‘Widows’ tax’ denies some military survivors full payments
But
"I should be getting
However, a separate payment awarded by the
For most survivors, multiple annuities can be paid upon the service members' death. As such, Tainsh expected to receive 55 percent of her husband's pay --
"But if your husband or wife ends up becoming disabled and dying of a service-connected issue, such as my husband did of stage 4 lung and brain cancer put back to Agent Orange, that comes out of the
"All those premiums that so many men and women have paid in to cover their spouses, we don't know where those premiums go," Tainsh said. "It's not back to us."
'Egregious and unfair theft'
Tainsh is not alone. Pentagon spokesman
A
The
"It has been very hard since my husband passed," Lee wrote in a letter. "We went from my husband making close to
She and her family now face a "
Eastburn pointed out small differences between the annuities: SBP is for survivors of current military members and retirees, and it is paid regardless of the cause of death. DIC is only for survivors of veterans who die of service-connected causes.
"Both ... serve the same general purpose of providing a cost-of-living adjusted annuity to a survivor following the death of a member, but for two different populations," he said.
But Tainsh and others aren't convinced the two are mutually exclusive.
"The 'widow's tax' is clearly unfair and makes no sense," Rep.
"Shamefully," Painter said, "we are consistently met with the same answer from members of
Closing the gap
But legislators for years have tried to eliminate the offset. In 2008,
"Service members and their families paid into SBP and ought to receive the full benefit," Nelson said through his spokesman. "That is why I've introduced legislation to repeal the offset and will continue to fight for its passage so that these individuals receive what they are owed."
Dunn is a cosponsor of a similar bill in the House, HR 846, the Military Surviving Spouses Equity Act.
"Members of our military and their families make great sacrifices in their service to our country," Dunn said. "It is an appalling injustice to have a surviving spouse's retirement annuity -- which these families dutifully paid for -- canceled out or offset because their loved one's death was service-connected."
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