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President Bush's Veterans Disability Benefits Commission Still Cutting Disability Benefits (Details below.)

VETERANS' ADVOCATE JIM STRICKLAND SOUNDS ALARM ON VETS'

www.vawatchdog.org

SURVEY -- "The Veteran who responds openly and honestly to this

survey is more likely than not going to find that the information

he provides will be used as evidence against him."

Jim Strickland responds to my article about the Vets' Survey being conducted by the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission that was posted earlier today...that article here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/nfDEC06/nf120106-1.htm

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Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.

If you would like to contact Jim about his columns, you can email him here...

The archive of Jim's articles is here...

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VETS' COMMISSION SURVEY: WHY ARE THEY ASKING ALL OF THESE PERSONAL QUESTIONS?

"They also asked me about my volunteer work."

Many Veterans Administration Voluntary Services (VAVS) volunteers are disabled Veterans. Some are severely disabled, some not so much. Quite a few volunteers log 20 to 40 hours each week at their VA facility.

VA volunteers are already acutely aware of those who say that if a Vet is able to volunteer, he should be able to work. There is always an ongoing quiet discussion amongst volunteers who are rated as disabled; "What if?"

What if there is an official accounting of disabled volunteers and subsequently a review of those documented to be logging in for more than, say, 10 hours each week? Currently VA volunteers, like so many other volunteer organizations, have "bragging rights" that are predicated on how many hours they are signed in as volunteers. At volunteer services celebrations awards are given and applause is offered to those volunteers who log in the most hours.

The Vets Commission questionnaire has nothing whatever to do with improving the quality or efficient delivery of health care to Veterans in desperate need of that care. It has even less to do with improving the current inefficient (and usually wrong) process of adjudicating a Veteran's claim for disability. In the list of questions your reader sent to you as an example of what he was asked, over 50% are directly related to the Veteran's ability to work.

This questionnaire is a hard-core scientific instrument. Those friendly questions concerning his ability to work, perform household chores, participate in hobbies or interact with family members are aimed toward determining his "Functional Capacity". The determination of Residual Functional Capacity after a claimed injury or illness is SOP in the disability industry. Each question on this survey will have been debated and refined by a panel of experts that includes psychologists, physicians, lawyers and social workers. Functional capacity reporting will provide information to determine an individuals work abilities as well as the status of their disability.

Why are they conducting this survey? On May 30, 2006 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report regarding disabled Veterans harshly criticizing the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) for not enforcing stricter requirements for Veterans receiving 100% IU benefits.

In his excellent article published in June on the military.com web site Tom Philpott reports that:

"The number of disabled veterans rated IU and the cost of their benefits have risen sharply in recent years. From fiscal 1996 through 2005, veterans rated unemployable tripled from 71,000 to 220,000. In the same period, IU payments jumped from $857 million a year to $3.1 billion.

The 'marked increase' is troublesome, GAO suggests, because it has occurred 'at a time when advances in medicine and technology, along with labor market changes, have provided greater opportunity for people with disabilities to seek and maintain employment.'

The 54-page report has been much anticipated by members of the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission which is conducting the first major review of veterans' disability benefits in 50 years."

Reading through Tom's article, then the GAO report and later Googling up a few more references leaves us with a clear understanding of the intent of this survey: This questionnaire is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The Veteran who responds openly and honestly to this survey is more likely than not going to find that the information he provides will be used as evidence against him.

Can a Veteran's compensation be reduced? Of course it can.

Reading 38 CFR §3.343, "Reduction of Service-Connected Total Disability", you'll find that as they are attempting to lower your benefit rating, VA instructs ratings specialists to; "Cite clear and convincing evidence of actual employability when reducing a rating based on individual unemployability. Examination reports showing material improvement must be evaluated in conjunction with all the facts of record. Consideration must be given particularly to whether the veteran attained improvement under the ordinary conditions of life, i.e., while working or actively seeking work or whether the symptoms have been brought under control by prolonged rest, or generally, by following a regimen which precludes work."

A Vet's honest answers to the survey may demonstrate "material improvement" and become "the facts of record". You'll hand over incriminating evidence that your "symptoms have been brought under control by prolonged rest" and that you've been "following a regimen which precludes work".

During this intense interrogation if you break and confess that you are a VA volunteer a few hours each week and that you're minimally able to do some of your own laundry and rake a few leaves or drive a car, you have just provided your accusers with, "clear and convincing evidence of actual employability" and they will lower your rating to satisfy the bean counters at GAO.

I opened this rant with some comments about volunteers....now back to that.

I'm a disabled Veteran. I volunteer a few hours each week at my local VA Primary Care Clinic. I'm proud to be able to give back to my doctor and the other professional staff who have helped me. I always feel good when I can help a brother or sister in arms. The younger ones are particularly rewarding...those just returning from the battle really need an experienced hand to guide them.

Most of the volunteers I work with have disability ratings. Maybe 1/2 are 100% disabled. If this is to be a witch hunt by The Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission (VDBC) to uncover our dirty little secret...that we're able sometimes to answer a phone or file some papers...we'll have to give that up. As it stands today it would seem that each time we sign in to our VA facility to do a bit of volunteer work, we've just raised a red flag and officially documented to VBA on a VA computer system (Searchable by the Commission?) that we should have our personal disability rating reviewed.

The message from VDBC is pretty straightforward. Don't try to improve your life by working, volunteering or interacting with those around you. And if you insist on carrying on like that, for God's sake, don't get caught. A few hours of volunteer work or making your bed each day will be seen as proof that you enjoy good health and employability. And as long as you're doing so well, your rating will be reduced.

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Larry Scott

 

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