Social Security, under the direction of the Social Security Act, is required to suspend retirement, survivors and disability insurance benefits to anyone who is confined in a correctional institution for more than 30 days, but that rule has not applied to military personnel who commit crimes where the military oversees punishment, until now.
Under the direction of the Office of General Counsel (OGC), which is the legal team for the Department of Health and Human Services, Social Security benefits will now be suspended for military criminal offenses. Below is the recent publication of the change from Social Security.
We are removing the NOTE in GN 02607.001.B,2, based on an Office of General Counsel (OGC) review that determined that the agency only looks to the United States Code and State penal laws for identifying and codifying a civilian’s criminal act. The plain language of the Social Security Act does not carve out an exception for military personnel or suggest that criminal offenses in the Uniform Code of Military Justice are not considered criminal offenses when applying the suspension provisions. Likewise, 20 C.F.R. § 404.468 does not include an exception for military tribunal decisions.
Auxiliary Benefits will not be Impacted
Social Security pays auxiliary benefits to the dependents of disabled individuals, and because these dependents are not responsible for a criminal activity conducted by the beneficiary, the auxiliary benefits will continue even if the beneficiary’s benefits are suspended. Below is Social Security’s explanation.
Suspension of the wage earner’s benefits does not affect the payment of any auxiliaries or survivors on the record. If an auxiliary or survivor is the prisoner, NGRI, IST, or SDP, and any of the payment prohibitions listed in GN 02607.001A.1. in this section applies, suspend the auxiliary’s or survivor’s benefits and adjust the benefits of the other beneficiaries on the account under the deduction-before-reductions procedure. For information on the deduction-before-reduction procedure, see GN 02603.040.
