Administration of certain disability benefits

An additional amount of $20 per month shall be paid to each person who receives payment of cash relief under subsection (a) of this section and shall be allowed without regard to the limitations contained therein. Each cash relief payment made pursuant to this section shall be increased on the same effective date and by the same percent, adjusted to the nearest dollar, as civil service retirement annuities are increased under the cost-of-living adjustment provisions of section 8340(b) of title 5. Such increase shall apply only to cash relief payments made after October 1, 1979, as increased by annuity increases made after that date under such section 8340(b) of title 5. The Commission may pay cash relief to the widow of any former employee of the Canal Zone Government or the Panama Canal Company who, until the time of his death, receives or has received cash relief under subsection (a) of this section, under section 181 of title 2 of the Canal Zone Code (as in effect on September 30, 1979), or under the Act of July 8, 1937, referred to in such subsection (a). The term “widow” as used in this subsection includes only the following: Subchapter III of chapter 83 of title 5 applies with respect to those individuals who were in the service of the Canal Zone Government or the Panama Canal Company on October 5, 1958, and who, except for the operation of section 13(a)(1) of the Act entitled “An Act to implement item 1 of a Memorandum of Understanding attached to the treaty of January 25, 1955, entered into by the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Republic of Panama with respect to wage and employment practices of the Government of the United States of America in the Canal Zone”, approved July 25, 1958 (72 Stat. 405), would have been within the classes of individuals subject to the Act of July 8, 1937, referred to in subsection (a) of this section.