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DD Form 2656-1 is a Department of Defense form, not a service form: DD Form 2656-1, SBP Election Statement for Former Spouse Coverage, April 2009, used to Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) Election Statement for Former Spouse Coverage. The DD prefix is the operative fact. It means one blank serves every military department — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard under Defense jurisdiction — plus the defense agencies and combatant commands. No branch variant exists.
Authority: not stated prescribes it, not stated maintains it. Those two names settle most disputes about why the form is being asked for. Local commands add timing on top; the requirement itself comes from above them.
Use not stated, status not stated. Older printings circulate widely and lose their currency Department-wide the moment a new edition issues.
The set is PDF. Size: 2 pages, about 65 fields. Everything below refines that choice.
Fillable pdf is the default choice. Its boxes hold typed entries inside the document; the printable release is a static image of the same page with no interactive layer. Since DD forms routinely cross between services and agencies before they are filed, typed entries matter more here than on a form that stays inside one office.
Xfdl is a legacy Department format, IBM Lotus Forms, requiring the matching viewer. Its survival in DD distribution reflects how widely it was fielded across the Department, not any advantage over pdf today.
Free download, every format. Do not fill the form in a browser tab — browser pdf viewers handle interactive fields inconsistently and discard entries on close.
What the form asks for
- Section 1 - Election of Coverage - Retired Members only. 1. Due to divorce, change my SBP coverage to: Press space bar to mark X in first box if former spouse, second box if former spouse and child(ren).
- Section 2 - Retired and retiring members. 2. Are you currently married? X first box if yes, second box if no.
- 3. Is this election being made pursuant to the requirements of a court order? X first box if yes, second box if no.
- 4. Is this election being made pursuant to a written agreement previously entered into voluntarily as part of or incident to a proceeding of divorce, dissolution or annulment? X first box if yes, second box if no.
- 5. If Yes to item 4, was such a voluntary written agreement incorporated in, ratified, or approved by a court order? X first box if yes, second box if no.
- 6. Date of birth of former spouse: 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day
- 7. Date married to former spouse: 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day.
- 8. Date divorced from former spouse: 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day.
- 9. Has former spouse remarried? X first box if no, second box if yes.
- 10. If yes, date former spouse remarried: 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day.
- 10. Dependent Children. a. Name: last, first, middle initial, line 1 of 5.
- 10. b. Date of birth : 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day.
- 10.c. Social security number. Do not include dashes.
- 10. d. Relationship (Son, daughter, etc.).
- 10. e. Disabled? Enter yes or no.
- 10.a. Dependent name, line 2.
- 10.b. Date of birth.
- 10.c. Social security number.
- 10.d. Relationship.
- 10.e. Disabled (yes or no).
- 10.a. Dependent name, line 3.
- 10.b. Date of birth.
- 10.c. Social security number.
- 10.d. Relationship.
Start by matching the printed date to not stated. Old blanks accumulate in shared folders for years. Because the Department reissues to all services in one action, nobody is still accepting the previous layout by local custom.
Field-level questions go to the printed instructions, then to not stated, which is authoritative.
Send it as not stated or local guidance specifies. Save a copy. Cross-service and cross-agency routing is normal for Department forms, and a lost original outside your own organization is harder to chase down.
A number is a complete address in the DD series. Because the sequence is Department-level and not duplicated per service, there is nothing further to specify.
Where a procedure cites both a service form and a DD form, the two are unconnected. Service numbering answers to a service proponent, DD numbering to not stated or another Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Matching numbers mean nothing whatever.
Three drivers of revision: directive reissue, altered collection requirements, updated statutory notice text. No notification accompanies any of them, so download fresh and confirm not stated rather than reusing an archived file.
What is here is the blank form and a description of it. What is not here is legal guidance or any assurance about a particular filing — this page is not the issuing authority and does not speak for one. Those questions go to not stated, to your servicing administrative office, or to the authority identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2656-1?
- DD Form 2656-1, SBP Election Statement for Former Spouse Coverage, April 2009
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?