VA overpaid disabled veteran, now he needs help to pay bills again?

We all know that our disabled veterans have to fight for the benefits they were promised...after fighting for the country and in the process becoming disabled for the country. (As if that should be OK with anyone) It takes a long time to get their compensation claim approved. During that time, they do not have income coming in, especially if they are so disabled, they cannot work.

Bad enough? Nope! The VA determines their compensation and then sends them a check. Over time, the mistake can add up after months, even years. Once the VA discovers their mistake, they turn around and want all the money back all at once. If this seems acceptable to anyone...this country has some serious issues!

VA mistake forces veterans to seek help to pay bills

The Dayton Daily News
By MAX FILBY
Published: March 27, 2019

FAIRBORN, Ohio (Tribune News Service) — Veteran Rodger Zink went three months without receiving benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs in order to correct a nearly $15,000 overpayment mistake he alerted the agency to and which the government caused in the first place.

Zink, 36, of Fairborn, is one of around 200,000 U.S. veterans who are at risk of falling into debt due to mistakes by the VA, the agency designated to help them once they leave the armed forces.

Zink, who retired from the National Guard for medical reasons, said he had his benefit payments withheld from around Nov. 28 to Feb. 28 so he could pay the VA for the $15,000 overpayment.

“They don’t care about the vet,” Zink said. “They just care about the debt even though it’s their screw up.”

A new law proposed by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown-D, Ohio would only allow the VA to collect debts accrued within the last five years and would prohibit the department from withholding more than 25 percent of benefit payments.

Zink served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was discharged from the Air National Guard in 2011 for a brain injury and was later placed back on active duty to get treatment for a brain tumor. Despite Zink’s concerned phone calls to the VA, the agency kept paying him around $3,300 a month in disability.
read more here

Stunning statement of devaluing the veterans

by
Chaplain Kathie

We keep hearing how the veterans are so important to each president, that is when they want their votes, but not when it really counts and the veterans need the president to really support them.

It looks like Truman was the last real friendly Commander-in-Chief the veterans had.

Government Spending Priorities
Posted by DJ Drummond
Published: February 4, 2008 - 5:17 PM
One thing that has puzzled me about Republicans in the last few years, has been spending. Like tax reform, we hear so much about how it's got to change, yet little seems to change. But I also understand that to know how to solve a problem, you have to get a handle on the problem. So, I took a look to see where we've been spending money.
It's interesting. Here's a summary by Administration on what areas got money in the budgets. Because inflation is a factor to consider, I represent the numbers as percentage of the total budget, and show the categories which claimed 1% or more of the budget:

Truman (1946-52)
Veterans Benefits 9.6%

Eisenhower (1953-60)
Veterans Benefits 4.7%

Kennedy (1961-63)
Veterans Benefits 3.6%

Johnson (1964-68)
Veterans Benefits 2.9%

Nixon (1969-74)
Veterans Benefits 2.9%

Ford (1975-76)
Veterans Benefits 2.9%

Carter (1977-80)
Veterans Benefits 2.4%

Reagan (1981-88)
Veterans Benefits 1.9%

G.H. Bush (1989-92)
Veterans Benefits 1.6%

Clinton (1993-2000)
Veterans Benefits 1.6%

George W. Bush (2001-08)
Veterans Benefits 1.6% click link for more

It's been bothering me that we still really don't know where all the money went that was supposed to be given to people working with veterans.

But then you'd have to have been reading articles like the following making you believe they have finally arrived in the eyes of the elected as important again.

Spending on vets exceeds 1947 high
Updated 7/23/2008
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The federal government is spending more money on veterans than at any time in modern history, surpassing the tidal wave of spending following World War II and the demilitarizing of millions of troops.

Expenditures hit $82 billion in 2007, because of the rising cost of health care, the expense of caring for an aging population of mostly Vietnam War veterans and a new crop of severely wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That exceeds the $80 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars spent in 1947 after most of the 16.1 million Americans serving in World War II left the service, according to a Congressional Research Service report submitted to Congress last month.

An 11% hike in spending to $91 billion is slated for this fiscal year, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has proposed $94 billion for 2009. And still more is needed, says U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is seeking another $3.3 billion for the 2009 budget proposal.

"While we are spending more than in previous years, we are still not meeting many of the health care and benefits needs of our veterans," Murray says. click link for more

When it comes to the percentage of the budget, we see that the percentage has dropped after Truman.

Senator Joe Biden, the next Vice President, had this to say during the campaign. "My Dad told me not to tell him what I value. He told me to show him my budget and then he'd know what I value." or words to that effect.

