Nov 12, 2012

Waive Five Month Waiting Period For Disabled Vets?

    From a press release:
The Disabled Veterans National Foundation(DVNF), a nonprofit organization that exists to help to men and women who come home with emotional and physical wounds after serving our country, is applauding and supporting a bipartisan bill that would provide faster disability payments to veterans injured in combat. 
The Recovering Service Members Disability Benefits Act (HR 6445) would exempt active-duty, Reserve and National Guard service members injured in a combat zone from the customary five-month waiting period for Social Security Disability Insurance payments. Reps. Glenn Thompson (R-PA) and Dave Loebsack (D-IA) proposed the bill as an amendment to Title II of the Social Security Act.
     A better idea would be to exempt everyone from the five month waiting period. If we're going to do something special for vets, why don't we make anyone found 100% disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs (or a branch of the military for that matter) automatically qualify medically for Social Security disability benefits? That idea has been around for a few years. A lot of people found 100% disabled by VA are denied disability by Social Security. Almost all are eventually approved on appeal. Why not cut the unnecessary delays for these folks?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There's another elephant in the room and this is the quarters/five year problem. As far fetched as it may sound not every disabled vet even realizes they can most likely get SS benefits. Hence if they don't apply before running out of the work quarters rules timeline, they're screwed to my knowledge.

Is this correct?