Employee not able to 'evaluate' self-assigned life event

Summary

Employee is able to self-assign a life event successfully but receives an error message when clicking on 'Continue'

Content

I have set up a marriage life event as self-assigned.  Employee is able to succesfully add the the life event (and from the benefits administrator view, I can see that the life event was 'added' in the potential life event section.

However, when the Employee clicks the 'Continue' button immediately after creating the life event, the EE sees an error message (see screenshot attached).

If I (as the benefits administrator) go in and process the life event (moving from potential to evaluated section...in started status), the Employee is able to click on 'Make Changes' in ESS and continue on with the enrollment process.