(a) An employee who has completed 10 years of service at the time of his or her retirement or death and who has received on or after January 1, 1985, a separation allowance or severance payment (see § 210.11 of this chapter) which would have been used to increase his or her tier II benefit, except for the fact that he or she was neither in an employment relation to one or more employers as defined in part 204 of this chapter nor an employee representative (see part 205 of this chapter), shall be entitled to a lump sum in the amount provided for in § 234.58.

(b) If an employee, otherwise eligible for the lump sum provided for in this section, dies before he or she becomes entitled to a regular annuity or before he or she receives payment of the lump sum, the lump sum is payable to the employee's widow or widower who will not have died before receiving payment. If the employee is not survived by a widow or widower who will not have died before receiving payment, the lump sum is payable to the employee's survivors in the same order of priority as shown for the residual lump-sum (RLS) in § 234.44.