Legion: Slashing veterans Unemployability benefit wrong

Taking away or reducing a benefit that a veteran is entitled to is never an acceptable option. That’s what The American Legion’s Legislative Director Ian de Planque told members of Congress July 15 as they considered the Department of Veterans Affairs Total Disability benefit for Individual Unemployability.

A recent Government Accountability Office report examining the VA’s Total Disability Individual Unemployability benefit recommended cutting the benefit for veterans over the “working age” of 65. The American Legion strongly disagrees with this recommendation.

“In the past we’ve seen veterans programs slashed when the focus of war disappeared from the front page,” Ian de Planque stated during his testimony in front of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. “In 1933, FDR passed the Economy Act and gutted a lot of veterans’ benefits as the country struggled through the Great Depression. Taking from veterans was wrong then, and The American Legion wants to make clear that walking back compensation from those who have been injured in service will always be wrong.”

VA defines individual unemployability as being a part of the overall disability compensation program that allows it to pay certain veterans disability compensation at the 100-percent rate, even though VA has not rated the overall veterans service connected disabilities at 100 percent by the statutory rating scale. It is a recognition that some disabilities, while not rated at 100 percent, may cause serious problems for individual veterans seeking gainful employment.

“One of the tragic consequences of putting your life on the line to defend this nation is that the men and women who do so do not always return home whole,” de Planque said. “There are many ways your service can impact your life in the civilian world. It can happen immediately, as an IED blast forever and irrevocably changes your world. It can happen over time; the slow and insidious effects of exposure to dioxin in the herbicide Agent Orange can destroy the function of various bodily systems.”

Unfortunately, VA’s rating schedule does not always reflect the individual impact of disabilities on individual veterans, de Planque testified. A service-connected condition or the combined effects of multiple service-connected conditions could be so severe that the veteran is unable to gain and sustain meaningful employment, even if the veteran’s disability rating is not fully 100 percent. As a result, VA provides TDIU benefit.

“Sometimes the numbers don’t add up – but the overall effect of the toll of war on your body leaves you in a state where you can’t really go to work like the rest of the world,” de Planque said. This is a hard place to be for a veteran.”

de Planque noted the main reasons The American Legion’s believes that any reductions or removal of the benefit would do more harm than good.

First, the law is very black and white – age is not to be considered as a factor in these decisions, said de Planque. “The law has existed for decades, and there’s never been a problem,” he testified. “ You want to give very serious consideration to changing the United States Code to diminish a benefit intended to serve disabled veterans.”

Second, age is not an accurate reflection of the modern workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans over the age of 65 still in the workforce have doubled over the past 30 years. Well more than half of those are working full time. Those workers can collect their work income and Social Security, de Planque pointed out.

“Why should veterans be put into a disadvantaged category – especially veterans who have been injured and disabled in service to their country?” he said.

Most importantly, when veterans become disabled during the course of their service, the option to maintain a lengthy career path working towards building retirement benefits is taken away from them.

The TDIU benefit they receive may be the most substantial piece of income to support them in their old age, said de Planque, adding, “We need to think long and hard about depriving those veterans of that benefit.”

de Planque closed out his testimony by asking members of Congress to explore various options to improve the benefit, including the encouragement of communication and formation of partnerships between VA and other government agencies.

“It’s easy to look at veterans benefits in terms of dollars and cents,” he said. “I know some concerns about a benefit like TDIU will be driven by how much it costs. That’s a question that we, as a moral nation, can’t afford to ask.”