Are all of those proposed increases included in the structural revisions which are going to be proposed? Mr. VAUGHN. They are under consideration and as much as possible, they will be. The Committee, which expects to receive the proposed revisions prior to any implementation, urges the Veterans' Administration to act promptly with respect to increasing compensation for those veterans whose disabilities are currently under-rated. Increases in Survivors Dependency and Indemnity Compensation The Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) program was created in 1965 with the passage of the Servicemen and Veterans Survivors Benefits Act (Public Law 84-881). DIC payments are authorized for widows, unmarried children under 18 (as well as certain helpless children and those between 18 and 23 if attending a VA-approved school), and certain parents of servicemen or veterans who die on or after January 1, 1957, from: (a) a disease or injury incurred or aggravated in line of duty while on active duty or active duty for training; or (b) an injury incurred or aggravated in line of duty while on inactive duty training; or (c) a disability otherwise compensable under laws administered by VA. Widows, children, and parents who are on the rolls, or found to be eligible, for death compensation by reason of a death occurring before January 1, 1957 may elect to receive DIC payments in lieu of death compensation. They cannot thereafter choose to receive death compensation. Prior to enactment of the DIC program the survivors of military personnel whose deaths were due to service-connected causes might have been eligible for as many as five differing survivor benefits. In 1969, Public Law 92-96 was enacted which replaced the original DIC formula with a table of rates related to the pay grade of the uniformed services at specific dollar rates. An effort was made at that time to increase all widows payments to an extent equal to the cost of living since the 1965 Act. A further adjustment in Public Law 92-197 provided a 10-percent increase in benefits. The current DIC program provides benefits to more than 375,000 beneficiaries. The following table shows the current and expected caseload for DIC by fiscal years: TABLE 4.-AVERAGE NUMBER OF SURVIVOR COMPENSATION CASES Title II of S. 3072, as reported, provides a standard cost-of-living increase in dependency and indemnity compensation rates of 17 percent for widows and children. The Committee believes these increases are justified by the fact that since DIC rates were last adjusted January 1, 1972, the Consumer Price Index has increased 16 percent by March 30, 1974 as reflected in Table 1 cited earlier in this report. Additional allowances for widows in need of aid and attendance, helpless children, children between the ages of 18 and 23 attending schools, and widows and dependent parents in receipt of death compensation in need of aid and attendance are also increased by 17 percent. Proposed and existing rates are shown in the following table: Pay grade TABLE 5.-COMPARISON OF DIC RATES UNDER PRESENT LAW AND S. 3072 Present law S. 3072 Pay grade Present law S. 3072 Equalization of Peacetime and Wartime Rates of Death Compensation The Death Compensation program provides benefits for the survivors of servicemen and veterans who died of service-connected causes before January 1, 1957. Currently, there are 116,791 survivors receiving benefits under death compensation. Of that number 4,453 are classified as "peacetime" survivors under this program by virtue of the deceased veteran's period of service. Current law provides that "peacetime survivors are entitled to death compensation at the rate of 80 percent of that received by survivors of veterans who served during a 'wartime"" period. S. 3072, as reported, would equalize the rates of compensation paid to survivors of veterans who died of service-connected conditions irrespective of calendar period of service. This action is consistent with past Congressional action on other Veterans' Administration programs which have abandoned a wartime/ peactime distinction. Following extensive study, Congress adopted a new program of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation in the Servicemen's and Veterans' Service Benefits Act of 1956 (P.L. 92-328) in which no distinction is made between wartime and peacetime service for the payment of compensation for service-connected deaths. In Public Law 91-101, Congress also voted to expand medical benefits to make any veteran-wartime or peacetime-over 65 eligible for Veterans' Administration hospital care and related outpatient care for non-service-connected disabilities without having to show financial inability. Finally, in the 92d Congress, peacetime/wartime rates of compensation for service-connected disabled veterans were equalized by Public Law 92-328. As noted there has never been a distinction in the DIC program of survivor benefits and the Committee thus believes that to continue such an arbitrary restriction for death compensation would be inequitable. Study of Automatic Entitlement to DIC for Certain Widows The Committee received numerous requests from veterans' organizations to consider the creation of automatic presumption of serviceconnected death in the case of veterans who are totally and peramently service-connected disabled such that a widow of such a veteran would be automatically entitled to receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC). Appearing before the Subcommittee on Compensation and Pensions, representatives of the Disabled American Veterans testified: We think it reasonable to say that a veteran who has suffered the distress and debilitating effects of a service-related total disability. . . should have statutory assurance that upon his death his widow will be provided for by payment of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. In an overwhelming majority of these cases, the totally disabled veteran is unable to pursue a gainful occupation. He very definitely had no opportunity to make adequate provisions for his survivors. The American Legion testified: While there is provision in Veterans' Administration regulations for a finding of service-connected death in individual cases on the basis that the service-connected death contributed to death from another cause, some deserving cases continue to be denied. Specifically, the regulation states that it must be shown that it contributed substantially or materially; that it combined to cause death; that it aided or lent assistance to the production of death. It is not sufficient that it casually shared in producing death, but rather that there was a causal connection. A statutory provision, such as we suggest, would automatically resolve all doubt in favor of service connection for cause of death where death was not due to an accident. The Blinded Veterans Association evidenced strong concern for such automatic presumption and testified that: At the present time, when a permanently and totally disabled veteran in receipt of disability compensation dies from causes not clearly service-connected, his survivors are not eligible for DIC. The veteran's survivors are left to whatever they may be entitled under the pension system. . . It works a very unusual hardship on the wife who has been with him (the disabled veteran) all the years depriving her of an opportunity to get any gainful employment to supplement the income and to have something happen where she has to go on welfare after his demise, is not treating her the right way at all. The Veterans' Administration, however, takes an opposing view. Odell Vaughn, Chief Benefits Director of the VA testified that automatic presumption of service connection would: thus place the survivors of certain veterans who die of non-service-connected cause on a parity with survivors of veterans who die of an actually service-connected cause. The Veterans' Administration finds no justification for presuming In light of the conflicting viewpoints and the lack of available data at this time the Committee has directed the Veterans' Administration to conduct a study, to be submitted to the Congress not later than 30 days after the beginning of the 94th Congress of applications for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) by widows of veterans who at the time of their death had a service-connected disability rated total and permanent in nature. The particular emphasis of the study is to be the disposition of these cases, the difficulty in proving service-connected death, and the financial situation of those widows and families denied DIC. It is the understanding of the Committee that part of this investigation has already begun in response to previous Committee inquiries. Consideration of Automatic Increases in Compensation and DIC Benefits The Committee also received recommendations to put an automatic escalator provision for Compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) programs. Under these proposals the rates for Compensation and DIC would be automatically adjusted once a year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. After consideration, the Committee does not believe that adoption of an automatic yearly adjustment provision is warranted at this time. First, the necessary periodic review of the adequacy of Compensation and DIC by Congress serves as an appropriate occasion for oversight of the entire program which often provides other needed adjustments which might otherwise be overlooked. In the 92nd Congress, for example, hearings in the compensation programs resulted in the creation of an additional clothing allowance for disabled veterans whose prosthetic device tends to tear or wearout their clothing and in the equalization of wartime/peacetime compensation rates. Second, the Committee believes it unwise to tie these important programs to the one index to the exclusion of all others. For example, 'Average Monthly Earnings" is another factor that the Committee often considers when adjusting rates. On occasion Congress has also seen fit to provide selective variable increases for the more seriously disabled rather than a standard across-the-board increase which would be the result from any automatic adjustment provision. Third, the Committee is conscious of the opposition to an automatic cost-of-living provision expressed by several veterans' organizations. In testimony received by the Subcommittee on Compensation and Pensions, representatives of the Disabled American Veterans testified: we must, with due respect take exception to the President's proposal to establish a future system of automatic cost-of-living increases in compensation payments, as measured by Consumer Price Index. The DAV National Convention has refused to adopt any fixed policy that would tie disability compensation increases to the Consumer Price Index .. Accordingly, we feel strongly that the subject of compensation adjustments should remain under control of this Committee The Veterans of Foreign Wars also testified that they disagreed: with the President's recommended automatic adjustment in benefits, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. The record shows that since 1933 the cost of living, according to the Consumer Price Index has increased by approximately 123 percent. During that same period, however, increases in disability compensation rates have far outstripped the Consumer Price Index increases. For example, the increases for the 100-percent service-connected disabled have been increased by approximately 450 percent since 1933. . . The Veterans of Foreign Wars wants the Congress to keep control of the Compensation and DIC programs, so that the sacrifice made by these veterans wounded and killed on the battlefield will never be forgotten. Fourth, the Committee believes that if the rate of inflation continues at its present pace that Congress can adjust the rates as quickly if not more so than any provision which would adjust the rate on a once a year basis. Finally, it should be observed that based on the historical record, an automatic increase provision would probably result in lesser increases than those which have been authorized in the past. The following table shows increases in the compensation program since 1954: |