MILITARY UPDATE
Contrasting views emerge on concurrent receipt for widows
By Tom Philpott
Members and staff of the House Veterans Affairs Committee are confident they took a first step late last year toward ending a lesser-known ban on concurrent receipt, the one that reduces survivor benefit payments to widows and widowers of military retirees.
Defense Department lawyers are just as confident, a Pentagon source said, that the bill's language missed its mark, and does not end for a small group of widows the dollar-for-dollar offset in military Survivor Benefit Plan payments mandated when widows also receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
At stake in how the new law is interpreted is an average of $9,204 in annual benefits for about 400 widows of military retirees who died from service-connected disabilities.Ê But Rep. Henry Brown Jr., R-S.C., said it is also a symbolic first step toward ending the DIC-triggered SBP offset for 44,000 dual-eligible surviving spouses of retirees.
Military retirees buy SBP coverage so their surviving spouses can continue to receive a portion of retirement pay after retirees die.ÊThe widow of any veteran, including a military retiree, also can be eligible for DIC, which pays a minimum of $967 a month if the veteran died from a service-related injury or illness.ÊBut widows of military retirees see their SBP reduced dollar for dollar for the amount drawn in tax-free DIC.Ê
The controversy is over a provision in the Veterans Benefits Act of 2003, which was signed into law Dec. 16.ÊFor years, widows who remarried lost their DIC entitlement.ÊBut Section 101 of the new benefit package (Public Law 108-183) allows veterans' surviving spouses who remarry at 57 or older to retain DIC.ÊWidows who earlier remarried at 57 or older and lost their DIC have until Dec. 16 to reapply by using VA Form 21-686c.
More than 12,000 widows are said to qualify, but officials estimate fewer than 15 percent will know to apply, even after an aggressive public information campaign.ÊAn estimated 350 DIC-eligible widows a year remarry after age 56, and therefore stand to gain from the bill.
The controversy for widows of military retirees arises in paragraph B of Section 101.ÊIt says individuals made eligible for DIC under the provision, by reason of their status as the surviving spouse of a veteran, should see no reduction in other federal benefits as a result of this provision.
Brown, chairman of the House veterans benefits subcommittee, said in a phone interview that the paragraph was added specifically to avoid for this group of widows a reduction in SBP benefit once DIC is restored.
"We put a special paragraph in there to, basically, get (the Defense Department) to do that," Brown said. "This was to get the camel's nose under the tent, sort of like we did with concurrent receipt for disabled retirees.ÊWe did the Purple Heart folks first and then we went back to address anybody with a (combat-related) disability.ÊThen, last year, we said anybody up to 50 percent (disabled) even outside of combat will be able, within 10 years, to draw both full retired pay and VA disability compensation
Peter Dickinson, communications director for the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, agreed that eliminating the required offset was the committee's intent.
Taking its cue from the committee, the National Association of the Uniformed Services explained to its membersÊin a Dec. 5 newsletter that the provision "in essence, eliminates the requirement for DIC to offset SBP annuities as required by current law."
But Defense Department pay officials and lawyers have reviewed the provision and find no impact on SBP.ÊIf the intent was to end the SBP offset as DIC is restored, the bill would have referred specifically to the surviving spouse of a military retiree not of a veteran.
Defense officials also are said to question the logic of eliminating cuts in SBP only for DIC widows who remarry after age 56, leaving widows who don't remarry to continue to see SBP reduced.
Edith Smith, a longtime advocate for military widows, also is troubled by the prospect of remarried widows receiving more in combined benefits than other widows.ÊBut Smith said she applauds the House veterans committee for taking a first step to end the SBP offset, and she argues that defense officials should apply the law as written. Then, said Smith, she and service associations can press lawmakers to end such an obvious disparity among retiree widows.
In fact, Brown and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., have sponsored bills (HR 1726, S 585) to repeal the offset in benefits.
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