Noteboom The Law Firm

Retired Veterans May Be Granted Concurrent Benefit Receipt

May 27, 2010 - House Democrats drafted HR 4213 in order to boost veterans' benefits. The bill would extend many sections of the current tax code and could possibly resolve some existing funding issues. It may, however, also bring up new problems.

What may prevent the bill's passage is that it seemingly approves tax breaks while not supplying any arrangement for how those breaks will be funded. The House Democrats want to avoid cutting federal spending in other places to fund the $50 to $55 billion in tax extensions the bill requires. Additionally, they are considering adding an additional package to the bill at a cost of $170 billion which would fund:

• Lengthened unemployment benefits; and
• Enlarged Medicare payments to doctors.

 Democrats are also looking into expanding concurrent receipts at a cost of $5.4 billion. They believe by doing this it would collect votes for their package as a whole and at the same time allow them to avoid possible restrictions on subsidies. Because doing this would inflate the overall cost of funding this bill, adding concurrent receipt may do just the opposite.

The concurrent receipt concept allows those veterans who retired medically, and with less than 20 years in service, to be able to collect both their disability compensation and their full military disability retirement pay concurrently. The military does not currently allow this to happen.  

If granted, concurrent benefit receipt will be introduced gradually over 5 years and will eventually encompass all Chapter 61 medically retired veterans. It is important to note that including the expansion for concurrent receipt with the Democrat's bill extending taxes doesn't mean it will be traditionally funded. Should the bill pass, it seems the Medicare increases and the $5.4 billion needed to fund the concurrent receipt would be paid out of an emergency budget fund.