MILITARY UPDATE
Concurrent pay law may be expanded

By Tom Philpott

Pentagon lawyers are studying the 2005 National Defense Authorization Act to determine if a provision to restore full military retirement next month to retirees who are 100 percent disabled can be interpreted to apply to 28,000 retirees who have lesser disabilities but are deemed unemployable.

At stake for these retirees is, on average, more than $46,000 in restored retirement pay — called concurrent retirement and disability payments — over the next nine years.

Congress last year voted to phase out over 10 years the ban on concurrent receipt of both military retirement and disability compensation for 150,000 retirees with 20 or more years of service and disability ratings of 50 percent or greater. This year's law ends the phaseout and lifts the ban as of Jan. 1, but only for retirees with disability rates of 100 percent.

The Bush administration has its legal experts studying whether the new law should be viewed more broadly, to include retirees with ratings below 100 percent but eligible for 100-percent-level compensation because the VA has classified them as unemployable.

An internal legal opinion is expected in one to three weeks.

Revised estimates on the number of retirees affected say there are 23,000 retirees with 100-percent ratings and 28,000 are unemployable. The cost estimate of restoring full retired pay immediately to those 28,000 is $1.3 billion over nine years.

Despite a three-month drop in the value of the dollar against foreign currencies, the buying power of 290,000 service members overseas largely has been protected by a system of allowances that are tied directly to exchange rates.

From Sept. 1 to Dec. 1, the dollar's value fell nine percent against the euro and seven percent against the Japanese yen.

The Defense Department's Per Diem, Travel and Transportation Allowances Committee in Alexandria, Va., makes adjustments to protect the military from a weak dollar. These involve two payments available overseas: a cost-of-living allowance for all and, for members living off base, an overseas housing allowance.

When there is a 5 percent change in the dollar's value, up or down, the two allowances are adjusted on the next payday.

Current rates and more on how allowances are set can be found at https://secureapp2.hqda.pentagon.mil/perdiem

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