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Quick Answer
You can receive BOTH. A member is entitled to receive their own RETIREMENT Pension while simultaneously receiving a SURVIVORSHIP Pension as a surviving spouse. These are two distinct benefits based on different sets of contributions and different legal grounds.
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Basis: SSS Rules and RA 8282 / RA 11199
Under the Social Security Act of 2018, retirement and death are treated as separate contingencies.
* RETIREMENT Benefit is Earned by the member through their own contributions and reaching the age/tenure requirements.
* SURVIVORSHIP (Death) Benefit is Earned by the deceased spouse and passed to the legal beneficiary (the survivor).
* The "No Double Recovery" Rule is the rule generally applies to the same contingency (e.g., you can't get SSS Disability and SSS Retirement for the same period), but it does not apply to benefits originating from different members’ records.
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Application of Basis to Facts
In this case, we are looking at two different "pools" of money:
* Member's Pool: The member paid into the system, so he/she is entitled to their Retirement Pension.
* The Deceased’s Pool: Their spouse paid into the system, and as the legal spouse, the law designates them as the primary beneficiary of their Survivorship Pension.
Since the source of the funds and the reason for the payment (Old Age vs. Death) are different, they do not cancel each other out.
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Conclusion
The someone who CLAIMED a person cannot have both is INCORRECT. A person may legally collect both checks every month. The only common restriction is that if a person remarry or enter a common-law relationship, that person will lose the Survivorship portion, but his/her own Retirement Pension will remain theirs for life regardless of their marital status.
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