Military Officer - August 2007 - (Page 38)

washingtonscene inconsiderate enough to kick the bucket toward the end of the month. If you die on the 20th of the month, current law says your beneﬁciary is due retired pay only for the ﬁrst 20 days of the month. But notifying DFAS probably won’t be the ﬁrst thing on your family’s mind. In many cases, a retiree’s death is reported too late to adjust the ﬁnal month’s retired paycheck to reﬂect only the portion of the month during which the retiree was still alive. Chances are DFAS will deposit a paycheck for the entire amount into your account on the ﬁrst day of the next month. Your grieving spouse will use that money to pay the mortgage, buy food, and meet other expenses. Then DFAS auditors will make an electronic visit to your bank to recoup the ﬁnal month’s retired paycheck from your account and refund only 20 days’ worth of pay. More than likely, it will be at least a couple of months before the survivor sees Survivor Beneﬁt Plan (SBP) payments start, retroactive to the ﬁrst day of the month after death. Meanwhile, he or she will have to deal with DFAS accountants and see funds unexpectedly depleted that likely already will have been spent to pay monthly bills that didn’t stop when you did. MOAA thinks it’s just plain wrong to subject survivors to ﬁnancial nitpicking at this traumatic time in their lives. If there’s ever a time for government accountants to give a military family a tiny break, surely this is it. That’s why MOAA strongly endorses Rep. Walter Jones’ (R-N.C.) Military Retiree Survivor Comfort Act (H.R. 657). Jones’ common-sense bill would authorize payment of full retired pay for the month of death and begin SBP eligibility on the ﬁrst day of the following month. Surely, this has to be more sensitive and appropriate than sending electronic buzzards to extract money from survivors’ bank accounts even while families AUGUST 2007 still are grieving. And it would make the accountants’ jobs easier, too. Stamp Out the Stigma Task force wants new mental health attitude. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) Help Abolish Unfair Recoupment ■ Urge your U.S. repre- T sentatives to cosponsor Rep. Walter Jones’ H.R. 657, which would end harassment of military widows over a deceased retiree’s last few days of retired pay. Go to http:// capwiz.com/moaa/issues /bills?bill=9971206. Enter your ZIP code to send your legislator a message. he DoD Mental Health Task Force released its ﬁnal report June 15, and its observations and recommendations mirror those MOAA delivered in testimony late last year. The 14-member task force spent a year compiling and evaluating research data and testimony from experts and advocates and conducted site visits to 38 military installations worldwide. The report found the following to be true: ■ Mental health problems carry a stigma that remains pervasive in the military and deters those who need care from seeking it; ■ servicemembers and their families don’t have the access to mental health care they need; and ■ the military system doesn’t have enough funding or qualiﬁed personnel to adequately support the psychological health of military people and families in peacetime and wartime. The task force emphasized it will take a determined leadership effort at all levels to build a culture of support for psychological health. That includes providing the needed resources to ensure a full continuum of excellent care for servicemembers and their families and empowering leaders to take needed positive action. Above all, the group highlighted the urgent need for action to address two “signature injuries” from the current conﬂict — PTSD and traumatic brain injury. They said the mission of caring for mental health has changed, and the current system must be restructured to reﬂect these changes. 38 MILITARY OFFICER http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills?bill=9971206 http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills?bill=9971206 http://capwiz.com/moaa/issues/bills?bill=9971206

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - August 2007

Military Officer - August 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: No Longer in Reserve A Different Path Weird Science Charge? Pages of History Faces of MOAA Member Books Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Calendar MOAA Scholarship Donors Sounding Taps MOAA Member Services Encore

Military Officer - August 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.