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The Department of Veterans Affairs is wrongfully denying services to roughly 125,000 post-9/11 veterans with other than honorable discharges, according to a joint study released Wednesday by two veterans advocacy groups and Harvard Law School. Some veterans are missing out on benefits such as healthcare, housing help for the homeless and disability services, in part, because the VA’s own rules are in contravention of the original GI Bill of Rights passed by Congress in 1944, according to the study. That represents roughly 6.5 percent of post-9/11 veterans, including more than 33,000 who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. [more]
Released 3/30/16 | Tags: Discharge Upgrades, Veteran's Benefits
A report released March 30 found that the Department of Veterans Affairs has been excluding post-9/11 veterans with bad paper discharges from earned benefits at unprecedented rates and suggests this may be in violation of the 1944 GI Bill of Rights. According to Swords to Plowshares and National Veterans Legal Services Program, the VA has excluded 125,000 post-9/11 veterans without ever reviewing their service. This includes roughly 33,000 who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and amounts to 6.5% of all post-9/11 service members. In contrast, only 2.8% of Vietnam-era veterans and 1.7% of World War II-era veterans are excluded by the VA due to bad paper discharges. [more]
Released 3/30/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation, Veteran's Benefits
Former members of the military are being refused benefits by the Department of Veterans Affairs at the highest rate since the department's creation at the end of World War II, according to a recent report from three veterans' groups: Swords to Plowshares, the National Veterans Legal Services Program and the Veterans Legal Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School. [more]
Released 3/30/16 | Tags: Discharge Upgrades, Veteran's Benefits
At least 125,000 post-9/11 veterans have been denied services by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a new report. Roughly 6.5 percent of post-9/11 veterans, including more than 33,000 who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, are not receiving benefits such as healthcare, housing help for the homeless, and disability services, because they have "bad paper" discharges, the report by the National Veterans Legal Services Program and Swords to Plowshares, with assistance from Harvard Law School’s Veterans Legal Clinic, found, according to Stars and Stripes. [more]
Released 3/30/16 | Tags: Discharge Upgrades, Veteran's Benefits
A recent investigation shows the Pentagon ripped off wounded soldiers through a repayment scheme to a tune of $78 million over the past 25 years. Lawmakers were shocked to learn the Department of Defense had knowingly withheld tax payments from the disability payments paid to wounded soldiers on their way out of the military. Federal law prohibited the practice, but the DOD victimized at least 13,000 disabled soldiers through its withholding policy. [more]
Released 3/28/16 | Tags: Discharge Upgrades, Veteran's Benefits
Combat-injured veterans would receive full severance under legislation introduced late last week, according to Arkansas’ Sen. John Boozman, one of the bill’s backers. Boozman, R-Ark, and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced what they call the Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016 on Thursday. The goal is to “ensure that veterans who suffer service-ending combat-related injuries are not taxed on the severance payment they receive from the Department of Defense.” [more]
Released 3/21/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
A veteran and lawyer says the federal government has wrongfully and knowingly taken about $80 million from combat disabled veterans over the past 25 years, and he’s hoping to get a new law passed to fix the problem. Tom Moore, a veteran and a lawyer with the National Veterans Legal Services Program, says the money was basically stolen from about 14,000 vets. Moore says that the lump-sum severance payment for disabled combat veterans is not supposed to be taxed according to federal law, but has been since 1991. [more]
Released 3/21/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and John Boozman (R-AR) today introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure that veterans who suffer service-ending combat-related injuries are not improperly taxed on the severance payment they receive from the Department of Defense (DoD). Under federal law, veterans who suffer combat-related injuries and who are separated from the military are not supposed to be taxed on the one-time lump sum disability severance payment they receive from DoD. [more]
Released 3/18/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
It probably shouldn’t take an act of Congress to get the U.S. Government to stop illegally taking money from wounded soldiers, but apparently it’s going to. A couple of U.S. senators yesterday introduced The Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016 to force the Department of Defense to stop withholding money from severance pay to soldiers who are discharged from the military after they are wounded, and are no longer able to be soldiers, Stars and Stripes reported. [more]
Released 3/18/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and John Boozman (R-AR) today introduced bipartisan legislation to ensure that veterans who suffer service-ending combat-related injuries are not improperly taxed on the severance payment they receive from the Department of Defense (DoD). Under federal law, veterans who suffer combat-related injuries and who are separated from the military are not supposed to be taxed on the one-time lump sum disability severance payment they receive from DoD. [more]
Released 3/17/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation