Law would treat military parents of children with disabilities with the same respect as it does their civilian counterparts
On the plus side, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and of the Senate recently had the courage to introduce a bill that would greatly aid children with disabilities who have a parent in the military.
On the down side, the website govtrack.us gives the measure only a 1-percent chance of making it out of the House Armed Services Committee and no chance at all of being enacted.
And that, as the website for the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys points out, is a shame.
Introduced in early June by Congressman Jim Moran (D-Virginia) and Senator Kay Hagan (D-North Carolina) the Disabled Military Child Protection Act of 2103 would allow military retirees to transfer Survivor Benefit Plan annuities to a Special Needs Trust to provide long-term care for a disabled child.
“While the general public can transfer funds into an SNT, there is currently no mechanism for members of the military to do the same.”according to the announcement of the legislation on Rep. Moran’s website.
“As a father of a special needs child, I know how important it is for parents to be able to provide the best possible care for them,” Moran stated. “The Disabled Military Child Protection Act will give peace of mind to middle class military parents of more than 1,000 dependents that their children will receive good care after they are no longer able.”
“The Disabled Military Child Protection Act ensures that special needs dependents of our service members receive the care they need, deserve and have earned while making sure military special needs children are treated the same as those of civilians,” Hagan said in the announcement. “North Carolina is the most military-friendly state in the nation, and I am committed to supporting commonsense legislation like this that will support our military families that sacrifice so much to protect us.”
“The bill would allow more than 1,000 severely disabled military dependents to receive survivor benefits without losing access to Medicaid and SSI,” according to the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys.
The measure would not, the organization insists, lead to any abuse of the system.
“The benefit of the SNT is that it allows this individual with disabilities to have supplemental funds to pay for basic living needs and extra care above that provided by the government without disqualifying the individual for government benefit,” the website also states.
