Mr. BRICKFIELD. Referring to the table, as you can see, this law increased the annual income limitations for a single veteran, or a widow without a child, from $1,400 to $1,800, and for a married veteran, or a veteran with a child, or a widow with a child, from $2,700 to $3,000. It also added new income exemptions and repealed some of the exemptions contained in the law in effect prior to July 1, 1960. An outline of the provisions of the pension law in effect prior to July 1, 1960, and of Public Law 86-211 in tabular form has been prepared for the committee's convenience, which I should like to offer for the record at this time. This is part of the addendum here. Mr. KORNEGAY. Without objection it will be received. (The chart referred to follows:) Comparative chart of more important provisions of Public Law 86-211 and the protected pension law Subject 1. Income increments... 2. Veterans rates.... 3. Aid and attendance. 4. Disability requirement... 5. Excludable income.. 6. Spouse's income... Public Law 86-211 3 increments. No dependents. $1,000, $2,000, and $3,000. No dependents... 1 dependent.. 2 dependents.. $95, $75, and $45... 3 or more dependents.. $70 added to basic rate. Permanent and total (10 percent (d) Retirement benefits equal to (e) Social security lump sum death payments. Protected law No increments. No dependents. Income limitation $1,400. Income limitation $2,700. With or without dependents. $66.15 or $78.75 when veteran is 65 years of age or has been receiving pension for 10 consecutive years. $135.45. No change.. (a) Excluded. (b) Not excluded. (d) Excluded. (e) Not excluded. Excluded. (g) Not excluded. (h) Not excluded (except under (d)). (h) Pension and annuities received (i) Not excluded.. (j) Not excluded... All over $1,200 reasonably available 7. Net worth limitation..... Pension not payable if size of claim ant's estate indicates some portion under the Railroad Retirement Act. (i) Annuities paid by the service (j) Payments of bonus or similar Not a factor. Mr. BRICKFIELD. The figures and estimated cost I am about to give you include only those with World War I or later service. As of March 20, 1964, 1,991,359 veterans with service-connected disabilities were receiving compensations. Widows and children of veterans whose death was attributable to such disabilities swelled this total to 2,359,721. There were slightly less pensioners on the roll as of this date; 1,177,174 veterans and 786,423 cases of widows and children. In other words, we have a total of 1,963,359 receiving non-serviceconnected pension compared to 2,359,721 receiving compensation. The Veterans' Administration estimates that $3,896,100,000 will be spent for direct benefits payments of compensation and pension during this fiscal year. It is significant to note that $1,740,091,000 is allocated for the payment of pension to non-service-connected disabled veterans and to their widows. A large amount-$2,156,009,000-will be paid to veterans with service-connected disabilities, and widows of veterans whose death was attributable to such disabilities. However, the amount expected to be paid for disability and death pension will substantially increase with each ensuing year, whereas, payments of compensation to serviceconnected veterans and their widows will show a decrease in ensuing years. Because of these trends, we can expect that pension payments will outweigh compensation payments. The imbalance between the payments for these two benefits will continue to widen until the annual pension payments will be significantly larger than the annual compensation payments. This trend is illustrated in data submitted by our regional offices at the request of this committee covering all adjudication for the month of April. These data show that pension claims contributed 62.2 percent of all claims adjudicated in April 1964 compared to 37.8 percent compensation claims. In all, 76,714 pension claims were adjudicated contrasted to 53,414 in April 1963 when pension claims were only 59.4 percent of all claims adjudicated. It is interesting to note that in April 1964, of the 10,367 pension claims disallowed, three reasons: lack of requisite disability; employability; and excessive income accounted for 7,234 or 72 percent of all disallowances. By contrast the net worth test which has been the subject of considerable discussion accounted for only 302 disallowances. This is less than 3 percent of the disallowances and only 0.7 percent of the pension claims adjudicated. Thus, Mr. Chairman, pension can be viewed as an expanding program under provisions of current law and would expand still further were all those eligible to take advantage of the additional pension available under current law. I will go into this aspect more fully later on in my presentation. The committee has asked me to discuss three representative pension bills introduced in the first session of this Congress: H.R. 33, H.R. 1927, H.R. 2332. We have already reported on these bills and at this time I shall review with you the Administrators' position on some of their major features. The Administrator expressed his views in his appearance before this committee during the first session of this Congress on April 3, 1963. Since nothing has intervened to alter his views since that date, he has asked me to reiterate the position he took and the views he expressed at that time. Public Law 86-211 instituted a graduated scale of benefits with three income categories, designed to eliminate the "all or nothing" feature of the old law and to more equitably distribute benefits according to the relative need of pensioners. I referred to this feature earlier in my statement. H.R. 33 and H.R. 2332 would violate this principle by returning to the one category "all or nothing" feature sought to be avoided in the new law, but with even less relationship to need in their unrealistic income limitations and exclusions. H.R. 1927 is subject to the same criticism but to a lesser degree. Thus, all three bills are objectionable from this standpoint and for this reason we oppose them. Furthermore, these bills have other objectionable and discriminatory features. H.R. 33 and H.R. 2332 would provide a separate pension under more liberal criteria for World War I veterans. This would be discriminatory as to the approximately 150,000 World War II veterans who are 65 years of age and older. H.R. 2332 provides no increase for the most needy cases, the married veteran with two children and no income. H.R. 33 would give him an additional $10 but only if he had oversea service. But for the least needy cases, those with no dependents and income of $2,400 who qualify for no pension under present law, the monthly increase under these bills would be $100 or $110. In addition under these two bills, Mr. Kornegay and gentlemen, tax-free pension of $1,200 would be payable to a married veteran with countable annual income of $3,600 per year plus at least $1,200 in noncountable social security or other retirement. This could produce a combined income of at least $6,000 per year. Yet, according to data from the Bureau of the Census, the median income for all families headed by a 65-year-old in this country is only $3,204 per year and the median income of the male population of this country is only $4,372 per year. H.R. 1927 is subject to the same criticism but to a lesser degree. Here again the most needy get the least help. The married veteran with no income gets only $10 more per month, while the married veteran with $3,600 income would get $1,200 in pension, raising his available income to $4,800 per year. This bill would recognize no |