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Chapter 61 vets, awaiting full pay, losing hope
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 31, 2012 12:12:42 EDT
About 130,000 retirees whose military careers were cut short by service-connected injuries have been waiting since 2002 for their chance to receive full military disability retired pay and veterans disability compensation.
They’re beginning to realize their day is probably not coming.
So-called “concurrent receipt” changes that reversed a 19th-century policy prohibiting payment of both retired pay and veterans disability pay have never been extended to those retired from the military for noncombat disabilities with fewer than 20 years of service. Now, with Congress more interested in cutting spending and reducing the deficit than in expanding benefits, disappointment is setting in.
“I am disgusted with both parties in Congress … it seems like there’s money for everyone but us,” said William Steimel, a former Army warrant officer medically retired in 1993 after almost 17 years of service and one of the so-called “Chapter 61” retirees, known for the section of the U.S. Code covering disability retired pay.
Concurrent receipt would boost his income by about $1,500 a month, he said.
Medical disability retirees still have their military retired pay reduced dollar for dollar by any amount received in Veterans Affairs Department disability compensation. That offset has been phased out for most disabled military retirees with 20 or more years of service and will be fully phased out for all by 2014, giving them concurrent receipt of both benefits.
Steimel believes President Obama could have done more to prod Congress to allow payment of disability retirement and veterans disability pays without offset to Chapter 61 retirees.
An opportunity arose in 2009, when President Obama proposed phasing in concurrent receipt for Steimel and others in his situation over five years, but an agreement was never reached with Congress over how to cover the $5.1 billion cost of providing the expanded benefit.
“I supported President Obama in 2008, but he will not get my vote in 2012. He has broken a promise to me and other Chapter 61 veterans,” said Steimel, of Belleville, Ill.
Steve Strobridge, government relations director for the Military Officers Association of America, said the 2009 failure to expand concurrent receipt for Chapter 61 retirees underscored the difficulty of finding money for new benefits.
Obama, former House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., all supported covering Chapter 61 retirees under concurrent receipt policy but could not find the money, Strobridge said.
If officials that powerful can’t work it out, “you get a sense of how difficult this is to resolve,” Strobridge said, adding that it’s “not going to get easier.”
“While we are not giving up, I don’t think in the short term there is any chance of this issue being funded by Congress,” said Strobridge, a retired Air Force colonel who is also co-chairman of the Military Coalition, a group of more than 30 military-related organizations that share a common legislative agenda.
If money does become available, top priority for receiving full retirement and disability pay should go to medically retired veterans who had 19 years of service and are 100 percent disabled, Strobridge said. People with fewer years of service and lower disability ratings could be phased in as money becomes available, he said.
Brian Lind, a former Air Force technical sergeant medically retired for knee issues in 1993 after 15 years of service, said he has heard all kinds of excuses about why he doesn’t qualify to receive the dual benefits paid to others and cannot help but feel cheated.
Lind, of Boise, Idaho, said he didn’t see his inability to run or walk long distances as a major issue in his particular service. Others with similar problems were allowed to stay in, he said.
“Looking at the timing, only one thing can be identified,” he said: His medical retirement happened the same year President Clinton took office “and began his drawdown of the services.”
“I feel very strongly about this, especially when politicians use ‘word shuffle’ to keep denying an earned benefit,” said former Navy Chaplain’s Assistant 2nd Class Kevin O’Connor of White Bear Lake, Minn., who was medically retired in 1996 with 19 years of service. “Every time I think about this discriminatory policy, I get mad. For the first couple of years [after leaving service], I had to use food stamps, church handouts and hand-me down clothing from family for my kids,” said O’Connor, a single father raising two children.
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Chapter 61 vets, awaiting full pay, losing hope
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Aug 31, 2012 12:12:42 EDT
About 130,000 retirees whose military careers were cut short by service-connected injuries have been waiting since 2002 for their chance to receive full military disability retired pay and veterans disability compensation.
They’re beginning to realize their day is probably not coming.
So-called “concurrent receipt” changes that reversed a 19th-century policy prohibiting payment of both retired pay and veterans disability pay have never been extended to those retired from the military for noncombat disabilities with fewer than 20 years of service. Now, with Congress more interested in cutting spending and reducing the deficit than in expanding benefits, disappointment is setting in.
“I am disgusted with both parties in Congress … it seems like there’s money for everyone but us,” said William Steimel, a former Army warrant officer medically retired in 1993 after almost 17 years of service and one of the so-called “Chapter 61” retirees, known for the section of the U.S. Code covering disability retired pay.
Concurrent receipt would boost his income by about $1,500 a month, he said.
Medical disability retirees still have their military retired pay reduced dollar for dollar by any amount received in Veterans Affairs Department disability compensation. That offset has been phased out for most disabled military retirees with 20 or more years of service and will be fully phased out for all by 2014, giving them concurrent receipt of both benefits.
Steimel believes President Obama could have done more to prod Congress to allow payment of disability retirement and veterans disability pays without offset to Chapter 61 retirees.
An opportunity arose in 2009, when President Obama proposed phasing in concurrent receipt for Steimel and others in his situation over five years, but an agreement was never reached with Congress over how to cover the $5.1 billion cost of providing the expanded benefit.
“I supported President Obama in 2008, but he will not get my vote in 2012. He has broken a promise to me and other Chapter 61 veterans,” said Steimel, of Belleville, Ill.
Steve Strobridge, government relations director for the Military Officers Association of America, said the 2009 failure to expand concurrent receipt for Chapter 61 retirees underscored the difficulty of finding money for new benefits.
Obama, former House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., all supported covering Chapter 61 retirees under concurrent receipt policy but could not find the money, Strobridge said.
If officials that powerful can’t work it out, “you get a sense of how difficult this is to resolve,” Strobridge said, adding that it’s “not going to get easier.”
“While we are not giving up, I don’t think in the short term there is any chance of this issue being funded by Congress,” said Strobridge, a retired Air Force colonel who is also co-chairman of the Military Coalition, a group of more than 30 military-related organizations that share a common legislative agenda.
If money does become available, top priority for receiving full retirement and disability pay should go to medically retired veterans who had 19 years of service and are 100 percent disabled, Strobridge said. People with fewer years of service and lower disability ratings could be phased in as money becomes available, he said.
Brian Lind, a former Air Force technical sergeant medically retired for knee issues in 1993 after 15 years of service, said he has heard all kinds of excuses about why he doesn’t qualify to receive the dual benefits paid to others and cannot help but feel cheated.
Lind, of Boise, Idaho, said he didn’t see his inability to run or walk long distances as a major issue in his particular service. Others with similar problems were allowed to stay in, he said.
“Looking at the timing, only one thing can be identified,” he said: His medical retirement happened the same year President Clinton took office “and began his drawdown of the services.”
“I feel very strongly about this, especially when politicians use ‘word shuffle’ to keep denying an earned benefit,” said former Navy Chaplain’s Assistant 2nd Class Kevin O’Connor of White Bear Lake, Minn., who was medically retired in 1996 with 19 years of service. “Every time I think about this discriminatory policy, I get mad. For the first couple of years [after leaving service], I had to use food stamps, church handouts and hand-me down clothing from family for my kids,” said O’Connor, a single father raising two children.
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