Military Retirement and Veterans' Compensation: Concurrent Receipt Issues (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
April 7, 1995 |
| Report Number |
95-469 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Robert L. Goldich, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Military retirees with disabilities incurred during their military service may receive military
retired
pay from the Department of Defense (DOD) and may be eligible for veterans' disability
compensation from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA). However, current law requires that
military retired pay be reduced by the amount of the veterans' benefits. Some military retirees have
sought a change in law to permit concurrent receipt of both military nondisability retired pay (retired
pay computed solely on the basis of length of service after a military career) and veterans'
compensation benefits. They maintain that there are precedents for concurrent receipt of
employment-related benefits among other Government programs, and that it is inequitable to deny
concurrent benefits to military retirees. Others argue that concurrent receipt would cost the
Government too much (DOD's cost estimates for full concurrent receipt in FY1993, for instance,
were about $2.1 billion), is not supported by precedents when other offsets are examined in detail,
and could set a costly example for the reduction or elimination of similar offsets between other
Federal programs.
Much of the difficulty in sorting out the issue of concurrent receipt is due to the fact that both
military retirement and veterans' compensation have multiple objectives, and each program may be
viewed differently by different observers. Some of these objectives overlap and others do not.
Consequently, depending on how one regards these programs, concurrent receipt might be seen as
appropriate from some viewpoints, but overlapping and duplicative from others. For instance, both
military retirement and VA compensation have, to varying degrees, the aim of compensating
disabled earning capacity. However, the military retirement system is designed primarily to facilitate
the management of the active duty military career force; VA compensation has no similar aim.
According to some, alternatives to full concurrent receipt might achieve a middle ground
between a full offset system and full concurrent receipt. In general, the alternatives either would
designate some groups of retirees as higher priority beneficiaries of dual benefits than others, or
would simply seek to make concurrent receipt more acceptable by limiting the cost through a limited
offset (for instance, a proposal of Senator John McCain in the 103rd Congress would have limited
concurrent receipt to about 3,500 people in FY1995, costing $55-60 million in that year).
Nevertheless, those who think concurrent receipt is an inappropriate policy warn that changing the
current system in any way to allow some military retirees to receive benefits from both programs
would lead to continued complaints about different and, therefore, allegedly inequitable treatment,
and hence would set a costly precedent.
