Help may be near for disabled vets
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Printable FormatChicago Sun-Times
BY CHERYL L. REED
Staff Reporter
Illinois veterans may soon receive letters from the federal VA alerting them that disability pay here ranks lower than most states and informing them how they can appeal for higher benefits, according to a Senate bill that passed unanimously this week.
"If there's anyone who missed the story or doesn't understand what their rights might be, I think this letter will spell them out," said Sen. Dick Durbin, who along with Sen. Barack Obama added several amendments to the Department of Veterans Affairs appropriations bill that passed the Senate on Thursday.
Last year a Chicago Sun-Times investigation revealed that Illinois veterans' federal VA disability pay has ranked among the lowest in the nation for the last 70 years. Those articles resulted in a VA inspector general's probe that also found that Illinois veterans have ranked dead last in disability pay for the last 20 years. The inspector general recommended the VA conduct further reviews and make its benefits system more equitable to all disabled veterans.
In 2004, Illinois' disabled veterans received, on average, $6,961 -- which was $1,417 below the national average and more than $5,000 less than veterans in top-paying states.
Besides Illinois, veterans in five other below-average paying states -- Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Connecticut and New Jersey -- would receive letters. The bill still has to pass the House before becoming law.
'Bean-counter approach'
The senators also added a restriction in the bill requiring the VA to prove fraud in order to cut or reduce benefits to veterans who already receive benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder, a severe mental disability that is often the result of traumatic war experiences. The VA had planned to start reviewing 72,000 cases of veterans who were rated 100 percent disabled as a result of PTSD, but the bill won't allow that review to start until Congress is made aware of the full cost of such a review.
Obama and Durbin, along with many veterans, fear the VA's probe of PTSD cases is an attempt to stop paying older cases in order to fund the estimated 30 percent of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who are expected to suffer severe mental problems.
"Veterans who I have met truly need help and have faced a mountain of red tape and long delays and then finally disability payments that have shortchanged them," said Durbin, who has continuously pressed for more money and services related to veterans' mental health.
Durbin called the VA probe a "bean-counter approach" and said VA Secretary Jim Nicholson appeared to be trying to find out "just how many veterans we can continue to lop off the rolls and reduce benefits."
The VA says it is only pursuing the PTSD case review because the inspector general found a 25 percent error rate in 2,100 PTSD cases it reviewed this spring.
From 1999 to 2004, payments for PTSD increased 149 percent from $1.7 billion to $4.3 billion. PTSD is one of the highest-paying disabilities. Less than 3 percent of Illinois' disabled veterans are rated 100 percent disabled because of PTSD. Only 7 percent of Illinois' 1 million veterans receive any disability, the lowest percent in the nation.
"We're in a time of tight budgets," Jon Wooditch, assistant VA inspector general, said of the PTSD review. "It's very important that the benefits we pay out are paid to veterans who deserve those benefits."