Another Female-Friendly Federal Benefit Under The Trump Administration -- December 2, 2020

I have a very generous military pension. I consider it generous because it is guaranteed by the federal government. My pension is taxed by the federal government, but I live in a state with no income tax.

If I precede my wife in death, she will get receive 55% of my pension tax-free as long as she lives. 

Of course, if my wife precedes my in death, I've paid $500/month with no return. One can argue whether it's worth it.

It's very likely that this benefit will be enhanced under a female-spouse friendly administration, if not the Kamala Harris administration, some future administration.

This benefit is called the survivor's benefit program (SBP) but it costs the military retiree about $500/month. That $500/month is taken out of the retirement check. One can opt in or opt out upon retirement but the spouse must concur. The spouse has absolute veto power.

Once the military retiree dies, the monthly premium is no longer collected. 

In addition to this generous military pension for  my non-military spouse, if I die from a service-related injury, she is eligible for additional benefits through the "DIC":

However, and this is huge: the DIC benefits are offset by a reduction in her SBP benefits. Of course, that makes no sense; and, this has been in effect for decades. 

It could have been "fixed" under President Bush II and under President Obama. Neither did anything.

Today I received this in the mail:

The offset will be completely eliminated within the next couple of years. Truly incredible.

Obviously every military spouse owes a President Trump and his cabinet appointments a note of thanks.

I doubt this would have occurred under a Hillary administration. My hopes is that the SBP benefit will be "fixed" by a female-friendly Biden administration.   

[Yes, I know these programs benefit both male and female spouses, but ... well, you get the point ....]