VA'S CRUEL BENEFITS POLICY: IF YOU DON'T ASK, WE WON'T TELL -- Lack of VA outreach costs World War II POW more than 60 years of benefits. When family files, VA loses paperwork and vet dies with nothing.
The following is a very sad story about a brave veteran who lived for over 60 years never knowing he had earned VA benefits.
How can this happen?
Because the VA has no obligation to inform "older" veterans of their benefits.
Until recently, the VA didn't notify any veterans about their benefits, but now they are required to do outreach to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
While this is a good thing, those "young" veterans make up less than 3% of the veteran population.
That leaves the other 97+% without any mandated outreach.
Congress tried to implement legislation requiring the VA to notify all veterans of all possible benefits...but, VA argued against it. It's time for Congress to bring this legislation back.
In this election year, we hear politicians of both parties talking about supporting the troops and caring for veterans...but, that's just 3% of the veterans. Iraq and Afghanistan vets get priority healthcare and claims adjudication as well as a special outreach program to inform them of their benefits.
The older vets just sit and wait their turn in line. Anyone who served prior to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is truly "Old and in the Way."
-Larry Scott-
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After World War II vet misses out on decades of government benefits, family moves to raise awareness among others
Posted by Beata Mostafavi
The Flint Journal
GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan -- World War II veteran and former Prisoner of War William Jones didn't know he was eligible for thousands of dollars in veteran benefits over the past six decades.
By the time he did, it was too late.
Months after filing paperwork to get help with medical costs -- a process that was delayed when the Veteran's Administration lost his information in Detroit -- the Burton vet died July 9.
And without a surviving spouse, his claim file was closed.
John W. Adkisson The Flint Journal(From left) Jill Walker, Megan Jones and Shawna Meilke hug at the funeral of William Jones on Friday afternoon at Crestwood Cemetery in Grand Blanc Township.
"He could have lived a different lifestyle," said Jones' son Dean, who said his father worked two jobs to support five children. "They could have paid for his prescriptions and helped him out a little bit. Both his and my mom's health could have been different. They could have traveled more.
"They told us that now that he's deceased, there's nothing more they can do."
It's a common story -- many veterans unaware of the health care, tax breaks and pay they are entitled to never receive state or federal benefits.
Dean Jones, of Davison Township, said his family now wants to honor their father by raising awareness for other vets who might not know what help is available to them.
They also are urging the VA to invest in more outreach to people like their father who could have received about $2,700 a month in VA payments and full medical and dental coverage.
Dean Jones said his father thought he'd already received all of his benefits when he returned from war -- a $160 check for being a POW and getting dental work after a German officer knocked his teeth out with the butt of a rifle.
"He deserved all the money he was missing all those years but it isn't going to bring him back and isn't going to help anyone now," Dean Jones said.
"We want (the VA) to make right by our father and all veterans. We'd like to see other veterans get what's coming to them. They took care of us. We need to take care of them."
Jones' family is asking the VA to help with burial and funeral costs but isn't trying to collect any of the estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars or more his father might have received total over the years.
The family started researching his benefits when they were considering hospice, which wasn't covered by Jones' General Motors insurance for salaried retirees.
The family said they are disappointed that no one ever contacted the late Jones, who suffered from prostate cancer and was 87 years old, to explain benefits.
To make things worse, after five months of scrambling to collect all of Jones' military records to send to the VA, the family was told it had gone missing.
"They sat on it and someone dropped the ball," Dean Jones said. "He was dying and it was very critical."
Bill Traylor, a veterans service officer who handled Jones' case, said all of Jones' paperwork was filed correctly out of the Genesee County office.
But he acknowledged that it got lost in the shuffle when it reached the VA's Detroit office.
"We submitted it to the VA but somehow it never got to his file, which does happen because there's a lot of paperwork down there," he said.
He said POW claims get priority and normally Jones' case would have been processed more quickly. The lost records delayed the process by a month.
"What's really unfortunate is he could have been receiving his benefits since 1945. He could've been taken care of for 60 years," Traylor said. "When the family came in, they had no idea about all of these benefits. It's just a terrible shame."
He said the VA has made efforts in the past to inform veterans who qualify for unused benefits.
"There are an astronomical number of WWII vets who either didn't know they qualified for benefits or feel like they don't need them," Traylor said. "I talk to these guys and a very high percentage of them came back with the attitude of 'this was something I had to do, something I did for my country and I don't want anything from the government.'"
"I can't say enough about these World War vets. It truly is the greatest generation."
The late Jones never shared much about his POW experiences. He was captured in France in 1944 and spent about six months in prison where daily meals consisted of horse meat soup and coffee.
Gathered together the morning of his burial, his children said the grandfather of 11 and great-grandfather of 12 suffered from nightmares and ulcers and endured malaria in Africa and a gunshot wound in his hand.
They remember him soaking his legs in hot water and squeezing out bits of shrapnel.
And the Purple Heart recipient always carried a pocket-sized Bible with him -- which he said saved his life when it blocked shrapnel from piercing his chest while in minefields in Europe.
"He went through hell," said daughter Marla Coon, whose husband Earl researched Jones' service through the Internet, museums and historians. "He was a brave man. He taught us that nothing is for free."
The family is now working to ensure Jones' six medals -- discovered through their recent research -- come home. They also are asking a military review board to consider awarding him a Silver Star for braving mortar fire and heavy enemy shelling in Italy when he returned to a minefield for two injured soldiers.
"I just want to make things right for him and honor his final wishes," Dean Jones said.
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