Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Army might be cheating vets, panel chief says

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 13, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Army might be shortchanging injured soldiers by rating the severity of their disabilities with a system that is both unwieldy and inconsistent, the head of a special commission said Thursday.

Pentagon officials denied those who rate the disabilities would cheat service members but pledged to investigate. "I'm trying to make sense of this finding," said acting Army Secretary Pete Geren.

Testimony to Congress on Thursday by retired Lt. Gen. James Terry Scott, chairman of the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, is the latest to document problems in a system under extra strain as thousands of service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Scott suggested there could be an effort to keep costs down as the military rates the severity of soldiers' disabilities. He said the Pentagon "has strong incentive to assign ratings less than 30 percent" so the military won't have to pay disability benefits.

In a preliminary review of Pentagon and VA data, Scott's commission found the Army was much more likely than the other active forces to assign a disability rating of less than 30 percent, the typical cutoff to determine whether a person can get lifetime retirement payments and health care.

VA ratings tend to be higher, due to a separate system that gives consideration to whether injured veterans are afflicted with multiple disabilities.

"It is apparent that service members are not well-served," Scott said at an unusual joint hearing of the Senate Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees.

[Last modified April 13, 2007, 01:25:33]