VA benefits are affected if a beneficiary is convicted of a felony and imprisoned for more than 60 days.

Disability or Death Pension paid to an incarcerated beneficiary must be discontinued. Disability compensation paid to an incarcerated veteran rated 20-percent or more disabled is limited to the 10 percent rate. For a surviving spouse, child or dependent parent receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, or a veteran whose disability rating is 10 percent, the payment is reduced to half of the rate payable to a veteran evaluated as 10 percent disabled.

Any amounts not paid may be apportioned to eligible dependents. Payments are not reduced for participants in work-release programs, residing in halfway houses or under community control.

Failure to notify VA of a veteran's incarceration can result in overpayment of benefits and the subsequent loss of all VA financial benefits until the overpayment is recovered. VA benefits will not be provided to any veteran or dependent wanted for an outstanding felony warrant.

Persons convicted of a federal or state capital crime are barred from receiving VA burial benefits.

Incarcerated Veterans Q & A

Source URL:  http://www.vba.va.gov/benefit_facts/MISC/English/Incarceratedeg_0406.doc 

Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program

Fact Sheet: Disability Compensation - 2006 Rates

Effective 12/1/05

Additional Payments for Dependents
Veterans whose service-connected disabilities are rated at 30 percent or more are entitled to additional allowances for dependents. Depending upon the disability rating of the veteran, monthly allowances for a spouse range from $40 to $135 and for a dependent child, $27 to $91. Additional amounts are provided for each additional child and there is a higher scale for children in school after age 18.

Other Major Factors Affecting Payment Levels
Adjustments to rates are based on a number of factors in addition to dependents. Among factors that can have a significant effect on amounts are:

Veterans with severe service-connected disabilities may receive compensation at a basic rate as high as $6,845 per month. Various special monthly compensation rates apply when a veteran experiences loss or loss of use of one or more limbs; loses one or more of the senses of sight, hearing or speech; or experiences loss of a reproductive organ or its use, or loss of breast tissue by a female veteran.

Allowances may be made for veterans requiring aides, such as bedridden individuals who need assistance with eating, bathing or certain other activities of daily living. This adjustment is referred to as "aid and attendance."

Veterans whose service-connected disability leaves them unable to maintain gainful employment may meet criteria for allowances at the 100 percent compensation rate under a benefit called "individual unemployability." A veteran with a single service-connected disability may be eligible if the veteran's disability is rated at 60 percent or more. A veteran with multiple disabilities may be eligible if the veteran has a combined rating of 70 percent or more and at least one of the disabilities is individually rated 40 percent or higher.

Facts About VA Disability Compensation

Disability compensation for veterans is not subject to federal or state income tax. About 80 percent of veterans receive their VA benefits by direct deposit, which VA recommends for security reasons.

Veterans are rated at increments of 10 percent reflecting degree of disability. As federal regulations summarize the underlying principle, "The percentage ratings represent as far as can practicably be determined the average impairment in earning capacity resulting from such diseases and injuries and their residual conditions."

The largest category of veterans on the compensation scale is at 10 percent disability ($112 per month), with 775,854 veterans at this rate at the beginning of fiscal year 2006 among the total 2.6 million veterans receiving disability compensation.

The criteria for rating the severity of various disabilities are available online at http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_04/38cfr4_04.html.

As medical knowledge, laws and procedures change, VA regularly publishes proposed changes to these criteria in the Federal Register for public comment before a final regulation is adopted.

Where a veteran has more than one disability, the percentages are not simply added together to produce a new rating. Instead, a formula described in federal regulations calculates the overall rating.

A veteran may be rated at zero percent, meaning there is evidence of the service-connected condition, but it does not impair the veteran. An example is a minor scar. This zero percent rating, though not compensable, can be beneficial, since it may raise the veteran's priority in other VA programs such as health care eligibility. In addition, it may be reviewed for a higher rating if the condition worsens.

A veteran may have a number of disabilities individually evaluated as 0 percent which produce 10 percent combined disability and entitle the veteran to disability compensation. At the beginning of fiscal year 2006, there were more than 14,000 veterans in the category of "compensable zero" ratings.

In addition to the 2.6 million veterans on the compensation rolls, over 2.3 million veterans have overall noncompensable ratings of 0 percent and do not receive payments from VA.

There were over 788,000 new and reopened claims requiring a disability rating received from veterans in fiscal year 2005, an average of more than 65,000 claims filed per month.

Among veterans on the rolls, the largest category of service-connected disabilities is musculoskeletal problems, accounting for about 40 percent of all disabilities. This includes such problems as impairment of the knee and arthritis due to trauma. Data on the number and type of disabilities are published annually (http://www.vba.va.gov/reports.htm).

Annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment
A proposed cost-of-living increase is included in the President's budget proposal released early each calendar year. It is part of the spending forecast and appropriations request for the ensuing fiscal year, a starting point for legislative discussion. However, the actual percentage increase is set through a separate bill debated by Congress and usually signed into law the following fall.

