In late January, three military widows went to federal court to press for a change to the law regarding benefits for widows. Currently, military widows who receive payments through the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) as well as Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) because their spouse died of a service-related injury or illness have their SBP payments reduced dollar for dollar by the amount of DIC.
There have been numerous attempts to eliminate the so-called SBP/DIC offset in Congress but only limited success. A December 2004 law change (PL 108-183) allows eligible survivors who remarry after age 56 to retain DIC payments in addition to SBP. At the time, members of the House Veterans Affairs Committee believed that this was the first step in ending the DIC/SBP offset. A subsequent legal review by the Department of Defense concluded that the law did not end the ban on concurrent receipt and that DIC payments should continue to be deducted from SBP annuities.
It is the continued difference in opinion over the language of PL 108-183 which serves as the basis for the case against the government. The military widows who took their case to the US Court of Federal Claims in Washington, DC on January 30 contend that the law should be interpreted to allow concurrent receipt of DIC and SBP. The judge’s decision in the case of Sharp v. The United States is pending.
The National Defense Authorization Act for 2008 failed to eliminate the DIC/SBP Offset but the final bill does include a provision that provides a "special survivor indemnity allowance" for some eligible military survivors. The payments of $50 do not begin until October 1, 2008, however, and are set to end in 2016.