Veteran dies after waiting over 1 year to receive first VA payment

 WINTER HAVEN, Fla (WFLA) – Captain Norman Jackson was honored to serve his country but when it was time for Veterans Affairs to help him, he faced months of delays.

Jackson, a Winter Haven resident, needed what the VA calls aid and attendance to pay for an assisted living facility, according to his daughter Melissia Pletcher.

“It was costing more for him to live there than he was getting in social security and pension,” Pletcher said.

It was April of 2019 when Pletcher began helping her father navigate through the government paperwork.

“I I did get some help from the VA,” she said. “But at times, they would send me the same things over and over over again.”

In November, she received a letter that stated her father was entitled to “a special monthly pension based on the need for aid and attendance.”

“Nope,” she said when asked if the payments started after that. “Another delay.”

By the time Jackson got his first payment, he was 87 and near the end of his life. It brought up a claim made about the VA by many veterans; Delay, deny until you die.

“I think that happened in my father’s case,” Pletcher said. “I do because he got June and July and he died in August.”

Later that month, the VA sent Jackson a letter informing him he would be receiving help to create a fiduciary as in someone to be responsible for his accrued benefits.

“It’s dated August 17th,” Pletcher said. “And he died on August 7th.”

Pletcher, who was going to be the fiduciary, said at that point the VA told her she needed to fill out additional paperwork.

“I had already filled it out,” Pletcher said.

The VA has yet to respond to questions about how common these types of delays are and what causes them.

Pletcher said the process was especially frustrating considering how much her family has given to the military.

“My father loved his country and every man in his family served,” she said. “That long for two months of benefits he was entitled to? I’m angry. I’m frustrated. I’m tired. I worked so long and hard on this.”

Pletcher her father died, Pletcher said she was told by the VA that the agency would work with her on recovering the accrued benefits for her. About four months later, she was told the benefits were denied.

She had the right to appeal but said she was worn out by the process and does not believe she can do it without the help of her parents’ estate attorney.

“You saw all the paperwork I had and I just wanted to cry many days because I was over my head,” Pletcher said. “I am tired and have just given up.”  

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Don't Leave Disabled Veterans Behind In Coronavirus Crisis!

By Steven Masone 

Thousands of Veterans participating in the VA's Vocational Rehabilitation Program and other related Programs may be left behind and not receive the cash being sent to people for  hardship relief in the Republican and Democrat proposed Coronavirus aid packages. 

Many Veterans in those programs did not have to file taxes in 2018 because they did not work in the public sector. However, many went to work in 2019 and have filed or will soon file. They qualify except for the 2018 tax filing requirement. While all low income veterans who didn't file in 2018 and are not back to work yet should be included also, more so for those who re-entered the workforce in 2019!

The VA only pays Voc Rehab participants a little under $700 a month stipend for living expenses. Most of the participants survive on under $1500 a month if they are on disability but lose the stipend once back at work. Many struggling with PTSD and other issues beyond their Physical injuries make them high risk for increasing the already epidemic of suicide in the veterans population.

 Now, many who have no support system will be isolated further and the financial assistance will go a long way to alleviate their anxieties and feelings that they don't matter.

The plan unveiled Thursday night by Senate Republicans to provide direct cash assistance to help Americans hurt by the coronavirus pandemic would send checks of up to $1,200 per person in a one-time payment — and payments would be based on income.

Under the plan, the details of which were revealed on the Senate floor by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., individuals making up to $75,000 annually would be eligible for a $1,200 check from the federal government.

The cash would be delivered in a one-time payment. President Donald Trump and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin had in recent days pushed for Americans to get two payments.

Married couples who file their taxes jointly would have to make less than $150,000 to qualify for their payment, which would be $2,400.

From there, according to McConnell's proposal, the payments would decrease. For individuals, the sum of the payment would fall by $5 for each $100 earned over $75,000.

The payment would phase out entirely for individuals making more than $99,000 annually, meaning people who make more than that would not get any money from the government, according to the proposal.

For married couples earning more than $150,000, the payment would also decline gradually, and it would phase out completely for couples making more than $198,000, according to the plan.

