On January 30, 2024, Congress’ House Veterans Affairs Committee conducted an Oversight Hearing entitled: “The One Percent: Supporting America’s Surviving Military Family Community.”
Among the many significant topics discussed at the Hearing were: (1) Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) currently introduced as legislation H.R. 1083; and (2) Eliminating the Remarriage Age of Widowers and Widows introduced as legislation H.R. 3691.
Simply put, H.R. 1083, the Caring for Survivors Act, increases the monthly rate of DIC payable to surviving spouses of veterans through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The veterans must have perished in the line-of-duty or whose death is due to a service-related injury or disease.
Created in 1993, the DIC provides surviving families with the necessary means to maintain some type of economic stability after the loss of their loved ones. The DIC monthly payment rate has only been minimally adjusted from 1993 to 2023.
Currently, the monthly VA DIC payment is based on approximately 41% of compensation for a 100% service-disabled veteran with a spouse. In direct contrast, monthly benefits of a spouse of a federal civil service retiree are provided up to 55%.
This is a clear difference compared to survivors of our military personnel, who risk their lives on active duty, in comparison to survivors of federal civil service employees.
For example, a married veteran who is receiving 100% VA disability compensation is being paid about $3,946 per month. If the veteran passed away from the veteran’s disability, their surviving spouse would receive DIC payments for only $1,612.
Surviving spouses must deal with the loss of their veteran, but also contend with the loss of about $28,000. This has devastating impact on elderly survivors who depend on that compensation as a primary source of income.
The pending legislation also reduces the period that veterans must have been rated totally disabled due to a service-connected disability for a survivor to qualify for benefits.
Currently, the veteran must be totally disabled for ten (10) years before the survivor can claim the earned benefits. The proposed bill would reduce the ten (10) years to five (5) years.
The payment of DIC benefits was intended to provide surviving spouses with economic stability for themselves and their families following the death of a veteran.
However, surviving spouses were no longer eligible for DIC benefits if they remarry prior to the age of fifty-seven (57) years old. The remarriage age was lowered to fifty-five (55) years old in 2021.
The proposed H.R. 3651 bill, the Love Lives On Act, would eliminate the remarriage age for survivors in receipt of DIC. The bipartisan H.R. 3651 has thirty-eight (38) co-sponsors, while the Senate companion version of the bill (S. 1266) has twenty-seven (27) co-sponsors, including Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
According to a VA recent annual report, there are 3,691 surviving spouses that are younger than 35 years old and 26,213 surviving spouses between the ages of 36 years old and 56 years old receiving DIC benefits.
Military service is family service, and our country owes a great debt to the surviving spouses of fallen servicemembers,” said Senator Jerry Moran, the primary sponsor of S. 1266. “As Gold Star spouses heal from their loss and choose to remarry, they should not have to worry about losing their survivors’ benefits provided by the VA and DoD.”
“The men and women in our military serve our country courageously—and their spouses serve our country, too,” said Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock, also a sponsor of the bipartisan legislation S. 1266.
“If one of our heroes loses their life in the line of duty, we should honor our servicemember’s sacrifice by ensuring their spouse can retain survivor benefits if they choose to remarry,” concluded Senator Warnock. “I’m proud to continue leading this bipartisan effort to fulfill our promise to these patriotic military families.”
The Love Lives On Act bipartisan legislation is supported by forty-one (41) Veterans Services Organizations and other, including the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Gold Star Wives of America, Inc., Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and The American Legion.
My Opinion: This House Committee Hearing was very informative. The VA Under Secretary for Benefits, Josuha Jacobs, spoke on the way the VA was supporting veteran survivors, but did not indicate any changes in their operations, nor did he address any proposed changes, such as H.R. 3651 or H.R. 3691.
However, most compelling was the testimony presented by Ms. Kaanan Mackey-Fugler and Ms. Gabbriella Kubinyi, widows of veterans, who discussed many of the problems dealing with the VA, primarily the inequity of the DIC and eliminating the remarriage age.
“Based on current law, I would have to wait another 24 years to remarry; that’s almost half my life,” stated Ms. Mackey-Fugler. “That is what Congress believes is the appropriate amount of time I should be alone, in my grief, to keep my earned (DIC) benefits.”
For too long survivors’ benefits have taken a backseat to other benefit programs administered by the VA. Survivors have been put on the back burner by Congress long enough and they need action. Congress should pass the Caring for Survivors Act and the Love Lives On Act now!
BioSketch: John Plahovinsak is a 32-year Army veteran who served from 1967 to 1999. He is the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department of Ohio Hospital Chairman. He can be reached at: plahovinsak@msn.com.