on Facebook
on Twitter
on YouTube
Document Information
An Analysis of Military Disability Compensation
Disability payments for military personnel have received much attention recently, in part because of concern over the long-term economic consequences of injuries in Afghanistan and Iraq. This research reviews the goals and effectiveness of current policies for compensating veterans with military-related disabilities. It identifies trends in veterans’ disabilities, compares the military disability system with that used by civilian firms, and describes the effect of military disability on civilian labor market outcomes. The results show that military disability payments are adequate to offset most labor-market losses from military-related disabilities — many of the severely injured retirees receive substantially larger disability benefits than their estimated economic losses in the labor market. In addition, many retirees with a VA disability rating report no health or disability problem that limits their work in the civilian labor market. These findings suggest that the military disability rating system may no longer be valid. The system is based on the ability to perform physical tasks that may have limited effects on labor market success in today’s service- and knowledge-based economy. A more coherent and less complex system is needed to identify the criteria for measuring the economic loss from an injury and target payments to better reflect the economic consequences of a military-related disability.
See Also:
Support RAND Research — Buy This Product!
Paperback Cover Price: $20.00
Discounted Web Price: $18.00
Pages: 128
ISBN/EAN: 0-8330-3825-7
Free, downloadable PDF file(s) are available below.
RAND makes an electronic version of this document available for free as a public service. If you find this information valuable, please consider purchasing a paper copy of the full document to help support RAND research.
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
Contents
Chapter One:
Introduction
Chapter Two:
Background and Trends in Military Disability Compensation
Chapter Three:
Review of Civilian Disability Programs
Chapter Four:
Labor Force Outcomes for Military Retirees
Chapter Five:
Conclusions and Final Observations
Appendix:
Descriptive Statistics for Regression Variables in Chapter Four
This research was sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). The research was conducted within the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the OSD, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Department of the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community.
This product is part of the RAND Corporation monograph series. RAND monographs present major research findings that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND monographs undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
* RAND research is conducted across divisions, centers, and projects; these organizational components are represented in the "Related RAND Divisions" section above.
Top
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2010 RAND Corporation. Last Modified: December 07, 2007 