lake county >> Representatives from the county’s Veterans Service Office are asking veterans in the community to participate in a petition drive. The goal is to find Congressional support to stop a measure that may cut federal benefits.
The most recent federal budget offsets the cost of the Veterans Choice Program (VCP) by dropping from roles veterans who are using Individual Unemployability (IU) benefits and are over the age of 62. This would affect 208,000 veterans. Over 200 of them live in Lake County.
The VCP was put in place by the Obama Administration in 2014 to help Veterans who are covered by VA health benefits, allowing them to see local providers if they live 40 miles away from the nearest VA medical facility. The program also eased service for those who had to wait more than 30 days for a clinic appointment.
Saul Sanabria, Veteran Service Officer for Lake County said this potential cut would specifically affect veterans over the age of 62 now acknowledged as retired and able to collect Social Security.
The IU benefits are given to disabled veterans who cannot work. Their disabilities include loss of hearing, loss of limbs and even mental disabilities. The rate given to veterans ranges from 60 to 90 percent of compensations because of their inability to work and adds up to $1,600 to their monthly payments.
“Since you are not inputting any money into Social Security because you are unemployable, you aren’t going to get any money from it,” Sanabria said. “This petition is to try and keep the IU benefits to the people above the age of 62 and have the government find millions or billions and trillions of dollars somewhere else to fund VCP.”
If veterans were to lose their IU benefits, it would lead to drastic changes in their life and could cause foreclosures, adding to the county’s homeless issues, Sanabria observed. This would also decrease property tax and sales tax revenues.
“It would be a huge financial impact, not only to the individuals but that is no longer money that can be distributed through vendors,” Sanabria said.
To help protect veterans in this county as well as others, Sanabria said they have been going through all the veteran’s names they have registered in their system and asking them to sign the petition and is sending it to their local congressmen.
Sanabria added that having benefits cut after the age of 62 would lead to disabled veterans to try and work before to build social security funds instead of applying for aid.
“A lot of individuals sometimes don’t meet criteria for jobs because of the disabilities they have making it difficult for them to find jobs,” Sanabria said.
The VA office in Lake County has been collecting signatures for about a month and will continue to look for veterans to sign the petition to keep the IU benefits for those over the age of 62.
