VA defends plan to cut thousands of dollars from elderly vets' benefits

Via John

Veterans Affairs officials on Wednesday defended plans to strip tens of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits from elderly veterans as responsible reforms to the department’s growing budget, but opponents promised to fight the idea.

Included in President Donald Trump’s $186.5 billion VA budget for fiscal 2018 — a nearly 6 percent boost in discretionary spending from this year — are plans to dramatically cut the department’s Individual Unemployability program.

Up to 225,000 veterans over the age of 60, at least 7,000 of whom are over 80, could be impacted by the change.

Individual UnemployabilityIndividual Unemployability is a part of VA’s disability compensation program that allows VA to pay certain Veterans disability compensation at the 100% rate, even though VA has not rated their service-connected disabilities at the total level.