Yesterday, Social Security announced a plan to expedite Social Security disability claims for veterans who have been found 100% disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Let me explain why that was a bad decision.
- This is NOT about expediting disability claims for wounded warriors. Social Security was already doing that. This announcement expedites disability claims for veterans whose disabilities are NOT the result of combat. You ask how that can be. Easy. A veteran gets VA service connected benefits for virtually ANY disability incurred while in military service. Heart attacks, cancer, off base automobile accidents, rheumatoid arthritis, kidney failure, etc. The only things excluded are disabilities which are the result of the veteran's own willful misconduct or abuse of alcohol or drugs
- To expedite disability claims for one group of people is to delay them for everyone else, which is no minor matter when we consider the severity of the backlogs at Social Security. Vets receiving 100% service connected VA benefits for non-combat related disabilities are undeserving of this special attention because they already have substantial incomes of more than $2,800 per month. They can be hurting somewhat financially but most Social Security disability claimants are hurting much worse because they do not have any disability benefit from their former employer. If anyone gets expediting, it should be those who are in serious financial distress, not vets already receiving 100% service connected benefits.
- This new policy makes it NO more likely that vets drawing 100% service connected benefits will be approved for disability benefits by Social Security. It's only expediting. I strongly suspect that this was a cynical attempt to head off legislative proposals that would automatically grant Social Security disability benefits to those who had been approved for 100% service connected VA benefits.
Vets deserve our respect. We owe them a lot. They certainly deserve compensation for their service connected disabilities. Those who are disabled by combat related injuries deserve special treatment at Social Security. However, vets with non-combat disabilities don't deserve to have their disability claims expedited at Social Security.
11 comments:
My understanding is a bit different. I was under the impression "wounded warrior" expedition required a service injury after 9/11/01. This leaves out Vietnam and Gulf War vet claims, as well as other numerous smaller engagements.
No, VA 100% isn't a guaranteed win, but is certainly an extremely strong sign. I take it that expediting would also get these cases in front of an attorney advisor or ALJ for review quicker, and that some fair portion gets paid OTR. An increase in OTR's could offset the increased wait time for non 100% VA vets.
My ex spouse has a 30% disability rating from the VA because of hearing loss being in noisy airplanes. He also documented a scar from a spider bite that he got when deployed once. Of course, he is perfectly capable of making a good living because of his work history and education.
My son is active duty also. The US military treated him his whole life but it was a civilian hospital in Adana Turkey that discovered that he had been born with one kidney and now if he decides not to re-enlist, he will also qualify for a lifetime VA disability, 10% or something, because this was discovered while he was active duty and that makes it service connected. And he has never seen combat.
I don't get it. Does that make me less patriotic and grateful to those who serve? I don't think so.
I don't get the son's condition getting a VA rating. The hearing loss and spider bite I get.
But neither of them have the 100% VA rating.
How nice of you to differentiate a vet that got severely hurt because a helicopter fell out of the sky or off of a ship sitting in or outside of a combat zone. These are not combat injuries.
I suspect you have have no service record, or any idea of how dangerous the job really is.
"In order to receive the expedited service, veterans must tell Social Security they have a VA disability compensation rating of 100% P&T and show proof of their disability rating with their VA Notification Letter."
You also failed to mention the "P&T" rating requirement.
Why don't you research that and get back with the audience.
To be really cynical, I doubt that this is much more than PR. If a Vet already has a 100 percent P&T rating, he/she probably has already filed for or been receiving T2 DIB, and the "expedited" processing will likely accomplish little. But it looks good for SSA management to claim they are really "reaching out" to help another category of the disabled.
@ 9:27 PM - You're completely right. The VA process is, believe it or not, much longer than the typical SSA claim. Many Vets get ratings less than 100% and go through multiple appeals before they are finally awarded 100%. If they are truly disabled by SSA standards, their claim is processed long before the VA ever gets finished with it. Bottom line: this does nothing - it is only for show.
If SSA wanted to do something really smart, they could require DDS and ALJs to obtain a copy of the "C-File" in all cases where a vet has a IU rating (that is when VA finds vet unemployable). Most ALJs I know have disdain for vets seeking disability. But, the C-File will have all the med and vocational evidence the VA used to determine the inability to do SGA, including VE opinion evidence.
lets worry about all the illegal aliens that collect social security but never payed into it or all the inmates that do time an when they get out they claim a disability or congress and senate get life time pensions for 5 years of service work on your even better non profit groups that go after all that free moneys that help veterans but they forget to help veterans
I agree this is basically worthless. However, I always get my hair up when I hear someone talk about a combat injury versus a non-combat injury. The VA disability system exist because when you are in there is no workers compensation system. For the majority of disabilities that are service connected will not get a Veteran 100% P&T. I am a non-combat 100% P&T disabled Veteran. I was in the Marine Corps 91-95 and my service connected disabilities are related to training for combat. This doesn't mean I am at a lower level than someone with combat injuries. You sign on the line and agree to put yourself in harms way should that be your destiny. A Veteran is a Veteran as long as they serve honorably. Please do not fuel this misconception that non-combat Veterans do not rate.
I know this is an old thread, but I agree with Mike and I just can't help but enjoying commenting...many jobs are dangerous, I know this because I DID one of those dangerous non-combat jobs for two years and was injured severely. Before that I was attacked and raped by an officer when I was only 21 years old and have lasting physical and mental disabilities associated with that attack. What did I do in response? I fucking took the most dangerous Job I could find, became the FIRST woman to do that job, made half the males dick-hurt because I could smoke them on PT tests (fucking air force pussy MPs we had to share space with) and lasted 2 years in this hostile environment before getting injured because a male team lead intentionally withheld information about a hazard. So, go fuck yourself and compare your dick size to the dildo you use and leave veterans alone. Have a nice life...Oh, and just to piss you off a little more, I now am 100% SC with about an extra $1000 per month in special monthly compensation plus over $2k in SSDI payments that I earned because I killed it in the civilian world too for 8 years before becoming unable to work due to my worsening disabilities. So, yeah, go fuck yourself Mr. Dickhurt.
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