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NVLSP News Articles
A veterans' organization and a public advocacy group filed suit in federal court on Monday against the Veterans Affairs Department, claiming the agency has kept some veterans waiting longer than two years for records needed to apply for benefits. "Veterans who have been injured and disabled in combat should not be forced to wait months or years to receive their records from the VA so they can apply for disability benefits," Bart Stichman, co-founder and co-executive director of National Veterans Legal Services Program, said in a statement. [more]
Released 4/20/15 | Tags:
Legislative Hearing on: H.R. 675, H.R. 677, H.R. 732, H.R.800, H.R. 1067, H.R. 1331, H.R. 1379, H.R. 1414, H.R. 1569, and H.R. 1607 [more]
Released 4/14/15 | Tags: Testimony
A number of veterans organization are suing the Veterans Affairs Department over a new rule regarding disability claims. The rule only went into effect a week ago, but the lawsuit claims it's eliminated most informal VA claims, and limits the types of claims VA can adjudicate. One change means that letters written into VA no longer count as claims; now everything has to be on a standardized form. Ron Abrams is a former VA staff member, and now the joint executive director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. He joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with more on the lawsuit and its ramifications. [more]
Released 4/13/15 | Tags: Veteran's Benefits
A rule by the Department of Veterans Affairs recently came into effect, which will end much of the informal claims process for VA disability benefits. The rule, according to a press release issued by the National Veterans Legal Services Program, became effective March 24, 2015, and limits the types of inferred claims VA will allow, leaving “injured and disabled veterans at a serious disadvantage when applying for VA disability compensation.” The NVLSP press release states that there are two aspects of the rule that are particularly important: First, the rule eliminates the right of a veteran to initiate the VA adjudication process by writing a plain letter to the VA seeking a specific benefit; and second, the VA will now severely limit the type of benefits that will be adjudicated when presented with a disability benefits claim. [more]
Released 4/8/15 | Tags:
Many veterans organizations claim the new VA forms required to file disability compensation claims “obliterated” the non-adversarial process VA is required to adhere to. Ron Abrams, head of NVLSP, stated: “This is the essence of the non-adversarial process VA is supposed to have,” he said. “VA is supposed to be a friend of the veteran. If they find something else in the file that helps vets, they point it out and take care of it. Now, they’ve obliterated that. This is now a system of VA against the veterans, and the veterans will be hurt.” [more]
Released 4/2/15 | Tags:
Senator Richard Blumenthal ’73 will speak at Yale Law School on April 2 during an event about the crisis and reform efforts surrounding the Veterans Health Administration. Panelists will include Carolyn Clancy, MD, Interim Under Secretary for Health, Department of Veterans Affairs (by video conference); Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, Professor of Health Policy, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Heather Sandler, MSW, Senior Constituent Liaison, Office of Senator Richard Blumenthal; and Bart Stichman, JD, LLM, Joint Executive Director, National Veterans Legal Services Program. [more]
Released 4/1/15 | Tags:
Veterans Affairs officials insist recent changes to how individuals can file benefits claims are nothing more than an efficiency move to clean up their files.But groups like the American Legion and AMVETS are accusing the department of abandoning their promise to help veterans get the benefits they deserve, and have filed a lawsuit to reverse the changes. [more]
Released 3/31/15 | Tags: Veteran's Benefits
“Vietnam Veterans of America has joined four other veterans service organizations as a co-plaintiff to The American Legion et. al. v. McDonald in an effort to stop the implementation of a new rule eliminating most informal VA claims and limiting the types of claims the VA will adjudicate,” announced John Rowan, VVA National President. [more]
Released 3/31/15 | Tags: Veteran's Benefits
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Released 3/30/15 | Tags: Veteran's Benefits
American Legion says VA must ‘hold true to its mission’ The American Legion’s national commander, Michael D. Helm, admonished the Department of Veterans Affairs for eliminating its informal claims process, which has been used in roughly half of all such claims filed by veterans. “VA needs to hold true to its mission, which is to serve America’s veterans and not penalize them,” Helm said. “Why on earth would (VA) Secretary McDonald approve a regulation change that invalidates about half of all disability claims being filed?” The new rule went into effect March 25. [more]
Released 3/30/15 | Tags: