I'm a vet, and I can say that the treatment of vets by the VA and federal government is abysmal. The VA help system is so full of twists, turns, conflicting information, conflicting departments that I'm surprised that the number of vets on the streets and/or dead isn't even *higher*. I just received my disability rating of 170%, after a year of watching the VA foreclose on my house and living off of help from my and my wife's family (the AF wasn't paying me while it tried to figure out how to pay me as an IMA reservist on active duty in the process of being medically retired). Even though I'm housebound, I don't know that I'm going to receive any aid from the VA itself since disability is subtracted from retirement (if you have less than 20 years active service), and the "combined rating reduction system" will probably push my "payable" disability rating below the 160% required to receive additional assistance via the "special military compensation" tables. This just illustrates the byzantine system that has been set up to provide the illusion that vets are being cared for -- while in reality much effort is expended to keep from having to actually take care of (i.e. *pay* or provide assistance) veterans in need. I know that many have it worse than I do -- especially since I've gotten assistance from my incredible wife and the D.A.V. -- but I now understand how vets actually do end up on the street or end up committing suicide. Without an advocate I *would* be dead, probably by suicide. The story here is not just that vets with mental health issues aren't getting taken care of; it's that vets are being stigmatized and actively *driven* to acts of desperation even if they were previously mentally healthy. This is one of our country's biggest hidden shames -- our greatest advocates are actively being driven to acts of desperation by the very people that are there to help them
Well, turns out that my rating is actually *170%*, not 130, like we thought (good news, right?). We still haven't heard anything other than they finished my rating on 1 Nov, so we're still waiting to hear if "concurrent payments" applies to me (would reduce my VA disability to almost nothing), "Rating Reduction" (reduces your payable rating % based on overlapping conditions) and if "Special Compensation" applies to me.
It took 14 months, much scrimping and hard work by JenniB, but it appears to have finally paid off. We just got the letter that I'm 100% (actually 130%, to be technical) disabled.
