Veterans who got sick or hurt while serving our country can get regular payments through the Department of Veterans Affairs’ or VA’s, disability compensation program.
To qualify for compensation, a veteran must show the following:
- That they have an illness or injury to either their body or to their mind. Some common physical conditions include cancers, hearing loss, back injuries and breathing or mobility difficulties. Qualifying conditions of the mind include mental conditions anxiety and depression as well as neurological problems related to a traumatic brain injury.
- The veteran will have to demonstrate a connection between their ailment and their military service. There are several legal paths for doing this. In some cases, such as a chronic illness that appears within 1 year of discharge, the VA will assume that the veteran’s medical condition is service-related.
- The person must have performed some type of active-duty service, although inactive duty training also qualifies.
- The veteran, if enlisted, cannot have had a dishonorable, other than honorable or bad conduct discharge. An otherwise eligible veteran may be able to use a separate process to get an exception or modify their discharge.
Once a veteran successfully shows their eligibility for benefits, the VA will assign their disability rating by reviewing evidence from different sources.
The process the VA uses may come across as complicated for someone not familiar with it, but, basically, the VA is judging how much a person’s disability, or combination of disabilities, is impacting the person’s health and abilities.
The higher the disability rating, the more compensation the disabled veteran will receive. Unlike other federal programs, a veteran does not have to be completely unable to work in their trade or profession before drawing benefits.
Eligible veterans have a right to their disability benefits, and the extra income no doubt will help those who sacrificed while serving the country. Those veterans in the greater New Haven area should make sure they understand how to pursue these benefits successfully.