Monthly compensation that the Department of Veterans Affairs pays to veterans with service-connected disabilities is intended to replace the average earnings loss because of their injuries or ailments.
But should VA also pay disabled veterans something extra for their diminished quality of life? Two prominent commissions in 2007 said that it should.
On Wednesday, however, a senior VA official told senators that the department isn’t prepared yet to endorse a qualify-of-life payment, or to make any other significant change to disability compensation.
“There’s more information that’s needed, and … more discussion that needs to take place with many experts, before we are prepared to say yes or no on any of those recommendations,” said Patrick Dunne, undersecretary for benefits in VA’s Veterans Benefits Administration.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the ranking Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee, raised the issue in a hearing on a different topic: what the VA is doing to speed the processing of a rising number of disability claims.
Burr noted that VA just last year commissioned a study by Economic Systems on appropriate levels of disability pay to compensate for loss of earning capacity and quality of life as a result of service-related disabilities. This six-month study was to follow up on recommendations from both the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission and the Dole-Shalala Commission in 2007 to reform disability compensation.
The benefits commission, in its comprehensive report, concluded that VA disability pay was too low for three categories of veterans: those who suffer from mental disabilities; those severely injured while young, and those deemed unemployable (i.e., rated IU or Individual Unemployability) by VA.
The commission also said disability pay should reflect the “adverse impact … on quality of life” of veterans’ disabilities. Commissioners recognized that some severely injured veterans are paid a special monthly compensation on top of VA disability pay. But they said the VA rating schedule still should be revised to compensate many more veterans for diminished quality of life. In the interim, the commission said, Congress should increase VA disability compensation immediately by 25 percent.
The Dole-Shalala panel focused its recommendations on wounded warriors and veterans who were in service after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. It recommended restructuring their VA disability compensation into three parts: transition payments to cover short-term living expenses for disabled vets and their families; earning loss payments until veterans become eligible for social security, and a quality-of-life payment to compensate for non-work-related effects of permanent combat-related injuries.
The study by Economic Systems, delivered last August, looked at VA disability compensation with regard to earnings loss, loss of quality of life, transition benefits and other areas raised by the two commissions. To ensure that VA didn’t ignore the findings, the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2008 directed VA to evaluate it and, in a report to Congress, give a timeline and a list of legislative changes needed to make any worthy disability pay reforms.
The VA’s assessment arrived on Capitol Hill July 22.
“But I don’t see any planned actions or timelines laid out in the VA’s report,” Burr told Dunne a week later. “Could you clarify whether VA plans to take any actions in response to that study?”
Dunne said Economic Systems did a “good job” considering its six-month deadline, but that much more information and debate is needed before VA can back changes. For VA or Congress to act based on the “truly national policy recommendations” found in the study, which relied on insufficient cost and earnings data, “would not be serving our veterans properly,” Dunne said.
EconSys estimated the annual cost of several payment options would range between $10 billion to $30 billion.
Burr urged Dunne to consult with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, and then tell Congress “what the next step should be.” Burr noted that both major commissions saw a need to “move to a system that compensates for the loss of quality of life.” That course was favored too, for a time, within VA and Congress. That momentum to help veterans shouldn’t be lost, Burr said.
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