Same-sex married couples who were living in states that did not recognize their unions and who previously filed claims for Social Security benefits will be able to collect those payments, the government said on Thursday.
The Justice Department told lawyers for two plaintiffs seeking benefits that the Social Security Administration would apply the Supreme Court’s June ruling declaring that marriage is a constitutional right, Obergefell v. Hodges, retroactively. It would apply to individuals with pending claims who were married before the decision and living in states that did not recognize same-sex marriages.
Details were not yet available, and it is not clear when the Social Security Administration will enact the new policy. But the rules are expected to be applied to previously filed claims that are pending in the administrative process or litigation, according to Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy group that represented the plaintiffs. The Social Security Administration was not available for comment.
“With this good news, we are hopeful that widows, widowers and retirees, wherever they lived, who need Social Security spousal benefits earned through years of hard work, will soon be able to receive them,” said Susan Sommer, director of constitutional litigation for Lambda Legal.
The Obergefell case came after the landmark Windsor decision in 2013, in which the court declared that same-sex couples were entitled to federal benefits. But even with that ruling, many couples were still shut out: The Social Security Administration typically looks to the states to determine marital status, so couples living in states that did not recognize same-sex marriage were not deemed eligible to receive spousal-related benefits.
Lambda Legal filed two separate cases last year on behalf of Kathy Murphy, a widow, and Dave Williams, a widower. They were living in states that did not recognize their marriages when their spouses died, before the Obergefell decision. There were 11 states that did not recognize same-sex marriage before the ruling, according to a chart on the Social Security Administration’s website.
Ms. Murphy, 63, stopped working earlier than she anticipated to care for her spouse, Sara Barker, who died of cancer in 2012. Last year, given her early retirement and the inability to receive survivor payments, Ms. Murphy had to begin collecting her own Social Security at age 62. Had she been able to delay taking her check until age 66, she would have been entitled to receive $580 more each month.
Mr. Williams, a 57-year-old retired lawyer, married his partner, Carl Allen, in 2008 — about 10 years after they became a couple. Mr. Allen, who had been living with H.I.V. since the 1980s, died in 2010.
But when Mr. Williams applied to Social Security in 2010 for a small death benefit and roughly $3,900 in disability payments that were due Mr. Allen, the agency denied Mr. Williams’s claim. The Defense of Marriage Act was still in place at that time, which meant the federal government did not recognize same-sex couples.
He appealed, but last September, the Social Security Administration denied his claim again; he and Mr. Allen lived in Arkansas, which did not recognize their union.
The Justice Department, which was representing the Social Security Administration in both cases, announced its decision in a status conference for Mr. Williams’s suit in federal court in Chicago.
“I am thrilled beyond words,” Mr. Williams said. “I keep thinking that Carl would be so pleased. It took over five years, and the efforts have been vindicated.”
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