To amend title II of the Social Security Act to modify the 10-year marriage rule relating to spouses and surviving spouses insurance benefits in cases of domestic violence, and for other purposes.
Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.
Summary
What This Bill Does
Reduces the Social Security divorced spouse and surviving divorced spouse marriage-duration rule from 10 years to 5 years when the claimant provides a court finding that they were a victim of domestic violence by the spouse during the marriage.
Who Benefits and How
Domestic violence survivors who divorced before reaching a 10-year marriage duration could gain access to spouse or surviving spouse insurance benefits if they can provide the required court finding.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Social Security Administration would need to verify court findings and administer an additional eligibility rule, and the Social Security system could pay benefits to some claimants who would otherwise miss the 10-year threshold.
Key Provisions
- Applies a 5-year rather than 10-year marriage rule for qualifying divorced women and men with a court domestic-violence finding.
- Applies the same 5-year substitution to divorced wife and divorced husband insurance benefit provisions.
- Uses the Violence Against Women Act definition of domestic violence.
- Applies the amendments to monthly insurance benefits beginning at least 18 months after enactment.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Reduces the Social Security divorced spouse and surviving divorced spouse marriage-duration rule from 10 years to 5 years when the claimant provides a court finding that they were a victim of domestic violence by the spouse during the marriage.
Key Policy Areas
Social Security, Civil Rights, Social Welfare
Primary Purpose
Reduces the Social Security divorced spouse and surviving divorced spouse marriage-duration rule from 10 years to 5 years when the claimant provides a court finding that they were a victim of domestic violence by the spouse during the marriage.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Divorced domestic violence survivors seeking Social Security spouse or surviving spouse benefits
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Social Security Administration staff administering court-finding documentation and eligibility
- Social Security trust funds paying benefits to newly eligible claimants
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMrs. Sykes introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Divorced domestic violence survivors seeking Social Security spouse or surviving spouse benefits
Social Security Administration staff verifying court findings and applying the 5-year rule
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "commissioner"
- → Commissioner of Social Security
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The term has the meaning given in section 40002(a) of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology