Life or Death

In his stump speech about the dignity of federal service, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry often mentions the number 2,085. That figure represents the federal civil servants who have died on the job between 1995 and 2007. Last week, Vernon Hunter, a Vietnam War veteran, a 27-year employee of the Internal Revenue Service, husband to another IRS worker, and father to six children, joined that sad roster when a man flew a small airplane into the federal building where Hunter worked in Austin, Texas. While nothing can compensate Hunter's family for his death, the government does provide a range of benefits to the families of federal employees who die while performing their duties.

When federal employees die from job-related injuries, the 1993 Federal Employees' Compensation Act provides continuing financial benefits to their surviving family members. In fiscal 2006, the most recent year for which the Labor Department's Division of Federal Employees' Compensation has figures, the government paid $129 million in benefits to the families of federal employees who died on the job.

The spouse of a deceased federal worker will receive payments equivalent to half the employee's take-home pay. If there are children, the spouse will receive 45 percent of the deceased employee's salary, plus an additional 15 percent for each child up to 75 percent total. Under certain circumstances, parents, grandparents, or siblings also could receive compensation. All these benefits end when the spouse dies or remarries, or their children become independent adults.

To help families in the immediate and traumatic aftermath of a loved one's death, the law also provides two one-time payments: $800 for funeral and burial costs, and $200 that can be used to pay a person who guides the family through the difficult benefits process.

Other rules pertain to benefits paid to the families of service members killed in the line of duty. When service members and reservists die on active duty or during training, their families are eligible for a one-time payment of $100,000. If service members die within 120 days after retiring from the military and the Veterans Affairs Department determines they died because of an injury they received on duty, or a disease they contracted during their service, their families could receive a $12,420 payment.

And VA will pay $2,000 toward burial expenses for service members killed in the line of duty, and $300 for funerals of veterans who die from other causes.

For federal employees, like Hunter's wife, Valerie, whose lives are rocked by an unexpected death, the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund has an emergency program that provides loans up to $1,000 to workers who find themselves struggling with basic living expenses.

It's true the federal government cannot guarantee that no employee ever will die on the job. But it does have policies in place to take care of the families left behind.