Question About Disabled Vets (property taxes, live, military) - San Antonio - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

Berlin1980 · 02-23-2008, 03:33 PM

Can anybody please provide me with some insight?

I have a neighbour who was fairly senior in the military - about a year ago his wife said that he was very ill. I was concerned. He also did not look great.

He then retired from the military - and within a few week he made an amazing recovery. I sometimes see him jogging. He also now sports a DV licence plate on his new motor.

Is there something going on. It seems strange for somebody to make a recovery like this a few weeks after he retired. I have nothing against him - he is a great guy and lots of fun and I'm glad that he made such a great recovery, but it is a little strange.

djw · 02-23-2008, 03:58 PM

Lots of missing info to really be able to make any assumptions - which we should never do, eh?

You seem to be implying that he "pulled one over on 'em."
Was his retirement a medical retirement? Was he retiring on time and just happened to be ill? Was the ailment the wife described is the same ailment warranting disabled vet status?
Lots of ailments are not dibilitating but can render you disabled.
I'm not going to say that folks don't try to get one over on the medical retirement benefit system, but it's a hard thing to do from what I've seen.

You have to subject yourself to lots of testing, evaluations, and medical boards to get to the point of "disabled" or "medically retired." So, I'd say to your neighbor "Thanks for serving and glad you're feeling better!"

Berlin1980 · 02-23-2008, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by djw

Lots of missing info to really be able to make any assumptions - which we should never do, eh?

You seem to be implying that he "pulled one over on 'em."
Was his retirement a medical retirement? Was he retiring on time and just happened to be ill? Was the ailment the wife described is the same ailment warranting disabled vet status?
Lots of ailments are not dibilitating but can render you disabled.
I'm not going to say that folks don't try to get one over on the medical retirement benefit system, but it's a hard thing to do from what I've seen.

You have to subject yourself to lots of testing, evaluations, and medical boards to get to the point of "disabled" or "medically retired." So, I'd say to your neighbor "Thanks for serving and glad you're feeling better!"

Good point - I am really not trying to be judgemental - since my neighbour is a great guy. What I am curious about is that is there an advantage to retiring with a disability - i.e. does it mean better benefits?

The Man in SATX · 02-23-2008, 04:16 PM

retiring with a disability? With what you describe... he is doing well. There are two different things we are talking about here.. if he is retired.. he pretty much has all of his benefits that he can get... there are not really anymore that he could then what he already has.. Now on the other hand.. if he was discharged due to medical ailments.. well that is a different story.. He could have been discharged with an 80% disability rating (which to me is impossible to get unless he is in a wheel chair and almost comatose) and then that is how a different rating comes into play. Discharged medically with a 5% rating only gets you so much.. and then you can keep going up.. but this takes a lot of medical tests and such and the individual would have to be medically proven to get those type of benefits. To me it sounds like the individual retired and therefore is already getting the max benefits that any military retiree would get..

Berlin1980 · 02-23-2008, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Man in SATX

retiring with a disability? With what you describe... he is doing well. There are two different things we are talking about here.. if he is retired.. he pretty much has all of his benefits that he can get... there are not really anymore that he could then what he already has.. Now on the other hand.. if he was discharged due to medical ailments.. well that is a different story.. He could have been discharged with an 80% disability rating (which to me is impossible to get unless he is in a wheel chair and almost comatose) and then that is how a different rating comes into play. Discharged medically with a 5% rating only gets you so much.. and then you can keep going up.. but this takes a lot of medical tests and such and the individual would have to be medically proven to get those type of benefits. To me it sounds like the individual retired and therefore is already getting the max benefits that any military retiree would get..

Good info Thanks. He seemed very unhappy before he retired and I think that his freedom in retirement has probably lifted his spirits.

rd2007 · 02-23-2008, 04:39 PM

The freedom that results from retirement could very well be the "cure" for whatever was making him appear sick. There's a little bit of stress in the military and several people I know have told me they felt like a huge weight had been removed from their shoulders whenever they were officially retired. I'm still waiting for that to happen to me though. I retired almost two years ago and I felt absolutely nothing..

As far as the disability thing, it's very hard to fake that. For my disabilities I had to go through physical tests that I don't think could be faked. The test for carpal tunnel involved about three hours of scraping nerves with a needle and if I was faking it I definitely would've left. That thing was some of the worst pain I've ever experienced..

BTW, I work with an 80% and a 90% and neither are in a wheelchair. Cancer is another way to get a high rating..

shenane · 02-23-2008, 05:03 PM

I agree with RD2007. My last two years in the military, I didn't feel very stressed, but I was very ill - had all sorts of medical problems. Right after I retired, the problems didn't completely go away, but they are way more manageable.
I also applied for VA disability and got it. And I agree that you can't go in and say "I'm sick" and get a check. For instance, I have 10% for my back. They did X rays that showed degenerative arthritis. If I just said "my back hurts" I couldn't have gotten anything. I have several other ailments as well that add up.
When adding up disability percentages, the VA doesn't look at whether or not you can work** but whether or not you have a condition.
I put a ** on that statement because there is something called complete unemployability (or something like that) that is slightly different. If it is determined that your disability makes it impossble for you to hold down employement, you will get 100% disability even if your disabilities add up to less than 100%
But there might be other people whose disabilities add up to 100% but who are still able to work.

Also, just because somone looks good, it doesn't mean they aren't in terrible pain. People deal with sicknesses in different ways. Some people let it take over their whole lives and some people fight it. Montel Williams claims he is in excrutiating pain from his MS yet he forces himself to excercise.

shenane · 02-23-2008, 05:06 PM

Oh yeah, to answer your question about benefits. If you retired then get a VA disability rating, you are paid according to your rating. The higher the rating, the more money. That money is tax free but depending on how high your rating is, a lot of that money is taken out of your regular retirement pay which is taxable.
Disable vets also get a few other benefits like a reduction in property taxes, etc..

Quote:

Originally Posted by shenane

I agree with RD2007. My last two years in the military, I didn't feel very stressed, but I was very ill - had all sorts of medical problems. Right after I retired, the problems didn't completely go away, but they are way more manageable.
I also applied for VA disability and got it. And I agree that you can't go in and say "I'm sick" and get a check. For instance, I have 10% for my back. They did X rays that showed degenerative arthritis. If I just said "my back hurts" I couldn't have gotten anything. I have several other ailments as well that add up.
When adding up disability percentages, the VA doesn't look at whether or not you can work** but whether or not you have a condition.
I put a ** on that statement because there is something called complete unemployability (or something like that) that is slightly different. If it is determined that your disability makes it impossble for you to hold down employement, you will get 100% disability even if your disabilities add up to less than 100%
But there might be other people whose disabilities add up to 100% but who are still able to work.

Also, just because somone looks good, it doesn't mean they aren't in terrible pain. People deal with sicknesses in different ways. Some people let it take over their whole lives and some people fight it. Montel Williams claims he is in excrutiating pain from his MS yet he forces himself to excercise.

rd2007 · 02-23-2008, 05:07 PM

Good points. The 80 and 90% people I work with are very fit and exercise all the time. You would never guess how screwed up they are on the inside unless you caught them with their guard down.

luckygreeniii · 02-23-2008, 05:14 PM

You are 100% correct. My husband is one of those people with a high disability rating, but he still works. He is in chronic pain every day and has lots of medical problems but you would never know it by passing him on the street. He isn't one to let it get him down. I am sad for him sometimes because there are lots of things that he can't do. I am so proud of him for what he contributed to his country.