Closer look

New rules give veterans easier path to disability benefits

While advocates applaud the move, some veterans think there’s still too much red tape.

Vets no longer need to cite a specific PTSD event

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By Jim DeBrosse, Staff Writer Updated 12:45 AM Sunday, July 11, 2010

Local veterans and their advocates are applauding new rules that will make it easier for thousands of veterans who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder to receive disability benefits for the illness.

The Department of Veterans Affairs regulations, which will take effect this week and cost as much as $5 billion over several years, according to congressional analysts, will no longer require that veterans document specific combat events that might have caused PTSD, an illness characterized by emotional numbness, irritability and flashbacks.

“It’s going to help most veterans applying for those benefits,” said Denver Combs, a Vietnam veteran and a private consultant in the Dayton area for veterans seeking benefits.

“I don’t remember a certain date that something happened (in Vietnam) or who was with me at the time.”

Yet under the old rules, Combs said, veterans were required to secure specific documents and reports from the military archives to back up their claims — a process that can take months or even years, Combs said.

Under the new rules, the department will grant compensation to a veteran of any war with PTSD if they can simply show that they served in a war zone and in a job consistent with the stressors they say caused their condition. The rule would also allow compensation for service members who had good reason to fear attacks even if they did not actually experience them.

But some veterans are skeptical things will change, pointing out that VA psychiatrists would still have to certify the diagnosis of service-related PTSD in order to secure the benefits.

Said Dave Fuchs, vice president of the Dayton area chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America: “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The New York Times News Service contributed to this report.

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