Download the form
Treat DD Form 2656-7 as Department-level, which changes how you look for it. Title: DD Form 2656-7, Verification for Survivor Annuity, April 2009. Function: Verification for Survivor Annuity. Because the number carries DD rather than a service prefix, the same edition covers all military departments and the defense agencies at once. Nobody issues a Navy copy or an Air Force copy.
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 50 fields. Everything below refines that choice.
Take the fillable pdf unless you have a reason not to. Fillable means the boxes are real fields that accept typed text and retain it in the file. Printable means a flat blank — no fields, printer and pen only. The difference is not cosmetic: one produces a record that reproduces cleanly through scanning and forwarding, the other depends on penmanship.
Nothing costs anything here. Work in a full desktop pdf application rather than a browser preview; field behaviour in browsers is unreliable.
What the form asks for
- 1.c. Date of birth (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, no separators).
- 1.d. Date of death (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 1.e. Branch of service.
- 1.f. Rank/rate.
- 2. Claimant verification. a. Claimant's name (last, first, middle initial).
- 2.b. Claimant's social security number.
- 2.c. Date of birth (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 2.d. Telephone (include area code).
- 2.e. Citizen of (country).
- 2.f. If you are a nonresident alien, press space bar to mark X in this box and see note.
- 2.g. Type of benefit claimed. Mark X in first box if SBP, second box if RCSBP or third box if RSFPP.
- 2.h. Relationship to decedent. X first box if spouse, second box if child, third box if former spouse, or fourth box if insurable interest.
- 2.i. Correspondence address (street, apartment number, city, state, and zip code).
- 3. This section applies to spouse applicants only. .a. I certify that I was legally married to the member on the date of death: X first box if yes, second box if no.
- 3.a.(1) If yes, please verify date of marriage to member. If blank or incorrect, please provide correct marriage date.
- 3.a.(2) If No, please provide the date of divorce (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 3.b. Are there children under age 23 or incapacitated of the deceased member? X first box if yes, second box if no.
- 3.b.(1) If yes: name of first child (last, first, middle initial).
- 3.b.(2) Social security number.
- 3.b.(3) Date of birth (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 3.b.(1) Name of second child.
- 3.b.(2) Social security number.
- 3.b.(3) Date of birth.
- 3.b.(1) Name of third child.
Edition check comes first, ahead of any entry. Compare the printed date to not stated and replace anything older. Department-level supersession is simultaneous across the services, so a superseded blank is not merely out of date locally; the office receiving it is already working from the new field structure whichever branch it belongs to.
Unclear entries — read the form face, then not stated; the directive prevails.
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.
Related forms are found by number alone. The DD sequence is one unified Department-wide series, so a cited number resolves to exactly one document with no branch qualifier needed.
Do not read across from a service number. DA numbering is Army-specific under an Army proponent; DD numbering is Department-wide under not stated or an equivalent Department office. The sequences are unrelated, so identical digits in each identify two different documents. Read the prefix, not the digits.
Editions change when the prescribing directive is reissued, when the data collected changes, or when notice language is amended. None of that reaches you. Checking not stated at download is the entire defence, and it is cheaper than repeating a submission.
Limits of this page: it distributes a published Department of Defense document and describes it. No legal advice, no procedural ruling, no statement about whether any submission will be accepted. Applicability, eligibility and procedure belong to not stated, to a servicing personnel office, or to the office named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2656-7?
- DD Form 2656-7, Verification for Survivor Annuity, 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?