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Wednesday, May 30, 2012 | 2:01 a.m.
My husband paid premiums for 30 years into a government-sponsored Survivor Benefit Plan, which would give me 55 percent of his military retirement pension if he should precede me in death. He passed away in October 2010 due to the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam. What I didn’t know was that since he was 100 percent disabled, as rated by Veterans Affairs, I was eligible for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for his loss of life. This amount was taken out dollar-for-dollar of his Survivor Benefit Plan.
If I remarried over the age of 57, I would get both benefits. Divorced spouses, mothers, children or business interests can receive both payments. But the surviving spouse who doesn’t remarry does not receive both benefits.
How is this fair?
There is legislation in Congress, House Resolution 178 and Senate Bill 260, that would eliminate the offset for surviving spouses who don’t remarry. There are many co-sponsors, but it has not yet received enough support to pass into law.
The legislation should be passed this year. There isn’t an insurance company in the world that would penalize a beneficiary from getting full benefits just because they received funds from another source. Only the federal government does that — and then only to those widows and widowers who choose not to remarry.
This is also how Medicare works
Medicare generally only pays 70 to 80% of the service cost. Today Retiree must buy a supplement to cover the balance. However when you have a supplement the Medicare further offsets or shifts cost to the supplement.
Obamacare recently removed $500 billion from Medicare so we are getting less services covered and more cost shifting
For the VA and Medicare There are hundreds of thousands of rule and regulation so nobody know what the Federal Government is really doing.
The federal Government hides behind these Obamcare, Medicare and VA rules to reject, denie, and delay claims.
Obama's 2013 budget reduces VA benefit and increase the premiums that Veterans must pay
Janet please know that there are many out there that support you receiving your just VA Benefits. Frank clearly is not one of them as his excuses and spin suggest.
Be positive about wading through the rules and regulations that a to big to fail Big Government has to confuse you. I hope you get the help you need. And that the current Obama VA benefit cuts are reversed.
Once again Dippy reeks of falsehoods and lies. Fact is the republican budget is restoring the reduction in VA benefits in the Obama 2013 budget that was rejected by the House and Senate
You can thank Obama and his clueless gang of thugs for your misery.
He also plans to lay off 200,000 or more military and throw them into his hopeless job market -where only 69,000 jobs were created. Remember this is June and there are millions of people who just graduated from college and high school who are battling over those 69,000 jobs. No one is moving from the job they have as there is no job to move to.
In addition Obama already slashed pension benefits for all military both retired and in the military.
So blame Obama - his failure to support our troops and their families yes is alarming - but your little case is not important to him given the way he is throwing the entire military under the bus.
He plans to destroy America's ability to protect itself by his slash and burn Military budget that his own own Defense Secretary does not support.
So next time, lady, when you get up in the morning - remember how Obama threw you under the bus.
Dipstick is just plan stupid when it comes to how Obama has destroyed our military; slashed benefits to our brave men and women.
Oh, that's right. Our brave men and women did not capture Osama bin Laden. it was golf player Obama who came in for the Photo Opportunity and then said it was him. Obama awards those who did the hard work 33 years in cruel prisons for their work to get Osama Bin Laden. Obama thinks that is quite all right with him.'
Obama also plans to destroy our military - and is welcoming Iran to attack us with his weak policies. He has thrown Israel under the bus. He has accused Poland of having death camps just recently. He has hurt our allies.
And we have those who distort the facts daily - yep, Obama.
Weap on military wives - Obama does not care a hoot about you.
Interesting comments above. President Obama has zero to do with the unfair SBP/DIC widow's tax, it has been in place for longer than he has been a politician. Since the rest of your comments are a combination of talking points and distortions, no facts will help sway you, so there's not point in trying to provide a true history of this issue.