Legislators are not bound by any specific annual Consumer Price Index formula, but historically have chosen to mirror the percentage given to Social Security recipients. The Social Security increase, in turn, is based on a Bureau of Labor Statistics calculation of the rise in the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W).

Cost of living adjustments become effective December 1 each year and are reflected in the payment received by veterans on or about the first day of the new year. Whenever a payment falls on a holiday or weekend, as is the case with the January 1 payment each year, that month's payment is issued the last prior business day.

People wishing to receive e-mail from VA with the latest news releases and updated fact sheets can subscribe to the VA Office of Public Affairs Distribution List.

  Source URL:  http://www1.va.gov/OPA/fact/comprates.asp

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 Public and Intergovernmental Affairs

Fact Sheet: VA Programs for Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an ailment resulting from exposure to an extreme stress involving direct or indirect threat of death, serious injury or a physical threat.  The trauma may be experienced alone, as in rape or assault, or in the company of others, as in military combat. 

The events that can cause PTSD are called "stressors."  They include natural disasters (floods, earthquakes), accidents (car accidents, airplane crashes, large fires) or deliberate man-made disasters (bombing, torture, death camps). 

Symptoms include recurrent thoughts of a traumatic event, reduced involvement in work or outside interests, hyper alertness, anxiety and irritability. The disorder apparently is more severe and longer lasting when the stress is of human design.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) listed more than 185,000 veterans in 2003 as having PTSD as a service-connected disability.

Vet Centers

VA readjustment counseling is provided through 206 community-based Vet Centers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.  Vet Centers are located outside of medical facilities, often in shopping malls and other community settings.

The Vet Center mission features a mix of direct counseling and help accessing other programs, such as psychological counseling for veterans exposed to war trauma or who were sexually assaulted during military service, family counseling, community outreach and education, and extensive social services and referral activities to help veterans improve their social and economic prospects after the military.

Interdisciplinary teams that include psychologists, nurses and social workers staff Vet Centers.  Vet Center teams reflect ethnic and gender diversity and include many veterans, most having served in a combat theater of operations.

Eligibility for Vet Center services includes all Vietnam theater veterans, other Vietnam era veterans who accessed Vet Center care prior to January 1, 2004, and any other veteran who served in any war, armed conflict or peace keeping mission. Eligibility for sexual trauma counseling at Vet Centers is open to any veteran regardless of period of service. 

In 2003, Vet Centers saw approximately 130,000 veterans and provided over 990,000 visits to veterans and family members.  For many veterans who would not otherwise receive VA assistance, the Vet Centers make more than 100,000 referrals a year to VA medical facilities and another 120,000 referrals annually to VA regional offices for disability compensation, pensions or other benefits.  For the third consecutive year, 99 percent of veterans using Vet Centers reported being satisfied with services received. 

VA Medical Center Programs

VA operates an internationally recognized network of more than 140 specialized programs for the treatment of PTSD through its medical centers and clinics.  One notable program consists of PTSD clinical teams that provide outpatient treatment, working closely with other VA treatment programs, including Vet Centers and the community.  In 2003, VA specialists treated more than 77,800 veterans for PTSD.

In addition to 97 PTSD clinical teams, VA operates five specialized inpatient units around the country, plus three brief-treatment units, 14 residential rehabilitation programs, and seven PTSD day hospitals.  There also are five outpatient Wome's Stress Disorder and Treatment Teams.  A special focus in the program has included underserved and minority populations, such as African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans.  A specialized PTSD inpatient treatment unit serves women veterans at the Palo Alto, Calif., VA Medical Center's Menlo Park Division. 

The Veterans Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act (Public Law 106-117) re-established the Under Secretary of Health's Special Committee on PTSD.  The committee will assess VA's capacity to diagnose and treat PTSD and provide guidance on VA's education, research and benefits activities with regard to PTSD. 

National PTSD Center

VA established the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1989, with a mandate to promote research into the causes and diagnosis of the disorder, to train health care and related personnel in diagnosis and treatment, and to serve as an information resource for professionals across the United States and, eventually, around the world.  The center consists of seven divisions with distinct, but complementary responsibilities: behavioral science, women's health sciences, clinical neurosciences, education, evaluation, pacific islands ethno cultural, and executive and resource center divisions. 

The center is committed to approaching PTSD through a focus on research, education and consultation. These three threads weave the Center's work together in a way that brings science into practice and ensures that clinical concerns guide scientific priorities.  The National Center has come to be viewed as a world leader in PTSD research.  Current research at the center includes large-scale clinical trials, as well as studies on the epidemiology, diagnosis, psychobiology and treatment of PTSD.

Among its many educational programs, the center provides regular satellite broadcasts and publishes two newsletters, which highlight the latest developments in research and clinical practices for PTSD.  The National Center also offers a monthly 5-day clinical training program free of charge to VA staff, and maintains a nationally recognized Web site (http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/) with information about trauma and PTSD.  The Web site includes documents such as the Iraq War Clinician Guide to help clinicians diagnose and treat veterans returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom, and a bibliographic database of more than 21,000 articles.  The National Center also provides consultation to clinicians, scientists and policy makers concerning treatment, research and education regarding PTSD.

