Author Topic: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?  (Read 2915 times)

Illgetthere

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VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« on: October 23, 2017, 08:15:28 AM »
Anyone here receive VA disability? What are your thoughts on it for the future; how much do you count on it?
My H is considered P&T at 100%. It covers all of our expenses, and I work to save and cover vacations, large items that could come up, provide health insurance.  I have ran the numbers with H getting anywhere from what he currently does to receiving a little less than half, but I'm not sure how conservative we should be with this. I have looked into the 5/10/20 year protections, but looking for personal thoughts

DTaggart

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2017, 08:26:06 AM »
My husband gets a couple hundred a month in disability, and has been since he got discharged from the Navy 10+ years ago. I've never thought to question the reliability of it, it seems like it would be political suicide for anyone to suggest stopping or decreasing payments to disabled veterans. If it was our entire source of income I might worry about it not keeping up perfectly with inflation, inflation indices like the CPI don't always accurately reflect reality.

DTaggart

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2017, 12:36:33 PM »
OK so I thought more about this and did some Googling, and I think the OP is concerned about the VA doing a re-examination down the line and deciding that OP's husband has recovered/improved and is no longer disabled. I found this article which seems to explain things as well as VA things can be explained. OP, I think that your statement that his disability is 100% permanent and total means you do not have to worry about it, but your confidence might depend on your H's specific disability and if you think it might ever improve. From the article: "Veterans with a P&T Rating (Permanent and Total) will usually not be scheduled for a reexamination. The same thing goes for injuries that are considered permanent or static. These include injuries that will never change, such as a missing limb."

Illgetthere

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2017, 01:21:18 PM »
Thank you both.  It's honestly a little of both, although it is reassuring hearing that neither of you would plan for benefits to be cut in the future.

Although I don't believe there is a situation in which my husband would improve, I do have concern of the government looking for ways to save money and opening up tons of 100% cases in the future in an attempt to downgrade them. I don't think it would be near as public as across the board cuts that would have to be voted on.  With this being such a large part of our RE income, I hate to discount it and work longer than necessary, but I also don't want to get screwed 15 years from now.

DTaggart

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2017, 02:36:57 PM »
Well, I will say that out of the several different income sources I am planning to have in retirement (hubby's VA payment, investment returns, and my county pension), the VA money is the one I'm least concerned about, and I'm actually pretty confident in the others.

One thing to keep in mind though is the VA money is only going to last as long as he does, so if you are dependent on his income make some plans for how you'll manage if he passes before you do  (life insurance maybe).

Bimmy

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #5 on: October 23, 2017, 06:03:02 PM »
The P%T part normally means that your husband is locked in with no re-evaluations. P&T = permanent and total. I would feel pretty confident in that not going away. It is EXTREMELY difficult to get to a 100 P&T. The VA only awards that when they have little hope in a recovery.

Side note- I would look at "DIC" (Dependency and Indemnity Compensation).

Illgetthere

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2017, 08:09:39 AM »

One thing to keep in mind though is the VA money is only going to last as long as he does, so if you are dependent on his income make some plans for how you'll manage if he passes before you do  (life insurance maybe).
Excellent point! Thank you! I need to zero out his VA money AND his expenses, and save until I am comfortable by myself with the combined accounts with consideration of some SS in my 60s. He has a policy through my work and a policy ported from a previous employer. It is cheap now, but it increases as he ages so it will not be kept long term

Illgetthere

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2017, 08:10:34 AM »
Sun HAt and Bimmy, thank you for the comments.  I will look into the DIC

Rosy

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Re: VA disability reliability. anyone else receive it?
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2017, 06:43:16 PM »
DH was given 100% permanent the month before he died. Agent Orange and PTSD and other injuries. As his widow I receive 50% of his benefits. There is no income tax on these monthly benefits.
As his widow I was also entitled to his education benefits, it paid for my second degree. I believe I had ten years in which to use the education benefits at an accredited school.
VA housing (mortgage) benefits apply (also has a time limit) and in our state the license plates are free.
Plus I can use my military ID for shopping on base and at places like Lowes and Home Depot and a lot of other businesses including ladies clothing stores for usually 10% discount. 10% discount may not be much, but over the years I've saved hundreds.

Just look at the VA site on line under DIC. Paperwork was a nightmare as I'm sure you know. In the end we even involved our congressman. Anyway, I tend to think the VA payments are safe for your husband and hopefully relatively safe for the widows and dependents as well.
This VA payment plus a very small survivor benefit from Civil Service is enough for me to live on-barely:). It would not be if I had to pay rent or G forbid, mortgage pmts.
Surprisingly the very best benefit turned out to be gov't empl health insurance as I was covered under his Civ Svc policy and elected to continue coverage. Little did I know at the time what a huge benefit this would turn out to be.

I do have other income and Mr. R. is still working, so it is all good - I'm more worried about the cost of his health insurance once he is retired than I am about the VA payments, I don't think they are going anywhere, unless something drastic happens.