U.S. Military (Ret.): Veterans claim disability pay exempt in divorce cases - Military Retirement - Navy Times

U.S. Military (Ret.): Veterans claim disability pay exempt in divorce cases

The responses to my last two columns on the Former Spouses’ Protection Act show this is a hot-button issue for many retirees.

I’ll close this topic out for now with one response that stood out for slightly different reasons, from a disabled retiree who went to battle with the Iowa state court system and was held in contempt and jailed.

Jerry Bohr, a longtime veterans service officer for the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, has many years of experience dealing with the needs of veterans.

He is also active in the grassroots groups Operation Firing for Effect (www.offe.org) and the 5301 Club, named for the section of the U.S. Code that deals with attachment of veterans benefits in legal cases.

The groups have been trying to get state legislatures to reinforce a federal law that they say exempts veterans disability payments from being considered as income in divorce settlements.

Bohr, who said he shares custody of his two minor children with his ex-spouse, was ordered to court for refusing to comply with a previous child support order stemming from his divorce decree, which declared his disability pay to be a divisible asset. Bohr claimed the Iowa court lacked jurisdiction or standing under federal law to attach his disability pay.

Judge Richard Stochl of the 1st Judicial District Court of Iowa held Bohr in contempt and had him jailed, with work release, for 30 days starting Sept. 4.

Title 38, Section 5301 of the U.S. Code — a law that dates to the early 1800s — reads in part:

“Payments of benefits due or to become due under any law administered by the Secretary [of Veterans Affairs] shall not be assignable [in court cases] except to the extent specifically authorized by law, and such payments made to, or on account of, a beneficiary shall be exempt from taxation, shall be exempt from the claim of creditors, and shall not be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure by or under any legal or equitable process whatever, either before or after receipt by the beneficiary.”

Bohr and many other disabled retirees see that wording as an unequivocal declaration that veterans disability compensation cannot be considered as divisible income in divorce, alimony or child support rulings.

Clearly, Stochl thinks differently. And he’s not alone — courts in other states are ordering the division of disability compensation. This is similar to what’s going on with the Former Spouses’ Protection Act — a federal law interpreted in a variety of ways by state courts.

It’s time for Congress to clarify the intent of Section 5301 for our disabled retirees.

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Retired Command Master Chief Alex Keenan served 28 years in the Coast Guard. E-mail him at retired@atpco.com.