of the retiree under the Retired Serviceman’s Family Protection Plan (RSFPP), Survivor’s Benefit Plan (SBP) or both; 3. Allottee. Anyone other than an annuitant of the RSFPP or SBP who is designated to receive money out of the service member’s or retiree’s check. a) Entitlement as an allottee terminates upon the death of the retiree. However, an allottee can become an annuitant when the retiree dies. C. The RSFPP and SBP annuitant programs pay money to surviving spouse(s) and children. The SBP program also pays: 1. “Insurable interest” persons, i.e., someone other than a surviving spouse or child that a service member designates to receive survivor benefits based on monies withheld from his/her retirement payment under the provisions of the SBP program; and 2. Minimum income level widows (MIW) who are certified by the VA as having low income and are referred by the Department of Defense (DOD). D. This type of income is treated as follows: 1. Military pensions are counted as unearned income. 2. Payments to Minimum Income Widows are counted as income based on need (IBON) not subject to the $50/$20 general income exclusion.