This is no surprise, Military

[Guest guest]

article below about military disability process--

The military does have it's hands full with disability claims. They

drop you like a hot potatoe once you are sick/disabled. I did 5 yrs

active and 8 years reserves. Put out due to illness. The meds I was

on made me non-deployable. PS, since I did not become sick on active

duty, I was a reservist, no benefits.

But I really feel for these guys who will need care, but the system

will be not ready for them.

Hopefully, the process improvements will improve things for others.

article starts here....

Soldiers risk ruin while awaiting benefit checks;

By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer;

Tue Jun 17, 2:28 AM ET

His lifelong dream of becoming a soldier had, in the end, come to

this for Isaac s: 28, penniless, in a wheelchair, fending off

the sexual advances of another man in a homeless shelter.

s' descent from Army private first-class, 3rd Infantry

Division, 11 Bravo Company, began in 2005 — not in battle, since he

was never sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan, but with a headfirst fall

over a wall on the obstacle course at Fort Benning, Ga. He suffered a

head injury and spinal damage.

The injury alone didn't put him in a homeless shelter. Instead, it

was military bureaucracy — specifically, the way injured soldiers are

discharged on just a fraction of their salary and then forced to wait

six to nine months, and sometimes even more than a year, before their

full disability payments begin to flow.

" When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody

just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, `OK, you're

on your own,' " said s, who was discharged in November and was

in a shelter by February. He has since moved into a temporary San

apartment with help from Operation Homefront, a nonprofit

organization.

Nearly 20,000 disabled soldiers were discharged in the past two

fiscal years, and lawmakers, veterans' advocates and others say

thousands could be facing financial ruin while they wait for their

claims to be processed and their benefits to come through.

" The anecdotal evidence is depressing, " said Rep. Hall, D-N.Y.,

who heads a subcommittee on veterans disability benefits. " These

veterans are getting medical care, but their family is going through

this huge readjustment at the same time they're dealing with

financial difficulties. "

Most permanently disabled veterans qualify for payments from Social

Security and the military or Veterans Affairs. Those sums can amount

to about two-thirds of their active-duty pay. But until those checks

show up, most disabled veterans draw a reduced Army paycheck.

The amount depends on the soldier's injuries, service time and other

factors. But a typical veteran and his family who once lived on

$3,400 a month might have to make do with $970 a month.

Unless a soldier has a personal fortune or was so severely injured as

to require long-term inpatient care, that can be an extreme hardship.

The Army, stung by the scandal last year over shoddy care at Walter

Army Medical Center in Washington, has been working to help

soldiers during the in-between period, said Col. Becky Baker,

assigned to injured soldier transition at the U.S. Surgeon General's

Office.

In a change in policy that took effect last August, the Army is

allowing wounded soldiers to continue to draw their full Army

paychecks for up to 90 days after discharge, Baker said. It is also

sending more VA workers to Army posts to process claims more quickly,

and trying to do a better job of informing soldiers of the available

benefits and explaining the application process.

" We make certain that we've covered all the bases before we discharge

the soldier, " Baker said.

She acknowledged, however, that the changes have been slow to take

hold across an Army stretched by war. " It's definitely a practice

that is new. It takes awhile for new practices to be

institutionalized, " the colonel said.

s was moved to the Operation Homefront apartment after a social

worker at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, acting on her own

initiative, rescued s from a homeless shelter there.

" This is a situation where someone used their common sense and they

did the right thing, versus saying, `This is the rules. We can't do

this,' " Tripler spokeswoman Minerva said of the social

worker.

Typically, the first 100 days after discharge are spent just

gathering medical and other evidence needed to make a decision on

disability, VA officials say. If paperwork is incomplete, or a

veteran moves to another state before the claim is decided, the

process can drag on longer. Disagree with the VA's decision, and the

wait time grows.

" The claims are a lot more complicated than people think, " said

Ursula , director of the VA's regional office in Houston.

Amy Palmer, a disabled veteran and vice president of Operation

Homefront, which helps newly disabled servicemembers, said: " Nobody's

assigned to them. You're on your own once you get out. "

Hall is pushing legislation that would force the VA to use compatible

computer systems and more consistent criteria and to reach out to

veterans better.

" A veteran goes and serves and does what the country asks them to

do, " the congressman said. " But when they come back they're made to

jump through these hoops and to wait in line for disability

benefits. "

Simon Heine served three tours in Iraq as a tank mechanic before he

was discharged with severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

His wife quit college so she could figure out how her four children

could live on less than $1,000 a month. Eventually, she moved the

family of six into an Operation Homefront apartment so they could

finish navigating the bureaucracy and wait out the arrival of Social

Security and VA benefits.

" It is like giving you a car and taking the steering wheel off. They

say, `There is the gas and the brake. Just go straight,' and

hopefully, you are going in the right direction, " Heine said.

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On the Net:

Operation Homefront: http://www.operationhomefront.net