"It will be gratifying to see the law changed. I know there are a lot of people who are struggling to get their pensions back and really need them."

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... For more about veterans' pensions, use our search engine ... here ...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.ph
p?q=pension+pensions&op=or

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VA became vet's enemy

By Dan Moffett

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/columnists/v
a-became-vet-s-enemy-221929.html

The Department of Veterans Affairs is notorious for making vets wait years to get rulings on benefits claims. But the VA can cut through its own bureaucracy when it decides to take benefits away.

Kerry Glen Scriber of West Palm Beach knows this better than anyone.

Mr. Scriber, who is 54 and served five years in the Navy during the 1970s, suffers from muscular dystrophy and needs a wheelchair to get around. Two years ago, he and his service dog were crossing the intersection of Broadway and 45th Street in West Palm on a trip to the pharmacy when an SUV accelerated through the crosswalk and sent them both flying.

"People who saw it said I went 10 feet into the air," Mr. Scriber says. "I landed head-first into the pavement."

Mr. Scriber suffered broken bones around his right eye and some chipped teeth. His dog got a nasty bump to the head but was otherwise OK. The wheelchair was destroyed.

The driver's insurance company conceded that its client was at fault and wrote Mr. Scriber a check for $10,000 to cover medical expenses and replace his wheelchair. As required by law, Mr. Scriber reported the settlement to the VA.

"Within two days, I heard from the VA," he says. "They told me they were shutting off my pension for the rest of the year. It was a lightning-quick decision."

The VA considers any reimbursement that compensates a veteran — for expenses due to accidents, theft or loss — as income. Losing the pension was devastating for Mr. Scriber, who fell below the poverty line without it. He missed mortgage payments and nearly lost his home. The stress and anxiety made his illness even worse. "I was shocked and disappointed," he says. "It didn't make a lot of sense to me."

Mr. Scriber might have joined the ranks of homeless vets, were it not for the intervention of Dan Liftman, an aide to U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and Dennis Koehler, a Vietnam vet who now is an attorney with the Vietnam Veterans of America. Mr. Liftman leaned on the VA pension office in Philadelphia, and Mr. Koehler, a former Palm Beach County commissioner, threatened to sue. After weeks of pounding, the VA relented and restored most of Mr. Scriber's pension. "They probably feared a public relations disaster," Mr. Liftman said.

Rep. Hastings doesn't want this to happen again. Last month, he introduced the Veterans Pensions Protection Act. The bill would protect vets from losing their pension benefits because they received payments to cover expenses after accidents, thefts or casualties. The legislation has bipartisan support; Reps. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, and Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, are co-sponsors.

Rep. Hastings has it right when he says that the American people don't want the VA to be in the business of punishing people who have served the country, especially at their most vulnerable moments when they have become victims of crime, accident or disaster.

You wouldn't think that Congress would have to pass a bill to get the government to honor basic principles of fairness and common sense. But, again, we're talking about the VA. No federal agency has a worse track record when it comes to making enlightened decisions and rational judgments.

As for Mr. Scriber, he's come out of a tough couple of years, but he has his home, his dog, a new wheelchair and new friends in Washington. Considering how it looked for a while, the outcome is not so bad. There is also a sense of satisfaction that his ordeal might help other vets.

"It will be gratifying to see the law changed," he says. "I know there are a lot of people who are struggling to get their pensions back and really need them."

Dan Moffett is a former member of the Post Editorial Board.

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