Pentagon rethinks concurrent receipt

VFW Magazine, April, 2002 by Tim Dyhouse

Though the Pentagon supports the 111-year-old ban on military retirees receiving both their pensions and disability compensation (known as concurrent receipt), it recently decided to study whether the issue is fair to veterans.

"If it turns out that, by all measures, the retirement benefit is adequate for those who are disabled, then I would not find a great deal of support [for lifting the ban]" said Charles Abell, the Pentagon's assistant secretary for force management policy in a Newport News (Va.) Daily Press interview.

"If, on the other hand, we find we are a little stingy, then we may have to look at ways of helping to correct that, whether it's concurrent receipt or some other innovative way that I don't even have in my mind yet. But the basic question is, `Are we providing an adequate retirement benefit to those folks who deserve it?'"

To find out, Abell's office hired the SAG Corp., which specializes in policy analysis, to review concurrent receipt. SAG sent its report last month to the Pentagon, which is reviewing it and will send a final report to Congress.

Congress approved concurrent receipt for the first time in January, but left it up to President Bush to fund it--about $40 billion over 10 years--in his 2003 budget. Bush did not.