Veterans Don't Know About Benefits They Are Entitled To

Local veterans service officers at hereos' side through thick and thin 
South Coast Today
By Curt Brown
Posted Mar. 8, 2015

There is a lack of awareness among many veterans about what benefits they are entitled to receive either through the VA or Massachusetts' veterans benefits program, according to several current and retired veterans service officers. "They don't know unless they network with other veterans," Seguer said.

As Jim Collins tells it, a World War II veteran, who had lost half of both his feet, walked into his former office at Dartmouth Town Hall seven years ago looking for help.

Collins was the veterans agent for Dartmouth at the time and he said the sight of a WWII veteran with parts of two feet missing immediately raised a red flag to him.

So Collins said he inquired about the circumstances of how the veteran had lost parts of his feet.

Turns out the man suffered from frostbite due to the bitter cold during the Battle of the Bulge and the veteran, whose name Collins could not remember, was only receiving the same 10 percent disability that the Veterans Administration gave him when he was discharged from the service in 1946, he said.

The VA had never adjusted his claim, according to Collins. Collins reopened the claim and the VA increased the veteran's disability to 70 percent. "If I had stayed longer (in the position of veterans agent in Dartmouth), I would have tried to get him 100 percent," he said.

"That's an injustice."
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