Va Compensation

[Hoppy]

I ran into a guy on this base where I hang around who had retired after twenty years in the Navy. The subject of my 100% SC had not come up and he was unaware of my situation. In a casual conversation I told him that I work online and help veterans with their disability claims. He made a comment that was somewhat disrespectful about people who seek disability from the VA. His comment was not the type you would hear from extremists with bizarre opinions about disabled persons that you will find with some research on google. However, he was pretty much of the opinion that people should go on with their life no matter what happens to them in the military without "leaning" on the gov't for money for disability.

A couple years ago I posted some limited discussions of how I justify the need for VA compensation to healthy and overly self-righteous individuals. If you have some spare time and are new to the board you might benefit from reading this post. Additionally, you may run into a person like guy I will talked about above. One other side of this is that there was a movement by some folks in Washington to change the VA system to only compensate veterans for injuries that occurred while they were actually performing their duty. I guess they thought that if you were injured in a skiing accident on the weekend the VA should not compensate you. I am pretty sure the folks trying to get this change were shot down. However, I am also sure they are still lurking in the shadows.

This was not the first time I have ran into someone with this opinion. I have found that these people have not had very much experience with people who are disabled and really do not understand how society deals with disability in general. So I take the time to "enlighten" them. What is funny is that by the time I am done they actually admit to me that they really were in the dark about the reasons for disability. Especially for people in the military.

I start by explaining that I have a life threatening disability my self that has interrupted my ability to function at numerous times in my life. As a result I have worked for only short periods of time for many different employers. I do well on civil service exams and have worked for city, county and federal govt. People who work for government agencies have disability benefits negotiated by a union. The retirement systems to which I belonged as a civil servant would pay an individual 50% of their salary for the rest of their life in the event they became disabled (at work or while skiing) and could not continue in the job for which they were hired. This is not to say any job. It means if a policeman can be a dog catcher he still gets his disability benefit from his job as a cop for the rest of his life. The only way he can lose his disability benefit is if his job as a dog catcher paid him as much as he made as a cop. His salary as a cop is guaranteed. Thus, if he made only 70% of his original cop salary as a dog catcher, he would get the 30% he was deficient from the retirement system he was a member of as a cop. Any employee in this system had this benefit including city plumbers and clerks. The only difference was that a cop was eligible on the first day of his employment and the plumber and clerk had to work at their job for five years.

Next, I explained that I worked for good corporate employers who took care of their employees. I worked for Standard Oil and a large printing company listed on the New York stock exchange. I explained that corporate employees also have long term disability benefits. The benefits get better the higher up in the corporate structure. As a closer I explain that I worked for Standard Oil when I was 19 years old. When I went into the military Standard Oil placed me on military leave. Had I continued to work at Standard Oil and not went into the military I would have had long term disability insurance. Should I lose this type of benefit during the time I am in the military just because I chose to do a tour of duty and the military did not offer a parallel benefit. When you consider that I took a huge salary loss because I made $600.00 a month while working for Standard Oil and the military paid me $88.00 a month, you would think that the gov't could afford to buy me about 10 long term disability plans. Since the gov't does not buy insurance and chooses to be self insured they can thrown in a benefit to any veteran called "compensation". And that is what I help veterans get from the government they chose to serve.

[WAKO/VN-65-66]

:)

Hoppy: "it don't mean nothin"

I am still going thru the paper work on my claim, Nam, 65-66, draftrd and did not know I entiteled to even go to the VA for help for my medical conditions. Vet frinds rold me to go and get checked out, this was in 02, have been going ever since, and the paperwork and getting the medical documents and filling out the stresors forms are making me think about what happened,

Welcome home

WAKO

I ran into a guy on this base where I hang around who had retired after twenty years in the Navy. The subject of my 100% SC had not come up and he was unaware of my situation. In a casual conversation I told him that I work online and help veterans with their disability claims. He made a comment that was somewhat disrespectful about people who seek disability from the VA. His comment was not the type you would hear from extremists with bizarre opinions about disabled persons that you will find with some research on google. However, he was pretty much of the opinion that people should go on with their life no matter what happens to them in the military without "leaning" on the gov't for money for disability.

A couple years ago I posted some limited discussions of how I justify the need for VA compensation to healthy and overly self-righteous individuals. If you have some spare time and are new to the board you might benefit from reading this post. Additionally, you may run into a person like guy I will talked about above. One other side of this is that there was a movement by some folks in Washington to change the VA system to only compensate veterans for injuries that occurred while they were actually performing their duty. I guess they thought that if you were injured in a skiing accident on the weekend the VA should not compensate you. I am pretty sure the folks trying to get this change were shot down. However, I am also sure they are still lurking in the shadows.

This was not the first time I have ran into someone with this opinion. I have found that these people have not had very much experience with people who are disabled and really do not understand how society deals with disability in general. So I take the time to "enlighten" them. What is funny is that by the time I am done they actually admit to me that they really were in the dark about the reasons for disability. Especially for people in the military.

I start by explaining that I have a life threatening disability my self that has interrupted my ability to function at numerous times in my life. As a result I have worked for only short periods of time for many different employers. I do well on civil service exams and have worked for city, county and federal govt. People who work for government agencies have disability benefits negotiated by a union. The retirement systems to which I belonged as a civil servant would pay an individual 50% of their salary for the rest of their life in the event they became disabled (at work or while skiing) and could not continue in the job for which they were hired. This is not to say any job. It means if a policeman can be a dog catcher he still gets his disability benefit from his job as a cop for the rest of his life. The only way he can lose his disability benefit is if his job as a dog catcher paid him as much as he made as a cop. His salary as a cop is guaranteed. Thus, if he made only 70% of his original cop salary as a dog catcher, he would get the 30% he was deficient from the retirement system he was a member of as a cop. Any employee in this system had this benefit including city plumbers and clerks. The only difference was that a cop was eligible on the first day of his employment and the plumber and clerk had to work at their job for five years.

Next, I explained that I worked for good corporate employers who took care of their employees. I worked for Standard Oil and a large printing company listed on the New York stock exchange. I explained that corporate employees also have long term disability benefits. The benefits get better the higher up in the corporate structure. As a closer I explain that I worked for Standard Oil when I was 19 years old. When I went into the military Standard Oil placed me on military leave. Had I continued to work at Standard Oil and not went into the military I would have had long term disability insurance. Should I lose this type of benefit during the time I am in the military just because I chose to do a tour of duty and the military did not offer a parallel benefit. When you consider that I took a huge salary loss because I made $600.00 a month while working for Standard Oil and the military paid me $88.00 a month, you would think that the gov't could afford to buy me about 10 long term disability plans. Since the gov't does not buy insurance and chooses to be self insured they can thrown in a benefit to any veteran called "compensation". And that is what I help veterans get from the government they chose to serve.