[Imc-newsroom] Fix the Military Widow inequities.

[Daniel Cedusky]

TO:  Honorable Timothy Johnson, IL-15

I am writing to urge you to cosponsor two bills that together will fix the remaining serious inequities in the military Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP).  

The first is H.R. 808, which repeals that section of Title 10, which now requires the reduction of SBP survivor benefits by the amount of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC).

Under current law, the surviving spouse of a retired military member who dies from a service-connected disability is entitled to DIC paid by the Veteran's Administration. If the military retiree was also enrolled in the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP), the surviving spouse's benefits are offset by the amount of DIC ($993 per month). This leaves many survivors with less than $12,000 per year.

The second bill is H.R. 968, which would accelerate the effective date of a paid-up provision for military SBP.  Under current law, retired SBP enrollees who have attained the age of 70 and paid SBP premiums for at least 30 years will be able to stop paying premiums, while retaining SBP coverage for their survivors.  Unfortunately, budget concerns resulted in an effective date for this law of 2008.  By that time many retirees will have paid premiums for as long as 36 years.  

H.R. 808 and H.R. 968 offer real relief to the many survivors and retirees who have had benefits offset or delayed for years.

Please cosponsor H.R. 808 and H.R. 968 and do all you can to ensure that these bills are enacted this year.

Dan Cedusky
Champaign, IL
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/imc-newsroom/attachments/20050406/bc531e70/attachment.html