Study: VA Disablity Pay Is Too Low (For Some Iraq Vets)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Stars And Stripes

Military Update:
Study says VA disability pay is too low for some

By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, June 16, 2007

Disability compensation for veterans severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, particularly the youngest, is set too low, creating a lifetime earnings gap with nondisabled peers, according to a draft study on disabled veterans’ incomes prepared for the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission.

The same study found that disability compensation probably is set too high for veterans who first begin drawing the disability payments at age 65 or older, having already retired from postservice careers.

This imbalance in disability compensation paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was a point of contention at a June 8 commission hearing. The data help to explain why younger disabled veterans, facing a lifetime of income challenges, are more dissatisfied with disability pay. But commissioners sounded divided on how to address the imbalance in earning capacity if part of the perceived solution is to dampen future payments to elderly veterans who are awarded VA compensation late in life.

- snip -

But the fairness of disability payments unravels when actual earning losses are broken out by the veteran’s age when payments start, the severity of disability and whether conditions are physical or mental. Earnings capacity is impacted far more dramatically by mental disorders, CNA found.


Read more: http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=46722

[babylonsister]

1. This hurts my heart; these soldiers gave their all for their country, and

their country can't, or won't, compensate them?

[tanyev]

2. GOP answer: They volunteered for it.

[BlueIris]

3. Wow, no shit? In other "news," Bush is a cokehead.