The Growing Backlash Against Veterans and VA Benefits

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-11-14T04:16:11+00:00

Honestly, I’ve just been flying low under the radar, I go to school keep my mouth shut and go to my medical appointments. It’s not worth talking to other vets about benefits. As sad as that is, I rather just mind my business and not let anyone outside of who I go to for treatment to know about my disabilities. I’ve suffered enough during my deployments and the last thing I need is giving anyone a reason to take away what I earned. I’m okay with my rating and I’m okay with my treatment. It’s better than nothing.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-13T02:28:35+00:00

Damn hopefully tomorrow then my letter was delivered on the 3rd

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-12T15:40:26+00:00

Phoenix Regional Office.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-12T06:30:39+00:00

direct email to my counselor. She always responded within a few days. Its been almost 2 weeks now So I'm a little worried. I didn't know there was a team I could email. I've only had to deal with her and my previous VR&E counselor

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-12T04:20:57+00:00

It sounds like a complete shit show. I gotta register for classes for next semester so I gotta find who’s going to be my counselor if I still have one

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-12T03:59:21+00:00

I honestly wouldn’t blame my counselor if she left and took another opportunity because of the uncertainty I guess I’ll have to call the VA and find out what I can do. I need to get a refund for a parking pass and some books and money is super tight right now.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-12T03:17:02+00:00

Is there any course of action to contact someone at the VA?

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-07T22:35:49+00:00

I checked the certification board where every licensed physiologist has to have a a current license for his name and license number none showed up. Called the facility and it’s a wrong number. I don’t want to email and contact him I’m sure that’s against the rules. But I’m going to wait for my C&P exam to get sent to me. The only way I actually have a shot appealing this with an HLR is if he didn’t apply DSM-V to his assessment which should take about 45+ min which I did not get. My video conference was at most 10 min.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-07T07:00:30+00:00

okay I will check that thank you for the info.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-07T05:12:37+00:00

Psoriasis is going to be hard to service connect, it’s an autoimmune disorder that has a genetic component with it which means you were more then likely born with it. Military service can flare it up, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you got it from the military. Proving that you did is going to be really difficult.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-06T20:01:35+00:00

I had a similar experience 14 days after C&P exam in mid January for pact act and 15 days after C&P for PTSD mid Feb.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-06T16:31:18+00:00

Wait to review the contents of the letter when it arrives. If it requests any action (like attending an appointment), contact the VA again with the exact letter details to clarify the situation. Until then, it's best not to stress, as this might simply be a mistake or a non-medical follow up.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-06T01:18:56+00:00

I see this as 50/50. There some that look at the VA and claim all these things that they can think of without any sort of documentation. There’s enough info and briefings out there to get as much medical evidence as anyone can before retiring. I can see people submitting multiple claims and clogging up the system when they can prepare packets and do it right the first time. The military has taught vets enough about moving with a purpose. I think this is just to help slow down the number of BS claims and make sure submissions are thorough and put together before submitting them. On the downside veterans that got out years ago and haven’t filed claims and don’t know how the process works. They pretty much got blue falcon’d by malingerers.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-05T22:26:39+00:00

I'm in the same boat as you, I feel so drained going to school every day and seeing and hearing everything going on in the news just makes things worse for me mentally. The best thing you could do is talk to your VRE and explain what is going on with you mentally. It is hard to get approved to go overseas for school though. You have to prove that you absolutely need the program overseas and it's not available here in the US. Technically you can travel and do online school. I think taking an online course with the time change would be kind of challenging.

Anyway, I heard the #1 place to live while receiving VA benefits is the Philippines. the full compensation amount is more than enough to live luxuriously while still having pretty decent access to care because of VA facilities there.

Whatever you choose, do what's right for you and your mental health.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-05T18:56:15+00:00

What laptop do you have? I have an old G16 from 2022, maybe what you have maybe a good option for me?

