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DoD on the clock to plan stop-loss payments

The 120-day countdown has begun for the Pentagon to design and launch a payment process for the 185,000 service members and veterans eligible to apply for a $500 allowance for every month they served under stop-loss orders since Sept. 10, 2001.

The bill including the retroactive allowance was signed June 24 by President Barack Obama. It gives the Defense Department four months to come up with a plan that will determine just what paperwork might be needed to qualify for the payments.

The monthly allowance is supposed to be made for any month in which a person spent any time under stop-loss orders that delayed their scheduled separation or retirement.

Once the application process is in place, people who were under stop-loss orders will have one year to apply for payments.

Obama, who during the presidential campaign vowed to halt the use of stop loss if he became commander-in-chief, made no mention of stop-loss allowances in the statement he issued upon signing the 2009 supplemental appropriations bill that includes the payment.

He also made no mention of the new education benefit for the children of people who die on active duty that also is included in the bill.

The Army, the only service still using stop-loss, had pledged to cease by the end of the year.

The head of a major veterans group, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said the stop-loss provision is an important step in recognizing the sacrifices being made by service members.

“Washington is finally paying more than lip service to our troops,” said Paul Rieckhoff, IAVA’s executive director.

Rieckhoff also praised the inclusion of a new benefit, the Fry Scholarship, that gives surviving children of service members who die on active duty the right to their own 36 months of Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.

“Our government is finally paying its debt to thousands of stop-lossed troops and showing gratitude to the families of our fallen heroes. Both provisions will mean real money in the pockets of those who deserve it most,” Rieckhoff said in a statement.