thedrifter
04-16-07, 01:57 PM
Bill aims to increase vets’ disability payment
By Rick Maze - rmaze@militarytimes.com
Posted : April 23, 2007
A Republican lawmaker wants to ensure service members who are permanently disabled from combat injuries receive a monthly government check that keeps them above the poverty line.
The Combat Wounded Disability Income Modernization Act of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., would provide minimum annual disability payments for those injured in combat equal to the average yearly pay for a high school graduate, about $35,000.
Bartlett said the bill, HR 1732, would make this an optional pay formula. Service members still would have the choice of being paid under current calculations that use disability rating, rank and years of service to determine benefits, if that would give them more money.
Bartlett’s proposal, likely to be to considered in May when the House Armed Services Committee begins writing its version of the 2008 defense authorization bill, comes at a time when Congress is focused on problems with the disability retirement system that are likely to lead to reforms.
Most of the attention has focused on how the military, especially the Army, sets disability ratings below the level awarded by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the same injuries and conditions, and how service members discharged for medical reasons with disabilities of less than 30 percent receive a lump-sum severance payment instead of a monthly disability check for life.
The minimum benefit envisioned under Bartlett’s bill would help mostly low-ranking troops with low-rated disabilities, Bartlett spokeswoman Lisa Wright said.
Bartlett started work on the proposal after hearing complaints about the low amount of pay being provided to low-ranking service members permanently scarred by the war, she said.
Under current law, an E-3 who is medically retired with a 50 percent disability receives about $9,780 a year in military disability retired pay if he is unable to continue military service, and $8,544 a year if he gets disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs — far less than the earnings of the average high school graduate, Wright said.
Depending on the number of family members, a veteran living solely on disability retirement or compensation benefits could fall below the federal government’s poverty line. This year, Department of Health and Human Services guidelines say that a person with no family members lives below the poverty level if he makes less than $10,210 a year. For a family of two, the poverty line is $13,690, and for a family of four, $20,650.
Bartlett’s bill, which has bipartisan support, would allow wounded troops the option of receiving $2,914 a month in “alternative retired pay.” This minimum payment would be indexed for cost-of-living increases.
The minimum disability pay would be available to anyone who has a combat-related disability received since Sept. 11, 2001.
While the alternative benefit, if enacted, would cover disabilities incurred since 2001, it would not provide retroactive pay for prior years. The new formula would apply only to future payments after the bill became law, according to the draft legislation.
In a statement, Bartlett said change is needed because the VA and Defense Department disability rates “are outdated.”
“As a result, some � severely wounded service members may receive poverty-level disability compensation for the remainder of their lives,” he said.
Ellie
By Rick Maze - rmaze@militarytimes.com
Posted : April 23, 2007
A Republican lawmaker wants to ensure service members who are permanently disabled from combat injuries receive a monthly government check that keeps them above the poverty line.
The Combat Wounded Disability Income Modernization Act of 2007, sponsored by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., would provide minimum annual disability payments for those injured in combat equal to the average yearly pay for a high school graduate, about $35,000.
Bartlett said the bill, HR 1732, would make this an optional pay formula. Service members still would have the choice of being paid under current calculations that use disability rating, rank and years of service to determine benefits, if that would give them more money.
Bartlett’s proposal, likely to be to considered in May when the House Armed Services Committee begins writing its version of the 2008 defense authorization bill, comes at a time when Congress is focused on problems with the disability retirement system that are likely to lead to reforms.
Most of the attention has focused on how the military, especially the Army, sets disability ratings below the level awarded by the Department of Veterans Affairs for the same injuries and conditions, and how service members discharged for medical reasons with disabilities of less than 30 percent receive a lump-sum severance payment instead of a monthly disability check for life.
The minimum benefit envisioned under Bartlett’s bill would help mostly low-ranking troops with low-rated disabilities, Bartlett spokeswoman Lisa Wright said.
Bartlett started work on the proposal after hearing complaints about the low amount of pay being provided to low-ranking service members permanently scarred by the war, she said.
Under current law, an E-3 who is medically retired with a 50 percent disability receives about $9,780 a year in military disability retired pay if he is unable to continue military service, and $8,544 a year if he gets disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs — far less than the earnings of the average high school graduate, Wright said.
Depending on the number of family members, a veteran living solely on disability retirement or compensation benefits could fall below the federal government’s poverty line. This year, Department of Health and Human Services guidelines say that a person with no family members lives below the poverty level if he makes less than $10,210 a year. For a family of two, the poverty line is $13,690, and for a family of four, $20,650.
Bartlett’s bill, which has bipartisan support, would allow wounded troops the option of receiving $2,914 a month in “alternative retired pay.” This minimum payment would be indexed for cost-of-living increases.
The minimum disability pay would be available to anyone who has a combat-related disability received since Sept. 11, 2001.
While the alternative benefit, if enacted, would cover disabilities incurred since 2001, it would not provide retroactive pay for prior years. The new formula would apply only to future payments after the bill became law, according to the draft legislation.
In a statement, Bartlett said change is needed because the VA and Defense Department disability rates “are outdated.”
“As a result, some � severely wounded service members may receive poverty-level disability compensation for the remainder of their lives,” he said.
Ellie