Readers of Tom Philpott's Military Update Sound Off

PAPERLESS VA CLAIMS COULD ALSO MEAN MANY MORE CLAIMS

I personally look forward to paperless VA claims. I do not, however, think veterans should be able to complete their own applications on line because most of them are not computer literate and do not understand the full process.

I have veterans who would file a claim today and, because they did not hear anything in two weeks, would complete the claim again and file a second time. They would also file their disagreement with the decision until they heard something more. Can you imagine the number of double, triple and quadruple submissions that would be in the system?

You may have a number of very competent veterans who can file their own claims online. But from the contact we have with our veterans that would not be the norm. I feel a veteran affairs service officer should be involved in every claim and follow it through to the end.

FAY VAUGHAN
Administrative Assistant
Veterans Affairs
Edgefield County, S.C.

 

It is a great goal for VA to resolve all claims within 125 days. But based on my experience, it isn't going to happen without a major change in the process and not just by moving to a paperless system.

My claim was filed more than 450 days ago. After 14 months, I got a letter stating it was still in the system. Doctors examined me. Most of my records are available within the VA system. My outside medical records were provided. It should be in my military records that I was assigned to Eglin AFB for three years. Eglin is a known Agent Orange site.

What's the delay?

E.K.
Via email

 

I read your article about the VA claims system and plans for VA to go paperless to speed up decisions. I as a disabled veteran and don't believe it will work.

The VA does not have enough manpower now to handle the enormous number of claims they're getting. I have had an appeal in the system since August 2008 and still have not heard when the Board of Veterans Affairs will hear it. I filed another claim eight months ago for Chapter 30 benefits, which would be a temporary 100-percent disability rating for convalescence for every month you can't work as a result of surgery for a service-connected disability. I'm sure there are many veterans in the same situation, waiting.

The whole system is broken. I recently found out that if you have an active claim and you file another for something else, say three months later, VA will compile the claims and your waiting period starts all over again with your previous claim included. They do not work each claim separately.

It is not right to treat veterans like this.

P. TOTH
Via email

 

UNDER WATER MORTGAGES

I'd like to comment on the article about underwater home mortgages.

My family is currently financially distressed due to our home purchase near Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in March 2007. It was our first house purchase after some renting hiccups. And with my daughter due, we wanted a stable home to raise her while I was attached to NAS Pax.

House prices were staggering but my excellent credit rating and my O-4 rank qualified us for a Veteran's Choice traditional loan of 6.375 percent through Navy Federal Credit Union.

Since then I have been reassigned to Norfolk. We rent the home but at $700 less per month than our mortgage payment. I was forced to lower what I ask in rent to stay competitive in the Lexington Park, Md. market. All attempts to refinance have failed because I'm so drastically under water on my mortgage, from $40,000 up to $60,000 depending on numbers used.

I tried to qualify for the military's Housing Assistance Program but was told I did not meet requirements because the home was purchased in 2007.

I have tried the various home assistance programs for refinancing but, again, due to my upside down status or the fact I have not missed a payment, I am declined. I am also told now that I am in a different status now with the home being an "investment property." I fail to see how collecting rent $700 less than I pay in mortgage is any form of "investment."

I have sought help from NFCU and was recently offered a four-month lowered payment. But each month I would be reported as delinquent so, of course, I declined. This house is not even located where my family will retire. I never intended to keep it this long.

So I pay my mortgage every month without fail. The Navy continues to send me to new assignments and we continue to rent another home. Yet I fear for my future in retirement in four years. We worry that this house will continue to be our albatross after leaving the Navy and moving back home to Maine. I am the poster child for underwater homeowners and receiving no help from the system.

Being a "good guy" with regard to on-time payments and maintaining an excellent credit rating seems not to count at all. One refinancing bank in Annapolis said they could help if a missed a payment or two. That's something I could never do, professionally or personally. It's been a very frustrating time in our lives.

LUCAS FREEMAN
Lieutenant Commander, USN
Via email

 

I saved an article you wrote from May 2006. The headline said senators had voted to end the military ex-spouse law's "10-year rule."

Did the full Congress also vote to end the 10-year rule?

SHARON L. STROUT
Peaks Island, Maine

No. By September of 2006, a House-Senate conference committee had declined to make any change to the Uniformed Services Former Spouses Protection Act. Knocked from the final defense authorization bill were Senate-passed provisions even to improve administration of the USFSPA.

The package would have repealed the 10-year rule that limits what court orders the Defense Finance and Accounts Service must consider eligible for automatic payment of retired pay to former spouses. Another provision would have directed DFAS to honor all valid court orders linking cost-of-living adjustments to ex-spouse shares of retirement. A third change would have ended a DFAS requirement to notify retirees when DFAS receives a court order directing division of retired pay.

The issue of dividing military retirement as property when marriages dissolve is so volatile lawmakers quickly are inundated with complaints from divorced members and ex-spouses whenever a legislative initiative is considered. So Congress largely has left the flawed law untouched and, of course, unpopular, particularly with divorced service members and retirees. – Tom Philpott

Letters may be edited for clarity or length. Write to Military Forum, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111, send e-mail to militaryforum@aol.com or visit www.militaryupdate.com