Military Officer - October 2008 - (Page 40) washingtonscene This isn’t “just another benefit upgrade.” This is a life-transforming event for millions of people — and a triumph for the country. It’s the TFL of the next generation. ue to press DoD to expand the regulation to exclude these abusive practices. DoD Curbs Payday Lending Report cites progress — and concerns. Score One For Widows DoD appeals court ruling. I O n late July, DoD provided the Senate Armed Services Committee a progress report on implementation of legislation aimed at stopping unscrupulous payday lenders from preying on military families. The report says DoD’s new regulation “has been effective in curbing [very highinterest] payday and vehicle title loans, and has restricted refund anticipation loans … [to] … servicemembers and their families.” Some of the success also can be attributed to on-post banks and credit unions and military aid societies offering new loan options to meet the troops’ immediate cash needs at reasonable interest rates. The report identified rising credit card and installment-loan debt as the most common factors that prompt military people to seek payday loans. To date, DoD has been reluctant to expand the regulation to cover installment loans, overdraft protection programs, and high fee/low available-balance credit cards, because that would “potentially decrease availability of beneficial credit for servicemembers and their families.” MOAA and The Military Coalition are concerned about the exclusion of installment and rent-to-own loans — both identified as abusive credit practices described in DoD’s own report — and highfee credit cards that charge exorbitant processing and initiation fees, sometimes from the first charge. MOAA will contin- n June 12, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled in favor of three Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) widows who sued the government (Sharp v. United States) to avoid any deduction of VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) from their restored SBP annuities. On Aug. 11, Pentagon lawyers appealed that ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. At issue is a 2004 law (PL 108-183) that restored DIC payments to veterans’ surviving spouses who remarry after their 57th birthday. Before the law change, survivors lost DIC regardless of the age at which they remarried. The three widows claim the new law not only restored their lost VA benefit, but also prohibited deduction of DIC from SBP in such cases. When DoD initially rejected that interpretation of the new law, the widows sued. The new Pentagon appeal is one more step in a potentially long legal process that ultimately could end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. But this court case might yet prove to be one more tool in MOAA’s campaign to end the unfair SBP/DIC offset for all survivors of active or retired servicemembers who die of service-caused conditions. MO — Contributors are Col. Steve Strobridge, USAFRet., director; Col. Mike Hayden, USAF-Ret.; Col. Bob Norton, USA-Ret.; Cmdr. René Campos, USNRet.; Cmdr. John Class, USN-Ret.; Col. Phil Odom, USAF-Ret.; Joy Dunlap; Cass Vreeland; and Bret Shea, MOAA’s Government Relations Department. 40 MILITARY OFFICER OCTOBER 2008
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