Does Your DBA Check Stop When Your Overseas Job Disappears?

Last updated September 25, 2026 · Reviewed by Elizabeth Estrada

A Benefits Review Board decision published on March 20, 2026 addresses whether Defense Base Act benefits after a contract ends can be cut off because the overseas job itself no longer exists. In Woolum v. Arma Aviation, the employer and its insurance carrier argued that a contractor’s wage loss after August 30, 2021, the date the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, was caused

by the withdrawal rather than by his injury.

The Board rejected that argument and affirmed the award. It repeated the rule from its 2011 decision in Raymond v. Blackwater Security Consulting that “there is only one average weekly wage

per injury.” The withdrawal, the Board wrote, “was a future speculation at the time of Claimant’s injuries.”

On September 8, 2026, Stars and Stripes reported that retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, a former commander of U.S. Central Command, has called the former U.S. basing arrangements in the region “no longer viable,” pointing to Al Udeid Air Base as an example. The article describes an open question about whether the United States will repair damaged bases or shift to a lighter footprint. It does not report any announced drawdown. Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A. represents civilian contractors in Defense Base Act claims, including partial disability claims where the original job site has since shrunk or closed.

What the Board Decided in Woolum v. Arma Aviation

The claimant was an aircraft mechanic in Kabul whose sinus and nasal conditions, the administrative law judge found, became chronic after exposure to burn pits near his worksite and hotel. He left the job on October 15, 2020, and started work as an aircraft mechanic in the United States on April 11, 2021. The judge awarded him temporary partial disability from that date forward, measured against his lower wages at home.

Average weekly wage (AWW) is the pre-injury weekly earnings figure that every disability payment is measured against. The judge set it at $2,742.03 and set his wage-earning capacity at $1,012.57 a week, based on what he was actually earning. The carrier did not dispute that math. It argued instead that once the Kabul work ended for everyone, the injury was no longer what kept him from his old wage.

The Board treated Raymond as controlling. In that case, it held that a judge erred in cutting an injured security contractor’s benefits to $1 a week because he planned to stop working overseas. Woolum is a published decision of the Benefits Review Board, the Labor Department’s appeals body for these claims, and not a ruling of a federal court of appeals. The Board also cited an unpublished Ninth Circuit disposition that it acknowledged is not precedent.

How a Temporary Partial Disability Check Is Calculated

Temporary partial disability (TPD) is the benefit paid while an injured contractor is still healing but can earn some wages. Under Section 8(e) of the Longshore Act, 33 U.S.C. § 908(e), it equals two-thirds of the difference between the average weekly wage before the injury and the worker’s wage-earning capacity after it, “in the same or another employment.”

That provision reaches overseas contractors through 42 U.S.C. § 1651(a), which applies the Longshore Act to Defense Base Act work. Section 8(h), 33 U.S.C. § 908(h), sets wage-earning capacity by actual earnings when those earnings fairly and reasonably represent what the worker can earn. When they do not, capacity may be fixed from the injury, the worker’s usual employment, and other circumstances. Neither number depends on whether the old overseas job still exists.

Section 8(e) does carry a limit of its own, stating that temporary partial disability “shall not be paid for a period exceeding five years.” That limit comes from the statute, not from what happens to a base or a contract. A permanent partial disability outside the specific body-part losses listed in Section 8(c) is paid under Section 8(c)(21) “during the continuance of partial disability,” and that paragraph states no five-year limit.

What Happens to Defense Base Act Benefits After the Contract Ends

Under Woolum, a site closure is not by itself a reason to stop a partial disability check, because the average weekly wage was fixed on the day of the injury. A carrier that writes to say the contract is gone, and so the wage loss is gone, is making the argument the Board rejected. Contractors hurt while supporting operations at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar had their average weekly wage set the same way, on the date of injury.

What can move the check is the other half of the formula. If your earnings rise at a new job, the gap narrows and so does the TPD payment. We ask contractors in this position to keep pay records from the overseas contract and from every job since, because those records are the evidence behind both numbers in the formula.

Questions About a Partial Disability Check After a Site Closes

Before accepting a carrier’s decision to stop partial disability benefits over a closed site or a lost contract, have that decision checked against Woolum. Friedman, Rodman & Frank, P.A. handles Defense Base Act claims for civilian contractors injured on overseas government contracts. We review DBA claims at no charge, wherever you were injured and wherever you are now. Call (877) 448-8585 or submit a case review to get started.