(a) If the employee died before attaining age 62 and after 1978 and the widow(er), disabled widow(er), remarried widow(er), or surviving divorced spouse is first eligible after 1984, the Board will compute the tier I annuity amount as if the employee had not died but had reached age 62 in the second year after the indexing year (see §225.2 of this chapter); provided, however, that if the employee was entitled to a primary insurance amount based on average monthly wages this section is not applicable. The indexing year is never earlier than the second year before the year of the employee's death. Except for this limitation it is the earlier of__

(1) The year the employee attained age 60, or would have attained age 60 had the employee lived, and

(2) The second year before the year in which the widow(er), remarried widow(er), or surviving divorced spouse becomes eligible for such an annuity, has attained age 60, or is age 50-59 and disabled.

(b) The tier I annuity component is increased if the employee's annuity was increased or would have been increased based on delayed retirement credits (see §225.36 of this chapter).

(c) The tier I annuity component is reduced if the employee had been entitled to an age reduced annuity, including an annuity based on 30 years of service, which is reduced for age because it began before the employee attained age 62. In this instance, the widow(er)'s, remarried widow(er)'s, or surviving divorced spouse's tier I annuity component after applying any reduction for age is further reduced to the larger of amount the employee would have received as a tier I annuity component if still alive or 821⁄2 percent of his or her primary insurance amount.