Showing posts with label National Veterans Legal Services Program. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Veterans Legal Services Program. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Another law suit to get the government to take care of PTSD veterans

Anoher law suit so that the government will take care of our veterans. Isn't that a very sorry statement of the plight of our veterans that groups have to file law suits before they do the right thing? Appalling when you think of all the times our President and this administration has said "support the troops" when they clearly did not.

Stressed soldiers sue for disability benefits
CNN International - USA
Story Highlights
Soldiers: Army denied them disability rating, so they were denied benefits
Lawsuit filed by veterans advocacy group on behalf of vets with PTSD
In October, Army ordered all future PTSD sufferers to be eligible for benefits
Soldiers want eligibility to go back six years


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army intentionally denied benefits to soldiers suffering from a widespread stress disorder after they returned from service in Iraq and Afghanistan, a veterans advocacy group charges in a suit filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed by the National Veterans Legal Services Program, accuses the Army of illegally cutting off benefits to thousands of veterans and their families by refusing to assign a proper disability rating to those veterans after they had been discharged with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

As a result, the veterans have been denied benefits, including, among other things, lifetime monthly disability payments and free medical care for themselves and their families.

"I experience firsthand the horrors of war" said Juan Perez, an Iraq veteran and one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "My expectation was that the military would be there for me, and my country would be there for me. Instead, the way I was treated felt more like a slap to the face."
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