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Military veterans in Rhode Island are likely to qualify for a variety of benefits if they suffer from a service-connected disability. But, after more than a decade of war, the Veterans Administration has become overburdened and far too many veterans have faced extensive waits for the benefits they have earned.
The social security disability benefits attorneys of Marasco & Nesselbush can help if you are a veteran in Rhode Island who is disabled because of service in the U.S. Armed Forces and are having trouble obtaining benefits through the VA. We can help you cut through red tape and the VA’s bureaucracy. We will fight for you.
Contact us now for a free review of your claim and a free discussion about your legal rights.
Disabled Veterans Have Earned Benefits
If you suffer from a service-connected disability and you separated or were discharged from military service under other than dishonorable conditions, you may be eligible for certain financial benefits. These include:
- Disability compensation: This is a monthly payment for vets who are at least 10 percent disabled by injury or disease that they incurred or aggravated during active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training. The amount of the tax-free benefit is based on the degree of disability, which is quantified by percentage in increments of 10 (10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, etc.). The benefit is available for physical and psychological disabilities.
- Special monthly compensation (SMC): This is additional compensation disabled veterans may obtain if they require personal assistance of if they have a specific disability, such as loss of a limb. The benefit may be paid to the veteran’s spouse or parents who care for him or her, and is sometimes known as “aid and attendance.”
- Dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC): This benefit is generally payable to the surviving spouse, child or parent of a service member who died while on active duty, active duty for training, or during inactive duty training. It is also paid to survivors of veterans who died from their service-connected disabilities. The payment to surviving parents is based on their financial need. To qualify, a surviving parent must have an income below a limit established by law.
Disabled veterans may also qualify for housing and insurance benefits, including:
- Adapted housing grants.
- Service-disabled veterans’ insurance.
- Veterans’ mortgage life insurance.
We Help Disabled Vets Get The Benefits They Earned
Obtaining benefits as a disabled veteran requires providing medical proof of your physical or mental disability and its effect on your ability to work for a living. You also need your discharge or separation papers (DD214 or equivalent) and, if applicable, dependency records (marriage and children’s birth certificates). Then you have to complete Veterans Administration forms and hope that they are processed in a timely manner and, ultimately, approved.
If benefits are not approved, the VA has an established appeals process, which requires the veteran to file an appeal within one year of a benefits decision.
The VA describes its own appeals process as “a complex, multi-stage, non-linear process set in law that has evolved over decades.” It is a continuous open record system, which allows new evidence (medical records, statements, etc.) to be submitted at any time. However, each submission of evidence requires a new cycle of review and decision making.
For seriously disabled veterans, tackling the process of obtaining benefits they have earned may be a daunting, if not impossible, task. A mistake or omission in the application that may seem insignificant can be enough to cause a valid claim to be rejected. There is also the distinct possibility that a veteran’s claim will be set aside and not processed in a timely manner.
A Marasco & Nesselbush veteran’s disability benefits attorney can help you with your claim. We are ready to fight for you. We can make sure your claim package is accurate and complete, and we can stay on top of the process to see to it that your application progresses as it should. We will work with your doctors or medical experts to develop the medical evidence needed to win your case.
Get Help Now From Our Rhode Island Veteran’s Disability Benefits Attorneys
If you are fighting to obtain veteran’s disability benefits that you have earned by serving your country, you do not have to wage this fight alone. The veteran’s disability benefits lawyers of Marasco & Nesselbush know the ins and outs of the VA system and work to assist disabled veterans in Rhode Island.
Our Rhode Island personal injury lawyers are ready to take up your cause and will stand beside you until you get the benefits you need and deserve.
Please contact us today for more information and a free consultation.
Sources:
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – Benefits Administration
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – Board of Veteran Appeals
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