I began receiving an OPERS disability pension in 1985, however I first became eligible for this pension in 1980 as I met the required 5 years of service credits that OPERS requires. I was also married from 1967-1984 and remarried in 1993 and my spouse passed this year. I am being denied survivor benefits due to GPO. In reading the various POMS about GPO, it seems I may qualify for exemption under either pension eligibility before December 1982 and 1977 requirements met or pension eligibility before July 1983 and one-half support met. If I'm interpreting this correctly, can you please direct me in what types of supporting documentation I will need to submit with my appeal letter? Thank you.

Hi. I'm sorry for your loss. The first thing you'd need to prove is that you were in fact eligible for your non-covered government pension prior to December 1982, or prior to July 1983 if you can also prove that you were receiving at least one-half of your support from your spouse. Social Security defines 'eligibility' as meeting all factors of entitlement to a pension except for filing an application (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202608100).

Therefore, if disability is one of the factors of entitlement to the pension you're receiving then you'd need to prove that you were disabled prior to December 1982 (or July 1983), as well as proving that you met all of the other requirements for entitlement to the pension.

Furthermore, you don't mention whether or not you're a male or female, so I don't know whether or not you'd have met the requirements for widow(er) benefits as they were being administered in January 1977. That's another of the requirements for meeting the exemption from GPO that you are seeking to prove (https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0202608104). Widows (i.e. female) could be be paid benefits in January 1977 without proving support, but widowers (i.e. male) could only qualify for benefits in January 1977 if they were receiving at least one-half support from their spouse. Therefore, if you're a male you'd need to establish that your wife was providing more than one-half of your support at the time of her death.

I won't go into great detail about one-half support since I don't know whether or not it's even a factor in your case, but to meet the one-half support requirement your spouse would basically need to have been providing at least 3/4ths of the income to your household. In other words, if you and your spouse's combined income was $4000, at least $3000 of that would have needed to have been provided by your spouse for you to meet the 1/2 support requirement.

Best, Jerry