Freedom of Benefit Choice: Caution

[unhappycamper]

Freedom of Benefit Choice: Caution
May 02, 2008
Air Force Print News|by John J. Kruzel

WASHINGTON - Starting in July, servicemembers can choose to whom a $100,000 death gratuity will be disbursed if they are killed in action.

Currently, troops can assign half the posthumous payment to recipients of their preference, with the remainder paid according to a hierarchy determined by the Defense Department: first to the spouse, or if unmarried, to children, then grandchildren, followed by parents and, barring these antecedents, the next of kin.

But when the policy shift becomes effective July 1, troops should use caution while exercising their new freedom to bequeath, one Pentagon official warned.

"I think that members need to realize that, with this added flexibility, there is responsibility," Gary McGee, a program analyst for the Compensation Directorate in the Office of Military Personnel Policy, said. "They need to act in a mature manner when they make these decisions."

Congress established the first death gratuity in 1908, stipulating that survivors of Army, Navy and Marine personnel killed in service receive the equivalent of six months of the servicemembers' pay. The original purpose was to help fill the financial gap resulting from the lack of a government life insurance program at that time, according background papers on military compensation.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/air-force-news/freedom-of-benefit-choice-caution.html