10-21-08, 9:47 am

Department of Veterans Affairs offices have been caught discarding veterans' benefits claims and related personal documents without reviewing those claims, an Air Force Times story reported this week.

According to the article at least three regional offices, and perhaps four, were involved in the loss of the benefits claims. Veterans of Foreign Wars told the Air Force Times that four regional offices, including in Detroit, St. Louis, St. Petersburg, and Waco were involved.

In addition to the benefits claims, the story stated, personal papers that are difficult and sometimes costly to replace, such as birth certificates, death certificates, and other official documents, were also discarded. The documents were found by members of the VA inspector general's office in piles of papers waiting to be shredded or burned.

VFW National Commander Glen Gardner told the Air Force Times, “The question that begs to be asked and answered is how many veterans had their disability and compensation claims disappear down a paper shredder?”

Applications for disability compensation, education benefits, home loans and pensions for low-income veterans were among the documents to be destroyed, VA officials told the Air Force Times.

The VA has promised to put in place new procedures to prevent this from happening, but it is too early to tell if the loss of these documents resulted from what some veterans see as an unwritten systematic VA policy to limit access to veterans benefits.

In 2005, Pentagon spokesperson David Chu told reporters that the cost of veterans benefits was 'hurtful' to national security. Since then, the Bush administration has attempted to make access to benefits more difficult. Fees for some medical services were doubled. Transition units were expected to refuse tell outgoing service members about all of the benefits they were eligible for, say some insiders. Pentagon officials also indicated that they would like to force older members of the service into early retirement in order to leave them with fewer benefits.

Recent revelations by Veterans for America (VFA) revealed that the Warrior Transition Units in Alaska simply provided no resources for Alaska National Guard service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, VFA reports have shown that military commanders have refused expert medical advice to provide serious mental health screening for returning veterans because of expense.