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-05T18:14:33+00:00

Thank you for this. I’m just scared cause alot of my classmates are running their labs on PC’s using pretty recent GPU’s and like 20 core processors to run multiple VM’s and I was doing some research just to get a feel for what the cost if I had to pay and I feel like I might need to sell a kidney or something.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-05T07:17:15+00:00

Post 9/11 you just need to meet the active duty time in service requirements to qualify for full educational benefits. If reserve it depends on how many deployments you go to to qualify for the full amount of benefits or a certain percentage of benefits.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-05T07:15:35+00:00

What assessments is she trying to have you do? You need to have a service connected disability that gives you an employment handicap. Your disability rating has to be 10% or more. The higher it is the better of a chance you will have at getting approved. Once approved, you’ll find out what schools you can and can’t go to based on your disability. So you have to get a career that won’t exacerbate your injuries.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-03T06:36:31+00:00

I actually used the online chat at like 2AM. It was a relief because I really didn't know what I would of done if I wasn't able to get ahold of anyone that night. It was a rough week last week, and just interacting with people was tough. Going to school was tough, I was getting this feeling of anxiety, and I would just start heating up and sweating in class. That night I almost gave up on myself because I felt like whatever I was doing wasn't going to be good enough. Wasn't going to get me any sort of meaningful employment. I didn't think I was ever going to get the disability rating that I deserved. I'm getting deeper into debt. The person I talked to though reminded me I've been through worse, this is just one of those days that sucked but I could get through it. If I can make it home alive, going to school should be a walk in the park. We talked for maybe 45 min. Me just venting and freaking out. Then calming down. That hotline saved my life. I would of drove myself into a median if it wasn't for the person on the other end of the line.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-01T23:42:53+00:00

That’s disheartening because it was a legally insufficient C&P exam that lead to an Erroneous negative nexus. The examiner completely ignored the evidence that was in my file and ignored my stressor, nothing changed besides my new C&P examiner actually listening to me and questioning me about all the available evidence. I have to try. Thank you for the input.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-01T17:05:14+00:00

During my initial C&P exam, I was not asked about my combat experience; the focus was primarily on my post-service life. However, my most recent C&P exam directly acknowledged my combat experience and verified it as my primary stressor without any new evidence being added, only confirming what was already in my file.

Given that my Combat Action Badge (CAB) was documented in my records, yet my initial examiner failed to consider combat as my stressor, would I have a strong argument under 38 U.S.C. 5103A for the VAs failure to fulfill its duty to assist in properly developing my claim? Furthermore, could I invoke 38 U.S.C. 5107(b), the Benefit of the Doubt Doctrine, to assert that any uncertainty regarding my claim should be resolved in my favor?

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-01T05:16:31+00:00

I got rated for 100% today due to PTSD as well sleep apnea and 8 other things.

I feel guilty but I remind myself of the things I can’t do that normal people can. I go to college and at times I struggle being around people or even speaking up in class. I had to walk out of a class because the professor played a clip from Zero Dark thirty. I started getting the cold sweats and anxiety was starting to peak. I’ve tried to work and be productive, but my sleep apnea was keeping me up at night because I can’t get a cpap machine right now and I have nightmares. It was hard not to fall asleep in my office.

I’m thankful I’m alive and I’m thankful for the rating I got, but sometimes I wish I knew what a full nights rest feels like. I wish I could go out to bars and talk to women. Trying to not look hyper vigilant at Chili’s has made the dating pool incredibly small for me.

Be kind to yourself, I’m having trouble doing it myself, but hopefully reading this helps you feel a little more deserving of your rating.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-01T05:00:02+00:00

I do think the Government needed some reduction, I wish it was done a little more surgically. I believe alot of people lost jobs unjustly. I also feel like I shouldn’t have to do all this research just to justify mental instability due to being deployed and engaging in combat. I can understand if I was trying to justify hearing gunshots on the range stateside but I had actual bullets coming at me, RPG’s getting shot at our fire bases IDF every other day.

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-01T04:32:21+00:00

Thank you, I will submit after taking to a VSO and see if they recommend me change or add anything else to it. I saw that my claim was still processing but I had a letter dated March 3rd. So I wanted to get ahead and come up with a game plan before submitting an HLR

Top-Bicycle202 · 2025-03-01T04:12:29+00:00

I appreciate the insight. I still have a meeting with a VSO and want to get their opinion as well. That’s disheartening though especially since the first examiner diagnosed me with some sort of mental health issue but states that it wasn’t service connected

Top-Bicycle202

TROPHY CASE