Evening star., 1947-09-07
Guide for
Veterans
By Moi. Thomos M. Mol

Scores. almost hundreds, Of bills
have been introduced in the Eight
ieth Congress to raise subsistence
allowances and change the pro-
visions of public law 67s, the famous
ceiling law. ..,.
Some have only been introduced
and assigned to committees WEich
have taken no action on them.
Others have been worked over by
subcommittee and either recon-
mended or disapproved.
Some have been voted on by 1ull
committees and reported" to the
floor of the House or Senate. A few
have been approved by one OF the
branches of Congress.
Some ventually may become law
at the next session of Congress, but
only one is law today.
That's H. r. 1908, introduced by
Representative Ramey, Republican.
of Ohio. Ramey heads a subcom-
mittee which handles education,
training and rehabilitation" for the
House Veterans Committee.
H. R. 1908 is important only to
few disabled veterans getting COM
pensation Cor pensionD and taking
education under public law 16, the
Vocational Rehabilitation Act. Most
disabled veterans know about p. l..
lis. It's somewhat similar to the
GI bill educational provisions. but
much broader and lot more at
tractive to q disabled vet. Just to
show you; a guy can get four years
of training under p. L. 16 even II
he served, say, seven months.
To be eligible for public 16 you
have to have a service-connected
disability of at least 10 per cent.
Some veterans, Of course, have
disabilities of 80, so and 80 per cent.
Others have just 10 per cent, but
all are eligible for P. L. Is. The
only ones this new law affects are
those who have disability rating
of 30 per cent or more. The new
law ups their allowances.
The way it worked before, any
public 16 trainee was permitted to
get his full subsistence allowance
| (s65 and 500 plus his full pension
while in training. But the law said
that If the total of the allowance
plus pension didn't come to $105
(for single veterans) or Sis for
married veterans) then the VA
would pay the difference and bring
the total up to those amounts. In
other words, trainees were guaran-
teed a certain set of minimum pay
ments, called guaranteed minimums
That part of the law still Is in ef-
feet for less than 80 percenters.
But for the plus-30 percenters
these minimum guarantees have
been raised to Sis (for single vets)
and s135 for married men.
Take Jim F., exactly 80 per cent
disabled. He draws $41.40 month
in pension. Since he's single he
gets SOS subsistence allowance. q
total of $106.40. But the new law
makes 1t clear that the single vet
eran with a 30 per cent disability
is guaranteed Sis a month and
that's what Jim will get.
Say Jim's married. He's guar
anteed $135 a month under the new
law. But his allowance ($9O plus
his $4l. 40 pension add up to $751; 40.
So he gets an additional $3.50. Not
much.
But wait. The new law also in
creases the present amounts pay
able to public Is trainees who have
children. For 80 percenters one
child increases, the guarantee by
$40 and each other child by SIS
So if Jim has two kids he'll be guar
anteed q minimum payment each
month of $135 plus $40, plus SIS. ol
s170 q month. Since his pension
($41.40) plus his allowance $500
only come to $131.40, he'll get ar
additional $3.50.
/ Maj. Nial and his stat are
equipped to anstDer any question
from World War II oeteran.
| Send your questions to him in
care OF this newspaper and tn
close a self addressed, stamped
envelope.