5 U.S.C. § 8109 — Beneficiaries of awards unpaid at death; order of precedence

(a) This subsection applies if someone: (1) had a disability that qualifies for compensation under section 8107(a); (2) filed a valid claim for it while alive; and (3) died from some other cause before the schedule's payment period ended. In that case, whatever compensation is still unpaid at death — whether or not it was due yet — must be paid: (A) under an award made before or after the death; (B) for the period the schedule specifies; (C) to people alive at the time, within the classes, shares, and conditions this section sets; (D) in this order: (i) if there is no child, to the widow or widower; (ii) if there is both a widow or widower and a child or children, half to the widow or widower and half to the children; (iii) if there is no widow or widower, to the children; (iv) if none of those survive, to parents who depended on the deceased for support, or to other dependent relatives listed in section 8133(a)(5), split between them if needed; (v) if none of those survive and no burial allowance is owed under section 8134, an amount no larger than what section 8134 would have allowed can go to whoever paid the burial costs — but an insurance company or anyone else who was legally or contractually required to pay those costs, or a state or local government, does not count as entitled to this money. (b) Except for any amount owed for time before the person died, these payments are made at the basic disability rate under section 8107(a) — even if the person was actually getting the higher "augmented" rate under section 8110 when they died. (c) A surviving beneficiary under subsection (a) — except someone receiving burial-cost reimbursement under (a)(D)(v) — has no guaranteed right to the payment and must be alive to actually receive it. (d) A beneficiary under subsection (a) — again except under (a)(D)(v) — stops being entitled to payment whenever something happens that would end their right to death benefits under section 8133. When that happens, whatever compensation is still unpaid gets paid to the next surviving beneficiary, following the same order set out in subsection (a).