I find it interesting that while congress is able to find money for pork and stimulus spending they just can't seem to find the money for Veterans and their Spouses.
I am a widow whose SBP is offset by DIC. Why can't it be funded with the F-22 money or even bettter as a cost of war. I don't know the sepcific percentage of the cases the men were killed in Action or died of their service connected disabilities from Wartime service. If the offset does not pass this year it will not happen in most of our lifetimes.
I am 67 and like many of the older widows this was our retirement. I am in poor health from caring for my husband thru bone cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, loss of legs all due from agent orange in Vietnam. He suffered horribly.
Many of the widows gave up careers and their own health needs like I did to take care of these men. Most of us suffered from Caregivers syndrome from caring 24/7 for these men. We got sick ourselves. I personally had two strokes. The MOST IMPORTANT POINT I THINK IS THIS: If this were a civilian insurance policy they would have to pay. Why does the government not pay? We purchased this annuity out of our own money. It was never a gratuity.
My husband will have been dead 3 years in April. The military still owes me unreimbursed burial They owe my 90K mortgage insurance They owe me 10K Life Insurance They owe me Premium Refunds they shorted me I have had appeals and nothing happens. The continue to do this to survivors without any shame.
Being the remarried surviving spouse of a KIA Marine in Vietnam in 1968, I am not eligible for the Survivor's Beneift Plan due to the fact that my husband did not purchase this benefit because it was not available to him. Having said all that, there are approximately 55,000 surviving spouses who are. If the SBP were a privately held annuity or insurance plan, there would be no question about pay out even if there were more than 1 policy. Why doesn't the government see that DIC (Dependent Indemnity Compensation) and SBP (Suvivor Benefit Plan (annuity))are 2 different things. DIC is payment for husbands who were killed while on active duty or died from service connected physical problems after retirement. No other insurance company would even question about payout, only the US government.
Why can we turn down production of a fighter plane and not use that money to fund elimination of the offset or why can't we take some of this money that is being returned from this bailout and use that for the elimination. Why are widows and orphans always the forgotten ones. The SBP was bought and paid for by our spouses to be used if death occurred. Is the US government stealing from these widows? Sure looks like it to me.
I notice they never have too much trouble funding their own pay raises. They happily give themselves over 200K/year for life yet have trouble caring for our nation's widows and orphans. They don't want to fund a measly $12/K per year. Politics as usual.
Yes, it is a shame that the government can so easily disregard the SBP/DIC offset and get away with it. Like l-garcia I am a widow who took care of a very ill husband for 10 years. He passed away 10 years ago and suffered horribly. I even wrote to the President and his wife (actually answering their email regarding volunteering more) and have received neither confirmation that they read my concerns nor that they even cared to see that justice was done! Sometimes I feel like dirt swept under the carpet still, we need to fight this, call our reps so they can sponsor the cause relentlessly and win it for us.
I thought President Obama has signed the bill in June for special SBP increase $60 to $95 dollars effective in October 2009. It's November and I only get $60. What's going? Did I read it wrong?
I too was curious about this when I only received $60 so I had my CAO find out the scoop. Turns out the $95, which was originally a Senate proposal, never did get final approval to be passed into law.
Well, it gets worse. When the 3 remarried after age 57 widows won in the Supreme Court in October 2009 and the government decided to pay them both DIC and SBP with no offset, it left all of us out. Can you imagine the remarrieds getting more benefits than those of us who never remarried. This is such a slap in the face. How can they justify paying one group of widows over another. That is what we need to be asking our congressmen and ask them to Support HR 2243 and HR 775. In the Senate you need to get your Senators to co-sponsor S535 immediately. They voice voted a pass on S535 but it did not get into the NDAA 2010. It is crucial that you work on these soon. Something could get into something as an ammendment or into the 2011 NDAA. If any of you are widows of Active duty deaths or 100% service connected deaths you need to join Gold Star Wives of America.