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For More Information, Call the VA Tool Free at:  1.800.827.1000, or visit: http://www.va.gov

Also see these other resources for Incarcerated Veterans:

Federal Cure - Parole, US vs. Booker, Federal Prison, Federal ... Incarcerated Veterans:. VA benefits are restricted if a veteran, ... Incarcerated Veterans:. A veteran may not receive VA pension benefits while incarcerated... http://www.fedcure.org/alerts/vetbenefits.shtml

Incarcerated Veterans Guidebook This guide is the the PDF format. 31 pages. File size is 172 KB. http://www.vetsinfo.com/incarcerated_veterans.htm  

Re-Entry Blog: Regional Veterans programs for the Incarcerated Vete... VA Outreach for Incarcerated Veterans is diverse, but has some basic uniformity. Current VA Outreach by Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN's) is: http://72.34.34.34/~wjinabt/archives/re-entry/2004/11/regional_vetera.html

Who We Are The Veterans of the Vietnam War and The Veterans Coalition maintains a program for incarcerated veterans to assist them in their re-integration into society ... http://www.vvnw.org/About_VVnW/About.htm  

Forgotten warriors: an evaluation of the emotional well-being of ..... The MLQ results also indicated that, compared to their nonincarcerated counterparts, the incarcerated veterans were more likely to be black, ... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3582960&dopt=Abstract

Incarcerated veterans often face service-related illnesses The outside contact, they said, reminds incarcerated veterans their service was valued and that they have a future once they are released. Tom Baxter ... http://www.thepowerhour.com/news/incarcerated_vets.htm

Veteran Facts 1 in every 6 incarcerated veterans was not honorably discharged from the military. ... Nearly 60% of incarcerated veterans had served in the Army. ... http://www.rcnv.org/rcnv/archives/2003/veteran_facts.htm  

DON'T LEAVE VETERANS OUT OF THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT The Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice is expected to release a study on incarcerated veterans on Tuesday, January 18^th. ... http://veterans.house.gov/democratic/dc/jointdc1-14-00.htm  

Incarcerated Veterans: The VA Can Pay Certain Benefits to Veterans ... Whether a veteran is eligible to receive VA benefits while in prison, how payments are affected by imprisonment, whether money not paid to a veteran can be ... http://www.nicic.org/Library/019375

Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program The Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program (IVTP) is operated by VVSD and funded ... An in-reach specialist will meet with incarcerated veterans to assess ... http://www.vvsd.net/incarcerated.htm  

Incarcerated Veterans Help - VeteransResources.org Supporting veterans seeking benefits while incarcerated.  http://www.veteransresources.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=31

ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AT 4:30 PM EST BJS TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2000 ..... The BJS study also found that: --Fifty percent of these incarcerated veterans had served during a period of wartime 35 percent were Vietnam-era veterans and ... http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/vpj.pr

National Coalition for Homeless Veterans - Incarcerated Veterans NCHV will end homelessness among veterans by shaping public policy, educating the public, and building the capacity of service providers. http://www.nchv.org/incarcerated.cfm

Volunteers of America - Our Services Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program ... Less than three percent of formerly incarcerated veterans served by the program since its inception in Kentucky ... http://www.voa.org/OurServices/Corrections/Incarcerated+Veterans+Transition+Program.htm

Benefits for Incarcerated Veterans Benefits for Incarcerated Veterans. Can a veteran receive VA benefits ... While incarcerated veterans do not forfeit their eligibility for medical care, ... http://www.vba.va.gov/ro/new-orleans/prison.htm  

Veterans Incarcerated White Paper It may seem like a semantic distinction, but VVA refers to this population as "Veterans Incarcerated," not as "incarcerated veterans" precisely because ... http://www.vva.org/legiss/vi_white.htm

A Guidebook for Incarcerated Veterans 2. Forward. This handbook can be an important tool. Review all of the programs thoroughly to understand the opportunities available. ... http://www.dva.wa.gov/PDF%20files/IncVetHandbook.pdf

Incarcerated We will name the first Incarcerated Veterans Beacon House in honor of his ... To honor Herb we must keep and grow the Incarcerated Veterans Program he led ... http://www.vvnw.org/Veteran_Services/nvclp.htm  

US Department of Labor—Veterans' Employment and Training ... General Information. Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program Brochure (PDF Format) - Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program Grant Provisions (PDF Format) ... http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/ivtp/main.htm

Incarcerated Veterans Transition Program.p65 approach – to link incarcerated veterans with appropriate employment and life skills support ... Applicants familiar with incarcerated veterans ...  http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/ivtp/incarcerated_veterans_transition_program.pdf

Veterans in Prison or Jail 1 in every 6 incarcerated veterans. were not honorably discharged from the military. $ About 20% of veterans in prison. or jail reported seeing combat duty ... http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/vpj.pdf 

Incarcerated Veterans The VA can pay certain benefits to veterans who are incarcerated in a Federal, state or local penal institution.  http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourcesContent/0,13964,30991-mil_status_veteran-1,00.html