Where a voidable marriage has been annulled, initial entitlement to benefits is not precluded and benefits previously terminated because of such a marriage may be resumed upon the taking of a new application except as provided in GN 00305.130B.2. In both situations, benefits are payable no earlier than the month the annulment decree is issued subject to the usual provisions of retroactivity.

In an exceptional case, a court may enter a decree nunc pro tunc (now for then), with an effective date sometime in the past. This action is not a retroactive decree as such. Rather, it is properly an entry made now of something actually previously done by the court to have effect from the previous date. It supplies not an omitted act, but an omission in the record of an act which was taken but was not included in the record through inadvertence or mistake. If a voidable marriage is properly annulled by a decree nunc pro tunc, consider the effective date, rather than the date the decree was entered, in determining when benefits become payable.

Initial entitlement to benefits as a parent and reentitlement to benefits as a parent or child is precluded if an annulment is granted in a State where the courts have the power to grant permanent alimony, and the court either

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  granted permanent alimony, or

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  retained power to grant alimony later.

(For an exception for States in the Fifth and Eleventh Judicial Circuits, see GN 00305.130B.3.)

Courts in the following States have the power to grant permanent alimony in any annulment action:

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  Alaska

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  Connecticut

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  New Hampshire

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  New Mexico (underage marriages only)

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  New York

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  Oregon

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  Virginia

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  Washington