[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 20, Volume 1]
[Revised as of April 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 20CFR226.50]

[Page 463-464]
 
                      TITLE 20--EMPLOYEES' BENEFITS
 
                  CHAPTER II--RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD
 
PART 226_COMPUTING EMPLOYEE, SPOUSE, AND DIVORCED SPOUSE ANNUITIES--Table of 
 
              Subpart D_Railroad Retirement Family Maximum
 
Sec.  226.50  General.


    There is a monthly ceiling on total family benefits which limits the 
amount of certain portions of the employee and spouse annuity. This 
railroad retirement family maximum amount varies according to the 
employee's earnings in the ten-year period

[[Page 464]]

that ends with the year in which his or her annuity begins. If the 
employee and spouse annuity amounts described in Sec.  226.52 of this 
part are higher than the maximum from Sec.  226.51 of this part, first 
the spouse tier II, then the supplemental annuity and, finally, the 
employee tier II are reduced until the total annuity amount is equal to 
the maximum or until the spouse tier II and the employee supplemental 
annuity and tier II have been reduced to zero, whichever comes first. 
The reduction for the railroad retirement family maximum is first 
computed from the date the employee's annuity begins. It is recomputed 
if the employee's tier II rate is reduced for entitlement to a vested 
dual benefit. It is also recomputed if a workers' compensation or other 
disability benefit begins or ends, or the employee's tier I benefit or 
supplemental annuity begins after the beginning date of the regular 
employee annuity. Finally, it is recomputed if a spouse who was entitled 
to an annuity divorces the employee or the spouse annuity entitlement 
ends.