thedrifter
04-23-07, 08:41 AM
Officials seek to boost benefits
By Rick Maze - rmaze@militarytimes.com
Posted : April 30, 2007
The Pentagon is proposing two benefits initiatives that would modify existing programs to compensate troops for long or frequent deployments and to help reservists whose income drops when they are mobilized.
Defense officials opposed both programs when they were initially conceived, but Congress approved them anyway.
First, the Pentagon is asking to reform payments for people who deploy for extended periods, including doubling the maximum payment to a possible $1,500 a month and making it possible to receive the money in a lump sum instead of monthly installments.
The Pentagon proposes to use hardship-duty pay to replace high deployment allowance — the incentive pay created shortly before, and then suspended shortly after, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with no troops ever receiving payments.
In the process, the threshold for payments and eligibility rules would be revised.
Defense officials said the idea is to allow the department to “balance operational tempo, compensate service members who deploy beyond their service norms and provide predictable allowances.”
Under the program that was suspended in late 2001, service members would be eligible for high deployment allowance if they were deployed 220 days out of the previous 365 days or if they were deployed 400 days out of the previous 730 days. Deployment is defined as any training exercise or military operation that prevents a service member from returning home at night.
The Pentagon proposes to increase the maximum possible monthly payment to $1,500, up from the current cap of $750, and to change the definition of deployment so that temporary duty or time spent attending conferences, seminars or other training would not count.
The initiative also proposes to make service members eligible for hardship pay if they are deployed 191 consecutive days or more.
Defense officials said the old formula “does not allow the flexibility” that they need. Having each service set its own threshold for payment and set its own levels of pay would allow them to tailor the program to meet their service goals, defense officials said.
If Congress approves this plan, it would come on top of a separate program announced by defense officials April 18 that will give troops extra leave days if they are deployed or mobilized beyond the Pentagon’s personnel policy goals.
For active-duty troops, the goal is two years at home for each year deployed, and for reservists, it’s five years at home for each year of mobilization.
Reserve income replacement
On reserve income replacement, defense officials want to change — they say “clarify” — the eligibility criteria for existing income replacement payments for mobilized reservists.
Under that program, National Guard and reserve members who make less money when mobilized than in civilian life can receive up to $3,000 in monthly pay to make up for their losses.
They must suffer a minimum $50 monthly loss to qualify, and meet other criteria.
The current law has two flaws, officials said. One is the way months are counted, which hurts people who use cumulative rather than consecutive months of service to qualify. The second is that service members retained on active duty for medical reasons apparently are ineligible for the payments.
Under the proposed change, a mobilized reservist would be eligible for income replacement after completing one month of service following 18 months of continuous duty; 730 cumulative days of involuntary service in a 1,826-day period (five years plus one day, presumably to allow for a leap year); or an involuntary mobilization of 180 or more days that comes within 180 days of a previous mobilization.
By counting days rather than months, the plan would provide full credit for all time served, defense officials said.
Ellie
By Rick Maze - rmaze@militarytimes.com
Posted : April 30, 2007
The Pentagon is proposing two benefits initiatives that would modify existing programs to compensate troops for long or frequent deployments and to help reservists whose income drops when they are mobilized.
Defense officials opposed both programs when they were initially conceived, but Congress approved them anyway.
First, the Pentagon is asking to reform payments for people who deploy for extended periods, including doubling the maximum payment to a possible $1,500 a month and making it possible to receive the money in a lump sum instead of monthly installments.
The Pentagon proposes to use hardship-duty pay to replace high deployment allowance — the incentive pay created shortly before, and then suspended shortly after, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with no troops ever receiving payments.
In the process, the threshold for payments and eligibility rules would be revised.
Defense officials said the idea is to allow the department to “balance operational tempo, compensate service members who deploy beyond their service norms and provide predictable allowances.”
Under the program that was suspended in late 2001, service members would be eligible for high deployment allowance if they were deployed 220 days out of the previous 365 days or if they were deployed 400 days out of the previous 730 days. Deployment is defined as any training exercise or military operation that prevents a service member from returning home at night.
The Pentagon proposes to increase the maximum possible monthly payment to $1,500, up from the current cap of $750, and to change the definition of deployment so that temporary duty or time spent attending conferences, seminars or other training would not count.
The initiative also proposes to make service members eligible for hardship pay if they are deployed 191 consecutive days or more.
Defense officials said the old formula “does not allow the flexibility” that they need. Having each service set its own threshold for payment and set its own levels of pay would allow them to tailor the program to meet their service goals, defense officials said.
If Congress approves this plan, it would come on top of a separate program announced by defense officials April 18 that will give troops extra leave days if they are deployed or mobilized beyond the Pentagon’s personnel policy goals.
For active-duty troops, the goal is two years at home for each year deployed, and for reservists, it’s five years at home for each year of mobilization.
Reserve income replacement
On reserve income replacement, defense officials want to change — they say “clarify” — the eligibility criteria for existing income replacement payments for mobilized reservists.
Under that program, National Guard and reserve members who make less money when mobilized than in civilian life can receive up to $3,000 in monthly pay to make up for their losses.
They must suffer a minimum $50 monthly loss to qualify, and meet other criteria.
The current law has two flaws, officials said. One is the way months are counted, which hurts people who use cumulative rather than consecutive months of service to qualify. The second is that service members retained on active duty for medical reasons apparently are ineligible for the payments.
Under the proposed change, a mobilized reservist would be eligible for income replacement after completing one month of service following 18 months of continuous duty; 730 cumulative days of involuntary service in a 1,826-day period (five years plus one day, presumably to allow for a leap year); or an involuntary mobilization of 180 or more days that comes within 180 days of a previous mobilization.
By counting days rather than months, the plan would provide full credit for all time served, defense officials said.
Ellie