VA rolling out program to help Veterans denied benefits due to discharge status
The VA announced a plan involving grants to fund certain organizations that help veterans. These organizations assist veterans who are trying to obtain benefits despite their discharge status. The VA will establish a pilot program giving grants to organizations who provide legal assistance. Veterans looking to gain benefits such as college tuition, healthcare, and disability compensation, but whose discharge status is a potential block, can potentially benefit from this program.
From Stars & Stripes
Under a proposed rule to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, the VA would establish a pilot program to award grants to legal assistance clinics helping veterans gain benefits, including disability compensation, college tuition and health care.
Veterans are excluded from VA services and benefits if their discharge was not honorable.
“The primary purpose of the grant program is to provide certain legal assistance to former service members to assist them in gaining access to VA benefits,” according to the proposed rule. “Because a former service member’s discharge is often a barrier to VA benefits, VA believes the grant program would provide needed assistance with improving the character of discharge for those individuals whose current discharge status renders them ineligible.”
The announcement follows a rule change the VA made in April that enabled troops who left the service because of discrimination, military sexual trauma or mental health problems to reapply for benefits regardless of their discharge status, the agency said.
The rule “eliminated the regulatory bar for homosexual acts involving aggravating circumstances or other factors affecting the performance of duty,'” the VA said
The rule change also enabled veterans to provide “compelling circumstances” in cases where they were absent without leave for 180 days or more.
Additional Reading:
Hersey, L. F. (2024, October 1). VA to create program that offers legal help to veterans denied benefits because of discharge status. Stars & Stripes. Link.
Category: Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department
Oh how times have changed. This might be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think you should get any vet benefits without that “Honorable” with no preceding adjectives. I’d make an obvious exception for those injured in the line of duty (especially in combat) to get the help they need medically. If you were chaptered out for dis/misconduct, then you broke your contract with Uncle Sam.
Medical discharge is normally considered honorable so they get the benefit. I agree, however: it’s not hard to get an honorable discharge.
Concur 100%. You can be an absolute shit Soldier and still get an honorable discharge. Anything less means you get no benefits.
Why not a pilot program for those that faked being in the service? Oh wait, that’s just normal VA service.
I would say if the “mental health problems” were brought on by the service then that could be a thing. But such rarity. Of the millions of soldiers who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan less than a quarter of a million actually saw combat. That even includes many fobbits who may have observed some IDF.
Personally I only know of two guys who turned to substance abuse after very unusual and difficult tours. This resulted in both getting General Discharges. I know everyone reacts differently and what one guy can shake off will break another. These were otherwise good guys, not shitbags too. I always had some sympathy for them, I’d just hate for it to become an excuse for bad behavior in the future.
I was in Iraq as an Infantryman in 05-06 with the 172nd SBCT. We were there when the golden dome in Samarrah was blown up and kicked off all the sectarian violence. I know several people, myself included, that caught the PTSD from that tour and ended up self medicating instead of seeking help. Thankfully none of us did anything stupid enough to get kicked out with anything less than an honorable discharge. I eventually got the help I needed and have been sober for years now.
I’m glad to hear of your ongoing sobriety. You are definitely not alone in the struggle. One of those guys hit the bottle and had three DUIs in as many months. Went from E6 to E3 to civilian in about five months. The other turned to weed to numb his brain and pissed hot as an NCO so he was gone.
My self destructive path tended to turn towards adrenaline fueled thrill seeking activity that thankfully I’ve mostly aged out of since. Anyone who tried to tell me at the time what I was doing was simply laughed off as a pussy. This kind of behavior tends to resolve itself in explosive ways, so I was quite lucky there. I couldn’t really see outside myself at the time and sometimes look back with a little cringe.
Not just no but Hells to the NO! Stepping on one’s junk SHOULD hurt…and have consequences. It goes back to proper Home Training…and taking personal responsibility for your own actions. As others have pointed out here, getting an Honorable Discharge is not that too hard, and millions upon millions have done it. Giving a dirtbag the same bennies as someone that did the right thing is a slap in the face of the ones that “did their duty in all things…”. Maybe these dirtbags need a “slap in the face” of their own.
Let me see if I have this straight. The VA says because of the discharge one can’t receive VA benefits, so the VA is going to give grants to a bunch of lawyers so the character of service can be changed and VA benefits can be had. The VA is constantly behind the 8 ball because they have too many patients. So now they want to go out and drum up more patients they haven’t got the time for. I can see that six month wait list becoming a one year wait list. And correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t there already organizations that help veterans try to change their discharge?
Another federal agency creating another self-licking lollipop.
DEI program? Fraudster target? Many ways for this to be abused or poorly applied, while dudes for whom this was meant (e.g., served/re-enlisted until got PTSD/MST then chaptered for “personality disorder” and zero benefits) get nothing.