VFW Service Officer claims organization doesn't have funds for proper training program.

by Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org

When I received the following email, I wasn't surprised.

Question about Service Officer Training. I am recently a Service Officer with a VFW post and am trying to get training but have been very unsuccessful in that attempt. Do you know of any training courses that are inexpensive or free since the VFW does not have the funds to pay for this? Thank you for your help.

A number of years ago I visited a VFW service office.  They left the door to the office open and every vet who went in got the same:

"Yeah, let's just send it in and see what happens.  All the VA can do is say 'no'"

None of the three veterans who were "helped" were asked for documentation of any kind.  The VFW Service Officer just wrote down their claim info ... and sent it in.  This is "How to get Denied 101."

So, when I got this email, I asked myself, "WWJD?"  (What Would Jim Do?)

Here is the response to this email from Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland.  And, you can find all of Jim's great work here.

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by Jim Strickland

Jim Strickland here. I work with Larry Scott and he's asked that I reply to you.

Your question and situation is one of the reasons that I constantly shout out against the VSO program.

You've been appointed by the VFW to represent veterans in a process that is legally complex and distinctly adversarial. Lawyers spend years training to understand how the system works.

Your influence as a VSO may affect the quality of a given veterans life, and the well being of the veterans family, for years to come. The amount of money you will have to fight for can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The benefits that you may win or lose could decide whether a veterans children attend college or not or if the spouse will receive CHAMPVA and DIC benefits.

The responsibility is enormous. You propose to take on an agency that is the second largest federal bureaucracy that reports to the POTUS and the VFW has given you the title and authority to do just that.

But you tell me that VFW has no money and no program to train you. You've been allowed to try to find training that is "inexpensive or free" so that you may represent the VFW to your client veterans.

I am appalled.

The amount of harm that you have the potential to do is beyond belief. Why not set up shop as a lawyer and take on real estate transactions or as a doctor and offer advice on health care? Like representing veterans to the VBA, those jobs can be learned easily, I'm sure.

I urge you to step down from the position and not attempt any counseling of veterans until you have accomplished a number of tasks.

The first task is to go to my Veterans Benefits Guide and read it through completely. (A link is below.) Follow each reference link to the destination and read what you find there and read it until you feel you understand it.

Then return to the VA Watchdog dot Org web site and spend time following the links to the library of information that Larry and I have posted over the years. Do that carefully and meticulously. Read it until you feel you understand it. Build your library in your computer of all this information so that you may reference it when you get started.

Then go to the National Veterans Legal Services Program web site. http://www.nvlsp.org/

Purchase the manual http://www.nvlsp.org/Publications/Bo
okstore/Manuals/vetbenefitmanual.htm

Order the DVD http://www.nvlsp.org/Publications/B
ookstore/Manuals/vetbenefitdvd.htm

Most importantly, take the basic correspondence course http://www.nvlsp.org/Publications/B
ookstore/Courses/courses.htm

Once you've accomplished all the above and passed the NVLSP test, contact the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of General counsel http://www.va.gov/OGC/

Complete the VA Form that you find there to become accredited by VA to represent veterans. If I were you I would become accredited as an individual, not as a part of a Veterans Service Organization http://www.va.gov/OGC/docs/Accred/VA21a.pdf  because it appears your parent, the VFW, is not sponsoring you properly.

Finally...you should develop a relationship with a more experienced person...a lawyer or other advocate...who you can rely on to advise you. I advise many VSOs and a cadre of well trained, experienced and certified lawyers advise me.

When you get through all that, then...and only then...should you offer any advice to any veteran you may know.

I congratulate you on recognizing that you need to be trained. Far too many in similar situations settle in to their role and wing it, hoping for the best. But...this is a very serious business.

If you can't meet the standards I've laid out for you above, you won't be part of our solution. You'll be a part of our problem.

Jim

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, VFW, Service Officer, training