Giving Widows More Relief from SBP-DIC Offset

In a hopeful sign for 60,000 military widows and widowers who lost spouses to service-connected illnesses or injuries, a key House subcommittee is taking a fresh look at how Congress might allow a further easing the "SBP-DIC offset" to provide heartier and fairer survivor benefit packages. Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.), chairman of the House armed services subcommittee on military personnel, isn't promising yet specific relief from the offset, which surviving spouses prefer to call the "military widows' tax". But Heck and colleagues did gather anew complaints about the offset during a special December hearing, and vowed to look for ways to end it, or at least to continue to dull its effect on the widows' financial health. For more details, see this Military.com article.