thedrifter
10-02-07, 07:14 PM
Panel to call for 25% hike in disability pay
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 2, 2007 18:59:01 EDT
A presidential commission will call tomorrow for an immediate 25 percent increase in veterans’ disability compensation while awaiting a larger overhaul of disability and transition benefits.
The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission will say the current compensation system is outdated and fails to consider the complete impact that a service-connected disability has on the life of veterans and their families.
The current system also is unnecessarily cumbersome to the point that it discourages veterans from getting the help they deserve, says the commission report, a copy of which was obtained Tuesday by the Military Times.
The 562-page report will be released Wednesday afternoon, although what happens next is unclear. Most of the recommendations, including the proposed 25 percent benefits boost, would require congressional action before they could take effect.
With the Bush administration already balking at the $4 billion increase in veterans’ health care and benefits programs being pushed by Congress, it is unlikely that administration officials would support further increases.
However, an overhaul of the veterans’ disability rating system, streamlined claims processing and an easier transition from military to veterans programs are all issues under consideration by Congress, and could end up included in the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act that lawmakers expect to pass later this year. An overhaul of the military’s complicated disability retirement and physical evaluation process is expected to be part of that bill.
The report by the 13-member commission, led by retired Army Lt. Gen. James Scott, caps more than two years of work, including several precedent-setting studies of disabled veterans and their compensation that looked at their total income and compared military and veterans’ benefits to those received by disabled workers who never served in the military.
In calling for an overhaul of the military and Department of Veterans Affairs rating systems, the commission said a revised system needs to be fair so that people who have experienced similar losses receive similar compensation. Veterans with mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, are particularly poorly served by the current rating system, the report says.
The VA ratings schedule that sets disability levels has not been changed in 62 years, and needs to be updated, the commission says, with top priority going to revising the ratings for PTSD, traumatic brain injury and other mental health and neurological body systems says. This could be done quickly, in time to help Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, while leaving a review of the rest of the ratings to roll out over five years.
The commission comes down squarely on the side of veterans on several controversial issues. For example, it supports allowing disabled retirees to receive full veterans’ disability compensation and military retired pay when they are eligible for both, and to allow survivors to receive their full veterans’ and military survivors’ benefits.
On both of those issues, the Pentagon has resisted efforts in Congress to allow both payments in full, although in recent years lawmakers have been phasing out the mandatory offsets in one pay or the other that had been on the books for decades.
One recommendation that may not please veterans calls for periodic reviews of case in which disability pay is based, in part, on the fact that a veteran’s disability prohibits him or her from holding a job.
When former VA Secretary R. James Nicholson made a similar recommendation several years ago, veterans went wild about the government trying to cut their payments.
The commission calls for periodical and comprehensive evaluations of disabled veterans’ employability status, and a way to slowly wean veterans off benefits if it is possible for them to return to work at some point.
Ellie
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Oct 2, 2007 18:59:01 EDT
A presidential commission will call tomorrow for an immediate 25 percent increase in veterans’ disability compensation while awaiting a larger overhaul of disability and transition benefits.
The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission will say the current compensation system is outdated and fails to consider the complete impact that a service-connected disability has on the life of veterans and their families.
The current system also is unnecessarily cumbersome to the point that it discourages veterans from getting the help they deserve, says the commission report, a copy of which was obtained Tuesday by the Military Times.
The 562-page report will be released Wednesday afternoon, although what happens next is unclear. Most of the recommendations, including the proposed 25 percent benefits boost, would require congressional action before they could take effect.
With the Bush administration already balking at the $4 billion increase in veterans’ health care and benefits programs being pushed by Congress, it is unlikely that administration officials would support further increases.
However, an overhaul of the veterans’ disability rating system, streamlined claims processing and an easier transition from military to veterans programs are all issues under consideration by Congress, and could end up included in the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act that lawmakers expect to pass later this year. An overhaul of the military’s complicated disability retirement and physical evaluation process is expected to be part of that bill.
The report by the 13-member commission, led by retired Army Lt. Gen. James Scott, caps more than two years of work, including several precedent-setting studies of disabled veterans and their compensation that looked at their total income and compared military and veterans’ benefits to those received by disabled workers who never served in the military.
In calling for an overhaul of the military and Department of Veterans Affairs rating systems, the commission said a revised system needs to be fair so that people who have experienced similar losses receive similar compensation. Veterans with mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, are particularly poorly served by the current rating system, the report says.
The VA ratings schedule that sets disability levels has not been changed in 62 years, and needs to be updated, the commission says, with top priority going to revising the ratings for PTSD, traumatic brain injury and other mental health and neurological body systems says. This could be done quickly, in time to help Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, while leaving a review of the rest of the ratings to roll out over five years.
The commission comes down squarely on the side of veterans on several controversial issues. For example, it supports allowing disabled retirees to receive full veterans’ disability compensation and military retired pay when they are eligible for both, and to allow survivors to receive their full veterans’ and military survivors’ benefits.
On both of those issues, the Pentagon has resisted efforts in Congress to allow both payments in full, although in recent years lawmakers have been phasing out the mandatory offsets in one pay or the other that had been on the books for decades.
One recommendation that may not please veterans calls for periodic reviews of case in which disability pay is based, in part, on the fact that a veteran’s disability prohibits him or her from holding a job.
When former VA Secretary R. James Nicholson made a similar recommendation several years ago, veterans went wild about the government trying to cut their payments.
The commission calls for periodical and comprehensive evaluations of disabled veterans’ employability status, and a way to slowly wean veterans off benefits if it is possible for them to return to work at some point.
Ellie