Question:
Jim,
I have an uncle that is a 100% disabled Korean Era Veteran. He currently resides in a state veterans home. S. 3421 included a provision for the VA to cover his care, but the VA still does not have a system in place to request payment.
The VA has been contacted by senators and congressmen about the long delay and the VA told all of them that the matter had to be published in the Federal Register, with time allowed for comment before the payment provision could take effect. The VA stated that it would get the information to OMB in August for publication. But nothing has been published as of today. Is there any way to light a fire under the VA before all the vets who qualify for this benefit are dead?
Answer:
The DVA is the least efficient, slowest and least responsive of all American federal government agencies. I don't understand why but there it is. The reality is that lighting a fire under VA for anything isn't possible. The VA is very good at ignoring the veterans it serves Every step is adversarial.
You can write to the Secretary of the DVA, Dr. James Peake. He's at 810 Vermont Ave NW Washington, DC 20420.
You should also express your thoughts directly to http://www.senate.gov/~veterans/public/ as well as http://veterans.house.gov/
Jim Strickland's Mailbag: Volume #66 for 2008
NOTE: Letters in my mailbag are reprinted just as they come to me. Spelling and grammar are left as is and only small corrections are made to improve readability, ensure anonymity or delete expletives that may offend some readers. This is not legal advice. You should always seek the advice of an attorney who is qualified in Veterans' law before you make any decisions about your own benefits.
10.14.08
Question:
Jim,
Your mailbag #61 has brought a question to mind:
I can see the red flags waving from an IU vet's report of gainful employment, however slight, on the yearly 21-4140-1. However, in order to complete this thread could you comment on non-profit employment? It would show an ability to do work but does the lack of cash return in the effort make it ethically and legally non reportable?
Answer:
I should address that, shouldn't I?
The rule by statute is that a veteran must not be able to hold "gainful employment". See 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a) which states in part: "Total disability ratings for compensation may be assigned, where the schedular rating is less than total, when the disabled person is, in the judgment of the rating agency, unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation as a result of service-connected disabilities . . . . Marginal employment shall not be considered substantially gainful employment. For the purposes of this section, marginal employment generally shall be deemed to exist when a veteran's earned annual income does not exceed the amount established by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, as the poverty threshold for one person . . ."
Strictly speaking, the lack of cash return makes it legally non-reportable. I believe that if you take the example I'll use (of myself) I think you'd agree it is ethically OK as well.
Volunteering (Or 'non-profit employment') does not demonstrate the ability to hold gainful employment. For example, I volunteer at this task. I don't earn a dime doing what I do.
However, I can't imagine anyone paying me for it. I require conditions where I could only work from home...frequent breaks at my own pace, a dedicated restroom available for urgent needs, a desk arrangement to suit my disability, lighting that also suits my sensitivity to glare, a place to lie down should I become dizzy from medications, quiet and without intrusions and so on. If I'm in a period of time where I have frequent scheduled appointments with physicians I'm sometimes absent here 3 days or more each week.
So...although I'm very productive, such productivity has no market value as gainful employment. There are few employers who would pay a 60 year old man a gainful wage to labor at such a product under those conditions. In fact, I lost my last real job because of the inordinate amount of time I was off during a severe bout of illness.
However...if you find someone who will pay me, I'd love to return to the workforce. I believe that most people are like me. In my career I was successful. I earned a high income for a lot of years. I enjoyed my work to a point I would sometimes be employed by 3 different hospitals working weekends, nights and holidays as an addition to my regular 50 hour per week job. The money was good and I liked the people I worked with.
Illness...a service connected condition...forced me out of the workplace. Given the options of having my health and my previous income or my 100% IU, you can guess what I'd choose.
Question:
Jim,
Last September the VA did not send me the work verification form 21-4140-1 as it had the year before. I did nothing. Bad move which caused a few tense moments in February.
My computer is now primed to remind me to send in that form every September 1 - which is done via Certified Mail as per your suggestion. Again, this month the VA sent no form. Probably not an evil plan on their part. I've heard it said with government that if you have a choice of stupidity or conspiracy you ought to go with stupidity every time.
Concerning those Certified Mail receipts which the Postal Service mails back to you after delivering the mail piece: During the sixteen years I was a small town postmaster we piled up a fair number of those green receipts. If the sender does not put their name and address on the face then we can not deliver.
However, even if a person does this all is not lost. Go to www.usps.com , then to Track and Confirm, and punch in the receipt number they gave you when you mailed the letter. Then click on Additional Details. Print out the result which will show the exact time and date for both when you mailed it and when the Postal Service delivered it.
You now have a document from the Postal Service which proves delivery.
Answer:
Well said sir. Thank you. I'm passing this on to VA Watchdog readers.
