Why Does The Government Hate War Widows? #p2

Over 50,000 war widows whose late spouses paid for insurance to help support their families in the case they lost their life now find themselves unable to receive the entire benefit of the insurance -- that is unless they remarry... but not until after they turn 57.

In a world that makes sense, these widows should be receiving annuity payments from the insurance policy, which their spouse had paid for out of pocket, and the monthly survivor benefit, which their spouse paid for with their life.

But, as the AP explains...

At the heart of the issue is a government policy known as the "widows' tax." It says a military spouse whose loved one dies from a service-related cause can't collect both survivor's benefits and the full annuity benefits from insurance the couple bought from the Defense Department at retirement. Instead, the amount of the annuity payment is reduced by the amount of the monthly survivor benefit.

That deduction comes out to around $1,000 a month for most of the widows.

The only way to receive both the full annuity payment and the survivor benefit if for the widow to remarry after the age of 57.

This bizarre condition is apparently the unintended result of legislation that had been meant to help survivors retain benefits even if they remarried late in life. But because Congress has not been able to budget enough money to pay both benefits to all widows, relief has been limited to that older, remarried group.

rest at http://consumerist.com/2011/02/why-does-the-government-hate-war-widows.html