There are “1,138 statutory provisions

Last updated on: July 18, 2013 at 10:21 pm by Jane the Actuary

There are “1,138 statutory provisions 2013-07-18T22:21:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

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in which marital status is a factor in determining benefits, rights, and privileges.” Turns out it was pretty easy to find a summary in Wikipedia of the “Rights and responsibilities of marriages in the United States”.

So this is my plan: look at this list (copied over directly from the above Wikipedia article), and think about which of these rights and benefits are appropriate for the “any two people”-type marriage and which really only make sense in the context of a mother and father raising a family (typically meaning that one of the two forgoes income permanently or temporarily due to caregiving responsibilities), and which I’m not sure of (which I think will be a large category — looking at the list, I’m not sure what all of these are about!).

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Right to benefits while married:

Employment assistance and transitional services for spouses of members being separated from military service; continued commissary privileges
Per diem payment to spouse for federal civil service employees when relocating
Indian Health Service care for spouses of Native Americans (in some circumstances)
Sponsor husband/wife for immigration benefits This is already an interesting one, since I have personal experience with this.

Larger benefits under some programs if married, including:

Veteran’s disability Only makes sense in the case of a dependent spouse
Supplemental Security Income This doesn’t seem like it belongs in this category. This is a means-tested benefit and (I believe) the benefit for a couple is something like 150% of a single person’s benefit. I think Wikipedia really means disability benefits, which are larger for married couples (e.g., assuming a dependent spouse).
Disability payments for federal employees Really? I hope this is wrong — if so, this is another instance of government generosity in employee benefits out of the norm of the private sector.
Medicaid This also looks wrong — this is another means tested welfare benefit, where two unmarried individuals are more likely to qualify.
Property tax exemption for homes of totally disabled veterans Does this just mean that the couple receive this benefit for jointly owned property?
Income tax deductions, credits, rates exemption, and estimates This is misleading. In the case of a dependent spouse (that is, a housewife or part-time earner), taxes are generally lower filing jointly; for two earners with roughly similar salaries, there is generally a marriage penalty.
Wages of an employee working for one’s spouse are exempt from federal unemployment tax and, presumably, similarly ineligible for unemployment benefits, if the business fails.

Joint and family-related rights:

Joint filing of bankruptcy permitted I don’t think I would call this a “right” — I would think it would be a disadvantage, that it would be pretty common that one party would have debts and the other assets, and joint filing means losing instead of protecting those assets, however minimal.
Joint parenting rights, such as access to children’s school records is this really a right pertaining to marriage? Unless the step-parent has this access, it’s simply a right of parents to access their children’s records.
Family visitation rights for the spouse and non-biological children, such as to visit a spouse in a hospital or prison yeah, sure, fine. I guess “non-biological children” means the step-children?
Next-of-kin status for emergency medical decisions or filing wrongful death claims OK
Custodial rights to children, shared property, child support, and alimony after divorce custodial rights and child support are based on each partner being a parent to a child from the marriage, not based on marriage itself — these same rights exist even when it’s a cohabiation arragement that falls apart. “Shared property” — fine. Alimony? That’s presumably only granted these days in cases where a woman stayed home to raise the children.
Domestic violence intervention This doesn’t sound right — I don’t find it believable that domestic violence agencies only help women who were married to their abusers.
Access to “family only” services, such as reduced rate memberships to clubs & organizations or residency in certain neighborhoods OK — these aren’t government benefits/rights/programs any more. And I’ve never heard of neighborhoods requiring you to be married to live there! Besides, virtually every “family” rate now refers to two adults in a household.
Preferential hiring for spouses of veterans in government jobs Really? Why would this be? Is the idea that a spouse has relocated with the soldier often enough so as cause the resume to suffer — employers being leery of the frequent job-changing
Tax-free transfer of property between spouses (including on death) and exemption from “due-on-sale” clauses. I guess this was what Windsor was all about — and wouldn’t have been an issue were it not for estate and gift taxes.
Special consideration to spouses of citizens and resident aliens This is too vague
Threats against spouses of various federal employees is a federal crime This is a curious one — I would think a threat against anyone due to their relationship to a federal employee would be a federal crime — or a similar threat to anyone. (Why should federal employees be treated differently?)
Right to continue living on land purchased from spouse by National Park Service when easement granted to spouse This sounds more like a contractual agreement than anything else — unless “purchased” really means “seized”?
Court notice of probate proceedings OK, this is a “next-of-kin” issue
Domestic violence protection orders ??? No, you don’t need to be married to get an order of protection!
Existing homestead lease continuation of rights No idea what this means.
Regulation of condominium sales to owner-occupants exemption Likewise, don’t know. Wikipedia is really beginning to disappoint me.
Funeral and bereavement leave For federal employees? This is more of an employee benefit, then. Or does this just mean that employers typically provide this?
Joint adoption and foster care Does adoption really work differently (for non-religious agencies, who don’t care about parents’ marital status) for a married vs. unmarried pair?
Joint tax filing This is a duplicate bullet point.
Insurance licenses, coverage, eligibility, and benefits organization of mutual benefits society another one that I don’t know what this means.
Legal status with stepchildren And again — what is the legal status of step-parent and step-child?
Making spousal medical decisions OK, fine, this is a next-of-kin sort of thing.
Spousal non-resident tuition deferential waiver why would a spouse need a non-resident tuition waiver?
Permission to make funeral arrangements for a deceased spouse, including burial or cremation another next-of-kin issue
Right of survivorship of custodial trust another next-of-kin issue
Right to change surname upon marriage well, really, this means “change surname without a court order” which there’s no harm in.
Right to enter into prenuptial agreement But can’t any two parties enter into a “prenuptial” agreement, even if it’s just an agreement prior to pooling finances or cohabitating?
Right to inheritance of property I assume this means “be considered the next-of-kin in the absense of a will” since anyone can inherit in the case of a will.
Spousal privilege in court cases (the marital confidences privilege and the spousal testimonial privilege) are there really good legal principles for this, besides just our legal heritage prescribing it?

For those divorced or widowed, the right to many of ex- or late spouse’s benefits, including:

Social Security pension this is based on the assumption that the spouse is dependent on the deceased
Veteran’s pensions, indemnity compensation for service-connected deaths, medical care, and nursing home care, right to burial in veterans’ cemeteries, educational assistance, and housing really? I wouldn’t have thought that spouses would receive veteran’s medical care, educational assistance, etc. That seems a bit overly generous.
survivor benefits for federal employees again, based on an assumption of a needy widow
Survivor benefits for spouses of longshoremen, harbor workers, railroad workers again, based on an assumption of a needy widow
Additional benefits to spouses of coal miners who die of black lung disease why not benefits for the estate of the deceased?
$100,000 to spouse of any public safety officer killed in the line of duty again, why not to the estate?
Continuation of employer-sponsored health benefits I assume this refers to COBRA, which is access only at 102% of full premium.
Renewal and termination rights to spouse’s copyrights on death of spouse don’t get me started on copyright extensions going to far.
Continued water rights of spouse in some circumstances what kind of water rights expire upon death?
Payment of wages and workers compensation benefits after worker death again, shouldn’t this go to the estate?
Making, revoking, and objecting to post-mortem anatomical gifts another next-of-kin issue

So, all in all, I haven’t really learned anything from this list, except that I’m not impressed with Wikipedia!

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