When does remarriage end a family member's qualification for the survivor's pension annuity, and which relatives does that ground reach?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this practice exercise, the file would hold the application for the survivor's annuity and the papers showing each family member's relationship to the deceased worker, together with any marriage registration, household record or other paper showing that the spouse has entered a new marital relationship. Each matters because the provision turns on the beneficiary's status as the deceased worker's spouse and on whether a new relationship exists.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the ground as the provision writes it: a family member holding survivor's annuity qualification loses that qualification on remarriage, but the ground applies only to the spouse of the deceased worker, and 'remarriage' expressly includes a de facto marital relationship, so a de facto marital relationship can trigger the loss just as a registered marriage would.
Another reading notes the limit built into the same ground: because it reaches only the deceased worker's spouse, a child, grandchild, sibling or other relative who enters a similar relationship is not caught by this ground, and the provision leaves open what facts establish a de facto marital relationship in the file.
Your judgment
What in the record would show that two people lived as spouses rather than merely sharing a residence after the worker's death?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to extend or remove the spouse-only limit on this ground, or if a court decision defines what counts as a de facto marital relationship under it.