An insured person in the Labor Insurance Program is often the primary bread winner of the family, and the survivor pension benefit can step in and support the family when an insured person dies, which causes the loss of major income for his or her survivors. The survivors of the deceased don't need to worry if they did not apply on becoming eligible for the pension because survivor pension benefit can be paid retroactively up to 5 years.
BLI points out that those eligible for survivor pension benefit are mostly elderly, juvenile, or financially disadvantaged and may not be able to apply in time because of their lack of access to relevant information or for various other reasons. Taking that into consideration, to ensure the survivors' livelihood, BLI will make full retroactive payments if they apply within 5 years after the insured person’s death. In other words, even if the survivors fail to apply for the pension within the first month after becoming eligible, BLI will still pay up to 5 years’ worth of survivor pension benefit retroactively.
For example, the insured person A died in March 2014 while still being covered by the labor insurance, and his survivors, who immediately became eligible in that month, but did not apply until June 2014. After the application is approved by BLI, his survivors will receive a total of the monthly payments from March, April, May, and June at the end of July 2014. After July, all monthly survivor pension payments will be directly deposited into the account designated by the survivor at the end of each following month.
For another example, the insured person B died in March 2009 while still being covered by the labor insurance. Though his survivors immediately became eligible for the survivor pension benefit, they did not apply until June 2014--more than 5 years later. After the application is approved by BLI, the survivors will receive, at the end of July 2014, 5 years' worth of retroactive pension payments for the period between June 1998 and June 2014. After July, all monthly survivor pension payments will be directly deposited into the account designated by the survivors at the end of each following month. But BLI will not pay the monthly benefits from March through May 1998 retroactively because they are beyond the 5-year limit.