If Your Service Member Dies on Active Duty: Your Coverage and Benefits

We're sorry for your loss. This page is built so a family that's already carrying enough doesn't also lose money or coverage to a missed date.

TLDR

Your TRICARE continues — covered as an active-duty family for the first 3 years, then as a survivor. It does not end at the funeral.
Two monthly payments you may qualify for — Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) from the Department of Defense (DoD) and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — and since 2023 you can receive both in full, at the same time.
Three clocks still run: 90 days for health-plan changes, one year to file DIC for the best effective date, three years to use your one government-paid move.

Your coverage continues

For the first three years after an active-duty death, you and eligible children keep active-duty-family-member benefits, plan options, and costs. This does not change at the funeral, and it does not change next month. It changes on the three-year anniversary, and even then it does not end.

When the three-year transitional period ends, your TRICARE continues — but you move to survivor status at retiree-family benefits and costs. Your children's coverage does not change at that point. They continue as active-duty family members until they age out, marry, or otherwise lose eligibility on their own.

Dental follows a similar path: after the three-year transitional period, you may transition from the TRICARE Dental Program Survivor Benefit to the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP) dental eligibility.

What gets reported for you

Most of this moves without you having to chase it. Generally, you only need to notify one office directly: the TRICARE Pharmacy Program contractor, Express Scripts.

The core death record itself typically reaches the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) through the Social Security Administration or your service member's service — you don't have to deliver that report yourself. If you want to confirm it's been received, you can also notify DMDC through an identification (ID) card office, or by fax or mail with the death certificate.

Check that the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS) reflects things accurately once the dust settles. It's the record everything else reads from.

The two payments: SBP

SBP — Survivor Benefit Plan — is a DoD monthly payment. In most cases, an unmarried surviving spouse of a member who died on active or inactive duty in the line of duty on or after September 10, 2001 qualifies.

One thing that can change who gets paid: a preexisting former-spouse SBP election or a court-ordered former-spouse award can control this instead of you. If your service member was previously married, this is worth confirming directly with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).

For a beneficiary under age 62, the amount is 55% of the retired pay your service member would have received if they'd retired on the date of death with a total, 100% disability rating. The law calculates it differently for beneficiaries 62 and older — DFAS makes that calculation; we're not printing a second formula here.

File the SBP claim promptly. We are not going to hand you a number of years and tell you that's safe — very old claims can be barred under general federal claims rules, and your specific circumstances decide what applies. File now. If time has already passed, DFAS and legal counsel settle those situations; don't assume it's too late without asking.

The two payments: DIC

DIC — Dependency and Indemnity Compensation — comes from VA, separately from SBP. It's payable to an eligible surviving spouse, child, or parent when the member died on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training in qualifying circumstances.

Rates effective December 1, 2025, as four separate figures — do not add these together in your head as one number without checking which apply to you: — Surviving spouse base: $1,699.36 per month. — Add $360.85 if your service member was totally disabled for the 8 continuous years immediately before death, and you were married throughout that period. — Add $421.00 for each eligible child under 18. — Separately, a transitional benefit of $359.00 is payable for the first two years after the death.

File within one year of the death to secure the most favorable effective date.

Both payments together

The old rule that reduced one payment when you received the other — the SBP-DIC offset — was fully eliminated effective January 1, 2023. If you're eligible for both, you receive full SBP and full DIC at the same time. Neither one reduces the other.

Your one move home

You're authorized one final relocation at government expense, generally to be completed within three years of your service member's death. Household-goods storage can generally be authorized for up to one year.

If you're overseas, there's no single rule for when command sponsorship or host-country status ends — it depends on your specific assignment and host country. Your casualty assistance officer and your command are the source for that, not this page.

The traps

The three-year transitional mark is a cost and benefit-category change for you, not an end of coverage — and your children's active-duty status doesn't change at that mark at all.

You have 90 days from the death to make eligible health-plan changes under the Qualifying Life Event rule.

File DIC within one year of the death to get the most favorable effective date — filing later doesn't disqualify you, but it can cost you money.

You have three years to use your one government-paid relocation.

Keep the $421.00 per-child DIC figure and the $359.00 transitional figure separate — they are different payments, not the same line item twice.

File your SBP claim promptly. If you hear a rumor about "you have X years" for SBP, don't trust it — this page deliberately does not print that number because it isn't a safe one to rely on.

Don't assume a child's coverage ends at the three-year mark. It doesn't.

Where to go

Your casualty assistance officer — your first call for nearly everything after an active-duty death.
DFAS — SBP claims.
VA — DIC claims.
The TRICARE contractor / Express Scripts — pharmacy notification and plan changes.
The DEERS/ID card office — records and survivor ID cards.