The watchdog group Veterans for Common Sense has released the finding of a study it did concerning military benefit claims. The group found that National Guard and reserve members are denied disability claims, or given the lowest disability rating much more often than active duty veterans.
Their study shown that Guard and reservists are have their claims denied twice as often as active duty member when serving in the same operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. What’s even more unsettling is this higher rejection rate comes in tandem with a significantly lower rate of filing disability claims on the part of Guard and reserve members. The ratio works out to half the percentage of claims with double the rejection rate.
Both the Senate and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have begun to look into these findings. They have charged the Veteran’s Administration with conducting a probe into exactly why these discrepancies exist. In addition, they have called for comparison of claim denial between career military and non-career members, white and non-white, rural and urban based, and reservist and active duty members.
The Veteran’s Administration flatly denies that there is any preferential treatment, but suggests that most disability claims that are approved are the result of chronic illnesses and that reservists simply do not serve for a long enough time to cultivate such problems. There is also the problem that if a claim is not filed while the reservist is serving active duty it is harder to get it approved.
The watchdog group Veterans for Common Sense has released the finding of a study it did concerning military benefit claims. The group found that National Guard and reserve members are denied disability claims, or given the lowest disability rating much more often than active duty veterans.
Their study shown that Guard and reservists are have their claims denied twice as often as active duty member when serving in the same operations in Iraq or Afghanistan. What’s even more unsettling is this higher rejection rate comes in tandem with a significantly lower rate of filing disability claims on the part of Guard and reserve members. The ratio works out to half the percentage of claims with double the rejection rate.
Both the Senate and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee have begun to look into these findings. They have charged the Veteran’s Administration with conducting a probe into exactly why these discrepancies exist. In addition, they have called for comparison of claim denial between career military and non-career members, white and non-white, rural and urban based, and reservist and active duty members.
The Veteran’s Administration flatly denies that there is any preferential treatment, but suggests that most disability claims that are approved are the result of chronic illnesses and that reservists simply do not serve for a long enough time to cultivate such problems. There is also the problem that if a claim is not filed while the reservist is serving active duty it is harder to get it approved.