The checks, however, would reduce to $600 (or $1,200 for married couples) for taxpayers who have little or no income tax liability but have at least $2,500 in qualifying income, according to a GOP summary of the plan. The income levels the government would review to make the cash payout determinations would be based on 2018 tax returns, McConnell said.

Ain't No Sunshine Blues

Memorial Day Tribute 2019

VA abandons suicide prevention program

Affairs officials failed to spend millions of dollars earmarked for veterans suicide prevention efforts in fiscal year 2018, leading to a measurable decline in outreach activity, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

“Leadership turnover and reorganization since 2017” led to a “decrease in suicide prevention media activities” over the past two years, the report found. The agency employed no permanVeterans ent national director for suicide prevention between July 2017 and April 2018, and agency employees told investigators that there were not always leadership officials available to make key decisions or run meetings related to suicide prevention outreach. These shortcomings forced staffers to shift “their focus away from the suicide prevention media outreach campaign” and toward other mental health efforts.

Reflections of a PTSD Freefall

Poem In The Dark

by Steven Masone

Through the tear stained windows

of my dark and cold night...

Quiet shadows cast down from above.. no warmth... no light.

Inwardly I grieve, as the faraway music cries...closing her melodic door,

Sweet songs fading, the beauty of their refrain, ...no more.

My eyes lift and see the pale glimmer... vanish as a fleeting cloud...

Torn between sense and sound, I give up my voice...I cry aloud!

More tears upon my tears, falling down and down they fell,

rivers... deep fountains, searching for the bitter... black fire to quell.

Ashes of broken dreams fly upward ...in courage, with resurrected strength, ringing hope's bell.

I rise up from the dazed and blind torment... of my long,

lonely, and unbearable... Hell!

VA Chapter 31 Voc Rehab Needs Overhaul!

Veterans Administration Watch:

The story is many Voc Rehab workers pick and choose who they will help and hinder those who is not worthy of their time. Many veterans fight with VA Vocational Rehabilitation for years before figuring out that program administrators are straight up lying to them about what the program can do for any veteran.

Want to know what those lies are before you fall victim?

Thousands of disabled veterans apply for Chapter 31 Vocational Rehabilitation every year. Some are successful in getting the benefits they deserve and some are not.

In my time researching and writing on the subject, there seems to be a common theme arising: lies. Many veterans are misled about what Voc Rehab can do for them even though policies exist that contradict what counselor say.

This leads one to conclude that either there are guidelines to excuses somewhere that Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors live by, or there is an underlying discussion between offices as to what excuses can be used to keep deserving disabled veterans from their benefits.

It reminds me of a period of my life when I spent a great deal of my recreational time researching the Bible. Living in England at the time, I used the ESV Bible, the Cambridge Companion to the Bible, the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, and a copy of The Living Buddha, Living Christ that my grandmother sent me. Over the years, scholars have found there to be such commonality between the New Testament Gospels that they came to believe there existed a fifth text referred to as “Q.” Q is believed by many scholars to be the first written gospel that contained many of the quotes and anecdotes of Jesus’ time on Earth.

In a similar way, one cannot help but speculate that there is a similar text that creates a common set of lies Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors tell disabled veterans when denying claims. In my searches for it, I seem only to find regulations that support veterans’ claims for benefits -- strange.

VOC REHAB BACKGROUND

Background. The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (DVA OIG) ordered an audit of the VR&E program in 2007 and a subsequent survey sampling of 80,000 veterans to find out why so many disabled veterans never complete the program. While VR&E boasts a success rate of close to 75 percent to the U.S. Congress, the real number is much lower. According to the DVA OIG, the true success rate is closer to 18 percent. Most qualified veterans drop out of Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) before developing an Individual Written Rehabilitation Plan (IWRP). Many more drop out before finishing the program. VR&E has not been including these cases in their reported success rate.

In Corporate America, this is called “cooking the books,” for which people have gone to jail and been sued. Lucky for VR&E, the officials of this ENRON of the federal government are largely blanketed by sovereign immunity. The government has to agree to let you sue the government. Convenient.