V.a. Benefits Wrongly Cut? A Reporter Is Looking Into This

[Ross Jones WXYZ]

I'm an investigative reporter with WXYZ-TV in Detroit and I'm looking into some issues regarding veteran benefits. A few weeks back, I was approached by a veteran whose mental health benefits were cut in half after she was briefly evaluated. She did not feel that the cut was appropriate, appealed the evaluation and, after several weeks, was ultimately successful. This veteran put me in touch with a few others who shared similiar stories of benefit reductions made in error.

I'm interested in talking to some of you who may have experienced a reduction that you believe was not appropriate. It would be great to talk either over the phone or through e-mails. Right now I'm in the research phase; we have not decided if there is or is not a story. I can be reached directly at my desk at (248) 827-9466 or at rjones@wxyz.com.

Thank you for your service.

Ross Jones

WXYZ-TV (ABC Detroit)

[RSG]

You will probably be unpleasantly surprised ! I might add, my claim has taken 47 years to be resolved

because of a VA employees lie.... IE. (1969)

Edited June 12, 2015 by RSG

[Berta]

Welcome aboard Ross..

Yes proposed reductions are a big problem and vets fear this will happen to them.

We need a Woodward and Bernstein...you might be the Man.The "story' is far bigger than reductions however.

Like Watergate, ... as deep throat said...... follow the money.....

The VA has well paid employees in the VBA ( Veterans Benefit system who not only refuse to properly apply basic VA case law and regs in 38 CFR, they also (I have proof of this) are often completely illiterate.

I live near a VA and some of the best people I know are employed by VA or have been in the past.

But they work side by side with incompetents.

The VA has MANY problems.and if you peruse these forums here you will see the true pulse of the VA.

These men and women have sacrificed mind and body ,yet most of us cannot even get a square answer as to a simple status question on our claims.

Problems:
in addition to the proposed reductiomn BS that vets have to go through sometimes:

The latest Suicide news here

The fact that C & P doctors,paid by the VA judge our disabilities..is that a conflict of interest or what?

The fact that if a vet (or widow of vet like me) gets some bogus C & P exam done, they often have to pay thousands for a proper medical opinion from a real doctor to raise the bar to relative Equipoise, ( Benefit of Doubt)

We cannot seem to get a square answer from the 800#, which we call Peggy , for a simple status on our claims.

Ebenefits is also shuffling stuff around there.....making it more difficult for vets to understand what is being done with their claims.

The IRIS system says the vet will get a reply in 5 days. I am waiting for replies to IRISes I sent years ago.



Vets and survivors are hard pressed to even find a vet rep at one of the so called major vet orgs, who have a clue and really will help them with their claims.

Many of us cannot even get the VA to read our evidence. This is my past H VAC testimony,linked below and they pulled this crap on me again recently too.

I have emails to and from the Under Secretary, the Director of my RO, General and regional counsel, etc etc even some Chief at Comp and Pension,VA in DC who still refuse to apply basic VA case law to my pending claim. I contacted the Inspector General with what the Comp and Pen guy told me, either I am a VA Fraud victim, or he could not read either...from the VA PC .... And I have proof of another bogus C & P exam they did on my dead husband's HBP...I raised hell and got that decision reversed.

They tried to go against a VA Central FTCA opinion for my FTCA case, which I won.....because in part, the VA doctors who treated my husband could not read....either...and they killed him.

I think if a good investigative reporter did a series on the REAL VA claims process and it's horrendous affect on disabled men and women whose service inspired the very existence of the VA , the very entity that is so reckless ,uncaring, and often downright incompetent,
that reporter ,like W & B , might well win the Pulitzer Prize.

Others will chime in here to...I didnt come close to griping about the backlog problems (VA started the backlog, we didnt) and their spin on that, and check out Ben Krauses blogs as well...he does a lot of investigative work and I sure think VA is reading his stuff.....

And of course there is the FACT that they are manipulating their wrongful death statistics.

I contacted Secretary McDonald and the Committee on Vets Affairs, as well as the FBI...and told them where (with links), to find out what I mean....

Some vets get through the claims process very easily, others become victimized by it.

The toll it takes on disabled veterans is criminal... some lose their homes, others get very anxious and depressed even if they never had a MH issue before, and some of them lose their lives...through suicide, or as in my husband's case, Death by VA itself. FTCA/1151 documented.

Well others will chime in on the proposed reduction BS they have to go through sometimes. Maybe that is only the sole focus of your interest here.

If you could raise attention on that issue alone and how unfair it is for vets to fear what well might turn out to be a totally unfair reduction, that would help many vets I am sure, because maybe VA would have to change their reduction policy ...a big maybe.

VA isnt our enemy, Time is. And they sure know it

(I say "we" but I am a civilian, mother of a veteran and widow of 2 disabled vets...5 HDs between them all.Their service covered every branch)




.http://archives.democrats.veterans.house.gov/hearings/Testimony.aspx?TID=53155&Newsid=340&Name=%20Berta%20M.%20Simmons

Edited June 12, 2015 by Berta