That means they were worth 9.6% to President Truman but only 1.6% for the last three presidents. Some will argue that the older veterans have died off, but they would not be looking at the newer veterans that took their place. Vietnam veterans were really beginning to understand PTSD and Agent Orange during Bush 41's administration and kept coming during Clinton's and Bush 43's administration. Then you can add in the Gulf War veterans, Iraq veterans and Afghanistan veterans also seeking treatment and compensation. The truth is that Bush actually cut funding for veterans in 2005. There were less doctors and nurses, along with claim processors, than there were after the Gulf War. If this is not a stunning statement of devaluing the veterans, nothing is.

During the lives of the older veterans from WWI, WWII and Korea, they were not treated for PTSD even though they were dealing with the wound just the same. It was not until the Vietnam vetearns cames home and made sure it was treated like a wound and they were taken care of. The percentage of the VA budget should have gone up considering they were then treating more conditions like PTSD, Agent Orange, TBI, depleted uranium and whatever else is causing the Gulf War veterans to suffer they way they have.

Next time you hear an elected official talk about how much the veterans mean to them, tell them to prove it in their budget.

I really hope and pray President-elect Obama will be true to his word and take care of the veterans and their families better than the list of others have. We'll be watching and waiting to see what he does.

In between now and then, we need to do what we can to help them. After all, someone has to.

ALS-Lou Gehrig's veterans to receive VA benefits now

Recent VA News Releases

To view and download VA news release, please visit the following
Internet address:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel


VA Secretary Establishes ALS as a Presumptive Compensable Illness
Cites Association between Military Service and Later Development of ALS

WASHINGTON (Sept. 23, 2008) - Veterans with amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS) may receive badly-needed support for themselves and
their families after the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced
today that ALS will become a presumptively compensable illness for all
veterans with 90 days or more of continuously active service in the
military.

"Veterans are developing ALS in rates higher than the general
population, and it was appropriate to take action," Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake said.

Secretary Peake based his decision primarily on a November 2006 report
by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) on the
association between active-duty service and ALS.

"We are extremely grateful to Secretary Peake, Congressman Henry Brown
and Senator Lindsey Graham for standing on the side of veterans with ALS
across the country," said Gary Leo, president and CEO of The ALS
Association. "Thanks to their leadership, veterans with ALS will receive
the benefits and care they need, when they need them. Thanks to their
efforts, no veteran with ALS will ever be left behind."

The report, titled Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Veterans: Review of
the Scientific Literature, analyzed numerous previous studies on the
issue and concluded that "there is limited and suggestive evidence of an
association between military service and later development of ALS."

"ALS is a disease that progresses rapidly, once it is diagnosed," the
Secretary explained. "There simply isn't time to develop the evidence
needed to support compensation claims before many veterans become
seriously ill. My decision will make those claims much easier to
process, and for them and their families to receive the compensation
they have earned through their service to our nation."

ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neuromuscular disease that
affects about 20,000 to 30,000 people of all races and ethnicities in
the United States, is often relentlessly progressive, and is almost
always fatal.

ALS causes degeneration of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that
leads to muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, and spontaneous muscle
activity. Currently, the cause of ALS is unknown, and there is no
effective treatment.

The new interim final regulation applies to all applications for
benefits received by VA on or after September 23, 2008, or that are
pending before VA, the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans
Claims, or the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on
that date.

VA will work to identify and contact veterans with ALS, including those
whose claims for ALS were previously denied, through direct mailings and
other outreach programs.

To view the entire regulation published in the Federal Register today,
go to: www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-21998_PI.pdf. For
more information on VA's disability compensation program, go to
www.va.gov or contact 1-800-827-1000.



To unsubscribe from this list, or to update your name or e-mail address,
please visit the following Internet address:
http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/opalist_listserv.cfm

Australia Veterans getting shafted too

Vet Affairs under fire over compo
By Melissa Jenkins
July 21, 2008 02:56pm

VETERANS Affairs has been sharply criticised for its "sloppy, ill-considered" handling of compensation claims from sick air force maintenance workers.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) has so far paid out almost $68 million to servicemen who became ill from working inside fuel tanks of the RAAF's strike bombers.

Acting Commonwealth Ombudsman Vivienne Thom said her office received 102 complaints about the way the department had handled compensation claims.

Seven of the claims were still to be finalised, she told a parliamentary committee inquiry in Canberra today.

The department kept "insufficient documentation" and did not have guidelines on how to deal with claims, she said.

Emails and notes were not kept on file about how the department considered evidence in each case and similar evidence appeared to be treated inconsistently, Dr Thom said.

Claims, especially complex matters, were often delayed and claimants were not always informed of progress.
go here for more
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24051041-1702,00.html