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Vets' Notes: Cutting Thru The Red Tape, Making Sense of Regs

By VVAW

In the past the Vets' Notes column in THE VETERAN has attempted to help vets by-pass some of the V.A.'s red tape to get some of the benefits that are ours, but which we often have to fight to get. With Reaganomics in full swing, and Davey Stockman—who managed to slither out of service in Vietnam—at the economic helm, we no longer can help get benefits; this column deals entirely with the benefits which are no longer.

Vets benefits which are now officially scrapped are:

• Unemployment compensation after discharge from the military. While it passed pretty much unnoticed at the time (except, of course, for vets applying for unemployment), this was a part of the "Omnibus Budget Act" passed this summer—namely that people leaving the service after July 1st, 1981, are ineligible for unemployment compensation based on their military service. Perhaps the military is now considered an honor, not a job?
• Burial benefits. There is still an allowance of $150 for a burial plot, but the old $300 allowance for a veteran's burial goes only to vets on a pension. This cut figures, since Reagan and Co are in a hurry to kill all of us off and would like to do it for free, if possible.
• Education loans, Because the GI Bill was never enough to get by on—and was often late—many vets took out GI Education loans to get by. These are now eliminated. These loans, in the past, went through times when Vets advisors begged vets to take them out and other times when they were almost impossible to get—GI Bill loans were never very stable. But for many vets they were the difference between staying and school and dropping out.
• Flight training. Previously covered by the GI Bill, this option is now eliminated.
• Correspondence courses. The payment schedule has been changed from the V.A. paying 70% to the V.A. paying only 55%.
• Dental benefits. In the past the vet had a year after discharge to get dental benefits from the V.A.; the time has now been changed to three months after discharge.

Many of these benefits are important only to those who are using them; others have been used by hundreds of thousands of vets—and would be used in the future if they were there. What these eliminations mark is only the first step, however; more cuts are in the making, and if the government can get away with cutting a "few" things each year, vets will soon find themselves with nothing—which is just what Reagan, Stockman & Co want!