Readers of Tom Philpott's Military Update column sound off.

Vets Describe Long Waits For Disability Benefits

Yes, it does take forever to get your VA disability rating. My husband served this great country for 24 years and retired June 1, 2007.  He received his disability rating, but incorrectly the first time. We had to resubmit paperwork that the VA had overlooked.  This cost us more time financially.

To date, we still have not received one red cent in back pay for his disability.  Original paperwork was filed in June 2007.  My husband re-filed his paperwork last September.  He received his disability rating in January but still has not seen any back pay.  When you call to inquire, we are told that it could take up to three or more years to see our money.  We are so disgusted.

My husband's disability is rated 70 percent.  We have three children living at home and in school full time.  On our move from Virginia back to Colorado Springs, we were overweight on our household goods.  We received a letter from Defense Finance and Accounting Service threatening that if we don't make monthly payments [to cover the additional moving expenses], they will notify credit bureaus and we will be charged interest.

Why can't we do the same with VA monies owed to us?  If we had been paid in a timely manner, we could settle this overweight amount in no time.  They can drag their feet, but we can not.

JUDY WINSLOW
Colorado Springs, Colo.

I have been waiting for disability benefits since 1995.  My claim now is in the appeals process. The VA refused to take into account information that my private sector doctor has provided over and over again

I was told the appeals process is my last chance for a disability rating. A year ago they wrote me to say they would decide by March 2008.  There has still been no decision

A VFW representative told me there is a two-year wait, so my case should come up in 2010.

There is a problem with the system and it isn't getting any better.

JIM WATTS
Sergeant First Class, USA-Ret.
Via e-mail

I know many vets who can tell you they filed their VA claims over 10 years ago.  Where the VA needs help is in the final part of the process, when they are looking over all the evidence after a judge already has ruled to award a veteran his benefits.

JOE LEWIS
Army veteran
Via e-mail

Veterans for Common Sense

I'm glad you wrote a good article about Rep. John Hall's new legislation to clean up the VA.  I especially liked the ending, "It's a composite of a year's worth of hearings and common sense suggestions," the chairman added. 

Our landmark Veterans for Common Sense lawsuit against VA (now under appeal) highlighted many of the problems Chairman Hall is trying to fix.  VCS also testified four times in the past year about the need to overhaul VA's claims process.  We assisted with the first drafts of legislation in 2006 to clean up the Walter Reed and VA disasters, well before the press or Congress caught on.

VCS spent hundreds of hours requesting and poring over documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act to document the impact of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on veterans.  From that effort we learned that there have been 77,200 battlefield casualties (killed or wounded) and 324,000 VA patients resulting from these wars.

Most people, when briefed on our findings, find the figures shocking.

PAUL SULLIVAN
Executive Director
Veterans for Common Sense
Via e-mail

Vets Need Lawyers

I am a Vietnam veteran with a 100-percent VA disability rating. I have been writing disability claims for myself and other veterans since 1995 and have learned that the VA has numerous tactics to "risk manage" the government's exposure to disability claims.

One tactic is not to answer a veteran's specific issue, responding by citing irrelevant law or making gross generalizations.  In either case, the clock is ticking against the veteran. 

Another tactic is the law disallowing lawyers for veterans.  How is a hospitalized, distraught or homeless veteran supposed to understand the law and the legal system and write legal arguments when denied adequate legal representation?

Veteran's service organizations are not designed to help after the initial appeal.  My disability took five years, a great deal of my sanity and virtually all of my family's patience and trust. 

The standard used to be that if the VA thought you were entitled to 50 percent they might, at most, award you 0 percent which would allow you to get specific treatment at VA Medical centers.  If they thought you were entitled to 100 percent they might award you 30 percent. Typically, however, they just deny, deny, deny.

The bottom line is that reducing the veteran's response time from 60 days to 30 is a sure way of benefiting the VA but not the veteran.  The only thing that will help the veteran is a law that will hold the VA and its minions responsible for their errors and omissions and will allow the veteran legal representation similar to what the Social Security Administration allows.

That is, after a denial and six months, the claimant may contact an attorney who will represent him before a local federal judge.  The attorney takes 20 percent of the initial award if the judge finds for the claimant and the payment is retroactive to the date of application for benefits.

Attorneys do not make a lot of money doing this.  If a 100 percent SSA disability yields $1000 month, and if it takes the SSA one year to payout the retroactive amount, the claimant receives $12,000 less the attorney's one time 20 percent fee.  Thereafter the claimant collects his full disability.

Why aren't veterans allowed fair representation?

MARSHALL A. MELL
Via e-mail

GI Bill Transferability

My interest is in the transferability of the new GI Bill.  I understand to that to be able to transfer your benefits to you have to be on active duty as of Aug. 1, 2009.  You must also have for six years and agree to serve for four more.

This leaves out a large group of people who have served honorably for the last 20 or more years.  I will have 22-and-a-half years as of Aug. 1 next year.  Even if I make senior chief I will only be able to serve for three-and-a-half years from that date until I am forced out of the service.

Is there more to the requirements for transferability that cover my situation and that of many others or are we just out of luck? I have already paid for my degree, but my daughter is rapidly approaching college age.

CHARLES WARREN
Chief Aviation Machinist Mate
Via e-mail

Department of Defense officials responsible for implementing the transferability option say they can't answer your question yet.

"We are still in the process of developing rules and implementation guidance," said a spokeswoman.  "The codified purpose of transferability is recruitment and retention, so our rules will reflect that.  However, I wouldn't want to speculate on the rules, and how the services will implement them."  -- Tom Philpott

Letters may be edited for clarity or...

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