By John F. McCourt, Director, VARO, Newark
Hello New Jersey veterans, and greetings from the
VA Newark Regional Office. This is the first in a series
of articles that will appear in this newsletter outlining
the Newark Regional Office’s efforts to have more veterans
file claims for compensation benefits.
As Col. (Ret.) Stephen Abel mentioned in the Winter
2005 edition of the Veterans Journal, only eight percent
(50,000) of New Jersey’s 600,000 veterans
currently receive monthly compensation from the Veterans
Benefits Administration. Nationally 10 percent
of our 25 million living veterans receive monthly compensation
for their service connected disabilities. While
two percent may not seem like a large number, that
translates into 12,000 veterans.
Our goal is to bring as many of those veterans onto
the rolls as possible. To do this we are partnering with
NJDMVA to encourage veterans to apply for service
connected compensation or non-service connected
pension. We will also explore all possible ways and
opportunities of reaching those 550,000 veterans who
live in our state who are not on the compensation rolls.
We are also interested in getting more claims from
the 50,000 veterans already receiving monthly compensation.
Statistics show that we are not receiving
enough claims from these veterans as a group, which
includes combat injured veterans.
Recent reviews of these veterans’ records shows
that the majority of these combat injured veterans have
not filed claims for increases since they were initially
awarded compensation benefits many years ago. In
most cases, 30, 40 and 50 years have gone by since
they were awarded benefits. These reviews included
combat injured from all wars, including WW II, Korea,
and Vietnam. If you are one of these combat injured
and your disabilities have worsened over the years,
you may be entitled to increased compensation.
The good news is that the VA can’t decrease your
compensation by law once you have received it at the
same level for 20 years. The VA recognizes that certain
disabilities grow more severe as time progresses
and have a greater affect on veterans as they age. We
are encouraging all veterans, but particularly those
combat injured, to review their current disability compensation
rates and apply for an increase if their conditions
have worsened.
We also encourage veterans to involve their accredited
Veteran Service Officers (VSO) when they
apply to the VA for compensation. Ideally veterans
should allow their VSO to file their paperwork for them
at the Regional Office. Veterans who actively involve
their VSO’s in the advocacy of their claims receive
higher awards and in less time than veterans who do
not. You do not need to personally visit the Regional
Office, but may call your representative at the following
phone numbers:
American Legion -- 973-297-3377
American Vets -- 215-381-3294
Disabled American Vets -- 973-297-3378
Jewish War Vets -- 973-297-3388
Military Order of the Purple Heart -- 973-297-3389
NJ Dept. of Military & Vet Affairs -- 973-297-3230
Paralyzed Vets of America -- 973-297-3228
Veterans of Foreign Wars -- 973-297-3226
Vietnam Vets of America -- 973-297-3227
If you don’t have an accredited VSO or don’t remember
if you have one, you can call the Regional
Office toll free at 1-800-527-1000 for information.
I look forward to providing additional information
about compensation benefits to my fellow veterans in
the coming weeks and months and partnering with
NJDMVA to ensure that all veterans know about how
to file for the benefits that they have earned.