More same-sex couples who had been denied Social Security survivors benefits will now be able to receive them. Previously, surviving spouses or partners of same-sex couples were only eligible if the couple had been married for nine months.
Earlier bans on same-sex marriage made this time frame difficult, sometimes impossible to meet.
Gay marriage was legalized across the U.S. more than six years ago, but some survivors lost spouses before meeting that threshold, even if they had gotten legally married as soon as they were eligible. Others lost partners before the right to marry was won. Therefore, many same-sex couples were barred from receiving survivors’ benefits.
This week, the Department of Justice and the Social Security Administration announced that they had dismissed appeals filed by the then-Trump administration in order to block same-sex couples from survivor benefits.
In 2018, LGBTQ rights group Lambda Legal filed a Paris of class action lawsuits seeking to overturn the nine-month marriage requirement. While lower courts ruled in favor of the same-sex couples, the Trump administration filed appeals.
On Monday, the Justice Department and the Social Security Administration officially dropped these appeals.
This means that survivors benefits are now equally available to everyone. Both groups of survivors — those who were able to marry, and those who were not — will have access to benefits.
Prior to this, same-sex couples paid into social security for decades, just the same as heterosexual couples. Lambda Legal senior counsel Karen Loewy said in a statement that the difference was that same-sex couples were barred from the freedom to marry, which led to further inequalities, including a lack of access to survivors benefits.
Now, surviving partners and spouses can safely access benefits owed, no matter the genders of the couple.
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