Veterans Missing Out On Benefits
July 3, 2004 The frostbite and gangrene Joseph Hallemann contracted nearly 60 years ago after wading through an icy French harbor still trouble the former World War II Army scout. He has significant nerve damage, and his legs are purple, black and brown. "I can't feel anything," said Hallemann, 78. Yet Hallemann didn't learn for decades that he was eligible for compensation for his injuries -- not until the state of Missouri noticed how few of its veterans were getting federal disability benefits and established a program to find them. "I think it's a dang disgrace on the country," said Missouri Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell. "We've asked men and women to serve and pay a horrible price, and then to abandon them when they come home. These are not handouts; these are earned benefits." Hundreds of thousands of veterans nationwide may be missing out on disability payments from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. A Knight Ridder analysis of the VA's own survey data puts the number at about 572,000. If all of them were to secure monthly benefits, they could collect $4.5 billion a year, based on current average payments. Funding such a sizable liability wouldn't be easy during this time of high deficits, competing national priorities and the reconstruction of Iraq. But advocates for veterans say the nation made promises it's obliged to keep. Abraham Lincoln admonished the country "to care for him who shall have borne the battle," and the VA has an ambitious program to enroll current soldiers as they prepare for discharge. But officials with state and nonprofit veterans agencies say the federal government does little to find vets who left the military years or decades ago. Linda Boone, the executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, said VA officials expect vets to contact them if they want benefits. Mike McLendon, the VA's deputy assistant secretary for policy, said the agency has come a "long, long way" in reaching out to veterans. He said he suspects that many who may be eligible for disability benefits have simply chosen not to apply. "At the end of the day, we have to recognize that the VA cannot order people to file a claim," McLendon said. So many state veterans departments have set out to find these "missing" veterans. They're motivated in part by the differences in the percentage of each state's veterans who receive federal disability benefits. They range from 16 percent to 6 percent. In 1947, Hallemann applied to the VA for compensation, but the government -- using a fill-in-the-blank form letter that he's kept all these years -- rejected his claim. Hallemann dropped the matter until July 2002, when he went to a Missouri Veterans Commission gathering in his hometown of Florissant, about 20 miles northwest of St. Louis. Missouri officials encouraged Hallemann to reapply and helped him document his case. He now has a 100 percent disability rating, which pays him more than $2,200 a month. Missouri has held about 20 such "veterans supermarkets" across the state in the past two years. "When we do a supermarket, we may have 250 vets file 150 claims," said Ron Taylor, the executive director of the Missouri Veterans Commission, during an April event in Jefferson City. "Many of them may have filed a claim a number of years ago, been denied and didn't follow up." Taylor and Maxwell credit the outreach program with helping to add 4,000 Missouri veterans to federal disability rolls. The disabilities that qualify for government money are wide ranging: from the loss of an arm or leg while in combat to more subtle damage, such as hearing loss from working near heavy artillery. The VA also covers arthritis from old injuries and illnesses from chemical exposure. The VA's rigorous application process, which can take months and sometimes years to complete, requires documentation of the veterans' medical conditions and military records or other proof to show the disabilities resulted from service. Compensation checks range from $106 to $2,239 a month. Of the country's 25 million veterans, 2.5 million receive about $20 billion in disability compensation payments each year. The 572,000 uncompensated veterans counted in Knight Ridder's analysis are those who say they have disabilities that they believe are connected to their military service but who have never applied for benefits. It's a tally derived from a 2001 VA survey of 20,000 veterans nationwide. It's impossible to say how many of the 572,000 would have the documentation needed to qualify. The VA notes that among veterans in the survey who thought they should be getting benefits and had applied, more than one-third were turned down. The large number of veterans who haven't applied suggests that the VA isn't doing enough, said Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J. In 2000, he introduced the Veterans Right to Know Act, which called for more outreach and for the VA to prepare a yearly plan for outreach activities. While part of the bill made it into law, the requirement for an annual outreach plan has gone nowhere. Pascrell called the VA's lackluster outreach effort "unconscionable." VA officials strongly disagree, but can provide little data to demonstrate effective efforts, even though they've been working to do so since last year in response to questions from Congress. The outreach programs that VA officials tout most are directed only at service members on active duty. Since 1990, the VA has offered intensive benefits seminars to troops nearing discharge and in 1998 began helping them apply. About 30,000 service members filed disability claims through this outreach program last year -- about a quarter of new claims. VA officials said they contact older veterans through pamphlets, the Internet, press releases and through partnerships with local officials. Ray Boland, a former president of the National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs, said a consistent approach is needed. The goal should be "to provide equal services to all veterans wherever they live," he said. At the high end in providing services are states such as Alaska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, where 12 percent to 16 percent of veterans receive disability compensation payments. At the low end are Illinois, Iowa, Connecticut and Michigan, where 6 percent or 7 percent of veterans get compensation. The national average is 9.9 percent. Experts say economic and demographic factors probably affect the differences. States with large military bases, for example, may rank higher because career military personnel retire nearby and are more likely to have service-related disabilities. Nonetheless, the differences have provoked concern. "Is there any reason to believe twice as many veterans in Puerto Rico and Maine than Illinois should qualify?" asked Rep. Lane Evans of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. "We are going to be looking into it." To state directors, it's obvious more needs to be done. Oklahoma has long had one of the highest percentage of veterans receiving federal disability benefits. The key, state officials say, is sending well-trained claims preparers to neighborhoods rather than waiting for veterans to find them. Even with nearly 13 percent of Oklahoma's 360,000 veterans receiving disability checks, Phillip Driskill, the department's executive director, thinks thousands more deserve payments but aren't getting them. Such projections from a state near the top of the list suggest that states near the bottom may be worse. Copyright 2004 Charlotte Observer. All rights reserved. from the Military Insider |
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