Question:
Jim,
This guy gets the shaft everytime he turns around...
Click here: Rewards are lacking for a local veteran | HeraldTribune.com | Southwest Florida's Information Leader
(If the link is dead, here's the story)
Rewards are lacking for a local veteran
Published: Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.
The story of a homeless Iraq war veteran who helped Sarasota police catch a prison escapee, and who now says he's being shorted on the reward money, is really a bigger story.
But let's keep this simple.
Forget about Earl Coffey coming back from combat in Iraq prone to self-medicate to escape flashbacks, often about the day he shot an enemy who turned out to be just an unarmed Iraqi child.
And forget about Coffey's Army court martial and prison sentence for looting many thousands of dollars he and another soldier found in a Baghdad palace. Forget how his less-than-honorable discharge cost him his veteran benefits, which he could really use now that he's a damaged and homeless former soldier.
He has since spent time in jail in Sarasota for trying to sell stolen property. Some life.
Herald-Tribune reporter Billy Cox wrote all about this stuff back in May.
It is just too complicated to even guess who is or should be responsible for what, and what could or should be done to help the man.
And Coffey's own plan for helping himself -- get back home to Kentucky, find coal mining work -- could be bogus talk. Relatives have sent him money before.
So even if Coffey's aid to police had gotten him the $2,000 reward, which he says a detective told him and a group of people about before the arrest, I'd tend to bet that the money would have changed very little.
But I'm getting calls, suggesting that what matters is that it isn't right for the police to scam Coffey, who deserves that reward. And that's easy to grasp.
After all, the state was looking for an escaped prisoner, Dmitri Sinilnikov, described in fliers as an accomplished computer hacker and identity thief. And Coffey, who saw the man and put two and two together, told Sarasota police where he was.
But as you might have read, there is no $2,000 reward. There never was, as every police agency involved now says.
And none seems to know anything about what cop, if any, ever said otherwise. Coffey has no idea what the detective's name was or what agency he was with.
Well, if you were looking for one clear-cut problem in Coffey's life with a simple, obvious remedy, this was your best bet.
But even it isn't working out.
If a cop really made up that reward offer, it seems he is lying low, even after press inquiries and coverage.
And I doubt that any agency is trying all that to hard to solve this mystery.
Tom Lyons can be contacted at tom.lyons@heraldtribune.com or (941) 361-4964.
Answer:
That guy seems to beg to be shafted. I've seen that syndrome before.
The "I killed a kid/woman/civilian/peasant by accident and it's haunting me and causing all my troubles." isn't a new story. The theme is common from Vietnam veterans who are out of control and seek to blame something else for their problems.
The way I read it, he was kicked out for being a thief. He stole money that wasn't his. He even says that he took a shot and "heard later it was a kid". There seems to be zero evidence he shot anyone.
The story of a reward fits his way of doing things. He got the story for a 2 grand reward from a cop he can't recall the name of or for what agency he works at. There is no published reward anywhere apparently. I'm no expert on rewards but from what I've seen, if there is such a thing it's usually published somewhere....Crimestoppers, the local paper, something.
The reporter acknowledges that family members have sent him money to get home and get his life together and he hasn't done that.
So...tell me why we should feel sorry for a guy like this? Just because he's a veteran? Where does it say that everyone who serves has an automatic right to pity if they screw their lives up?
Some time ago I read a story in a West Coast newspaper. It spoke of a Vietnam veteran and how he was getting the shaft from a heartless VA. He and his wife had their Social Security benefits pulled by the mean old SSA too.
Something sounded wrong to me so I wrote the reporter. According to the reporter the Vietnam vet had hepatitis and couldn't work. The VA wouldn't give him any money or care for his hepatitis.
OK, I asked what he had done in Vietnam. What was his MOS? As it turned out, he was a mail clerk.
OK, how did he get hepatitis in Vietnam? Well...he wasn't actually IN Vietnam, it seems. He was drafted in San Francisco and sent to Hawaii after basic where he became a mail clerk.
OK, he isn't really a Vietnam veteran...he's like me, a Vietnam era veteran.
Long story short, he spent his 2 years in Hawaii and was discharged home. He was in and out of treatment programs for his IV drug abuse. It's likely that IV drug abuse led to the hepatitis. VA didn't feel much obligation towards him. Two years in Hawaii during the Vietnam war isn't all that terrible.
So he had some sort of Social Security coming in and it was taken away? How's that?
It seems his wife worked as a waitress. The SSA requires a financial statement to continue benefits. There was some question of fraud and he and the little lady wouldn't fill out the financial form as it violated their civil and constitutional rights. The SSA stopped the checks.
Will someone please tell me how it is that this is the fault of the VA, the military or anyone besides the vet himself?
