How can we find out about government disbursement of mother's retirement?

Her benefit probably died with her. They may be willing to give you a copy of her plan (PERS) or it may be available on the web. If not, you may need to open her probate estate so you can subpoena the information.

You should be able to contact the retirement plan administrator to request a copy of her benefits election. It might be necessary to file a probate petition to get a personal representative appointed to do this. Most government retirement benefits are pensions. For this reason, it's unlikely your mother elected benefits would continue after her death by naming someone as a beneficiary. This is because if she had done that, the monthly amount she received would be less because of the possibility of payments continuing after her death. So, the way a pension works, is the employer commits to pay an amount to the retired employee. It is the employer's responsibility to make sure the payments are made, even if the employer has not saved enough to make the payments. If an employee elects payments for the employee's lifetime, the employer makes a determination of how long the employee is likely to live and then bases the monthly payments on that assumption. If the employee dies earlier than expected, the employer does not pay out as much as expected. If the employee lives longer than expected, the employer pays out more than it planned on paying. Over the long run and over many employees, the assumptions average out (hopefully) and the employer has enough money to pay the promised retirement benefit. An employee can elect to receive their retirement as a joint and survivor annuity. If the employee does this, however, then the employer assumes it will need to be making monthly payments over a longer period of time than if the employee just elected to receive payments during the employee's life. For this reason, the employer makes smaller monthly payments to the employee because the employer assumes it will need to be making those payments over a longer period of time.