Soldier waits for disability payment

FLORA, Ind. (WLFI) - 28-year-old Dustin Boyce tries to play with his dog Duke on days when his pain feels manageable.

Boyce suffers from RSD, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, nerve damage and chronic pain, all results of an injury during a training exercise at Fort Knox, Kentucky in 2003. Boyce is a soldier with the Indiana Army National Guard and receives incapacitation, or in-cap, checks to use as income.

"That's what we count on for all of our bills and that's our money to live off of month to month," said Boyce.

Boyce said this month his check has not come yet.

"I wasn't notified. I called a lady and she explained they lost funding and then two days later my unit finally called me," said Boyce. 

Boyce said he was told that he would eventually get paid, but he said that's been tough to explain to his landlord and bill collectors.

"I told them that federal government lost funding for my pay and that I'm not going to be able to pay until they get funding back," said Boyce.

Director of Army personnel for the Indiana Army National Guard Colonel Lee Baker said Boyce is one of 20 soldiers in the state that has not received his in-cap check yet. Baker said one explanation could be because of the delay it took to approve the federal budget. He said it is also difficult to budget for the in-cap fund.

"It's hard to come up with an exact number. We kind of are guessing on how many soldiers we think are going to be injured and who will need to draw from this fund," said Baker.

Baker said some states use the in-cap money faster than others. He said Indiana in-cap soldiers will have to wait for other states to be audited and find funds that haven't been used.

"They are looking at those states that didn't use all their funds to send them our higher headquarters. They are going to redistribute it and send it back to us so that we can get it back to our soldiers so we can help them," said Baker.

Baker said he was told the soonest that the soldiers' checks would catch up would be July 8 or July 10. He said that is unacceptable, and they are working to get those checks out sooner.