Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens manipulated the VBA’s hiring system for their own benefit. The inspector general’s September report claimed they coerced lower-ranking regional managers into accepting job transfers. The two then filled the vacant positions themselves while reducing their responsibilities and maintaining their senior executive salaries. Besides their respective salaries of around $173,000 and $181,500 per annum, Graves and Rubens also got a combined total of over $400,000 in moving expenses.

Pummill is being suspended for “his alleged lack of oversight regarding Ms. Rubens’ and Ms. Graves’ actions in connection with their relocations,” according to a VA statement. He is allowed to appeal his suspension. The two employees will be reprimanded and receive a 10 percent pay cut. However, both Rubens and Graves have returned to their respective former positions as head of the VBA Philadelphia regional office and director of the benefits office in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Regarding Rubens and Graves, Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said he was “encouraged by their immediate effort to get back to work.” However Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, was vocal in his criticism of the VA’s actions in response to the relocation scam.

Miller described the punishments as “a weak slap on the wrist.” He called for more accountability, saying the two employees should have been fired instead. “One thing is clear: this dysfunctional status quo will never change until we eliminate arcane civil service rules that put the job security of VA bureaucrats ahead of the veterans they are charged with serving.”

The report also claims evidence that an overwhelming number of veterans who are aware of the opportunity to resubmit a claim may choose not to do so because they perceive the process to be too complex to navigate.

In 2011, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) conducted random sampling, discovering that more than one in four MST-related claims had been improperly denied. If the sample accurately represents claims made over the last several decades, thousands of survivors of military sexual assault were denied benefits in error.

In response, the VBA created a 2013 initiative to allow resubmission of all denied MST-related claims. However, the initiative has not been widely publicized, and the GAO’s new report asserts that when the VBA did notify some veterans of the opportunity to submit a claim, the letter that was mailed was confusing and lacked essential contact information.

Meanwhile, criticism of the VBA’s handling of MST-related claims continues to mount. The Veterans Administration (VA) has faced a barrage of lawsuits alleging discrimination against victims of military sexual trauma.

Since 2008, data have shown that year over year, MST-related PTSD claims are denied more frequently than combat-related PTSD claims — despite medical experts’ testimony that sexual assault is even more likely to result in PTSD than combat. The new report from the GAO affirms that while more MST-related claims are now being approved, their approval rate still lags behind that of combat-related PTSD claims.

One of the reasons widely cited for the difficulty in approving MST-related claims is the struggle to provide evidence that sexual trauma occurred. Embarrassment and fear of retaliation cause many servicemembers to conceal an incident.  

The most recent lawsuit, filed by the Yale Law School’s Veteran’s Legal Service Clinic, is seeking to make a servicemember’s own testimony sufficient to establish that an incident of military sexual trauma did occur.

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact an attorney about your Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, Mental Health, Sexual Assault, Hearing Loss and Tinnitus, Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability, Medical Malpractice, or Aid and Attendance claim, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com/ or call 800.693.4800

Claims raters working with the VA have been combing through the oldest claims in the system to allow those vets to get their benefits, if eligible. The Veterans Administration has announced that vets who are waiting for their claim to be processed are able to submit additional materials as evidence up to one full year after their provisional rating and prior to the VA issuing its final decision on their claim. Provisional decisions are intended to provide vets with their benefits faster and also will allow them the safety of an additional year to submit additional evidence if necessary. Those cases will be “fast-traced,” said the Undersecretary for Benefits, Allison Hickey.

In tandem with this initiative, VA has announced that it still intends to prioritize the benefits claims of veterans who are homeless as well as the benefits claims for former prisoners of war, terminally ill vets, vets who claim financial hardship, and recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Decisions on benefit claims will be predicated on the evidence submitted, if needed, medical exams will be ordered and processed expeditiously. If an increase of a benefit is determined after additional evidence is submitted, those benefit payment will be paid retroactively to the initial claim file date.

This new initiative is also designed to allow a vet to appeal a decision, including lower benefits than expected, a denial of claim or another issue. The vet will have one full year to submit additional evidence, after which, the VBA will contact the vet to inform them that their rating has been determined and will provide standard appeal information.

The plan is that, as the oldest claims are processed, the average claim competition time through the VA’s system will improve and the average number of days a claim is in the benefits inventory will dramatically decrease.

During the pending phase of compensation claims, vets who are eligible can receive their healthcare benefits from the VA. Vets from recent conflicts are currently eligible for as many as five years of VA healthcare for free. More than 55 percent of vets who have returned fromIraqandAfghanistanare now using VA health care.

Wounded Warrior claims, meanwhile, are continuing to be processed separately with Department of Defense via the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES). Vets designated as “Wounded Warriors” are receiving their VA compensation benefits just 61 days, on average, after separating from military service.

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact a veterans attorney, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com/ or call 800.693.4800

Claims raters working with the VA have been combing through the oldest claims in the system to allow those vets to get their benefits, if eligible. The Veterans Administration has announced that vets who are waiting for their claim to be processed are able to submit additional materials as evidence up to one full year after their provisional rating and prior to the VA issuing its final decision on their claim. Provisional decisions are intended to provide vets with their benefits faster and also will allow them the safety of an additional year to submit additional evidence if necessary. Those cases will be “fast-traced,” said the Undersecretary for Benefits, Allison Hickey.

In tandem with this initiative, VA has announced that it still intends to prioritize the benefits claims of veterans who are homeless as well as the benefits claims for former prisoners of war, terminally ill vets, vets who claim financial hardship, and recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Decisions on benefit claims will be predicated on the evidence submitted, if needed, medical exams will be ordered and processed expeditiously. If an increase of a benefit is determined after additional evidence is submitted, those benefit payment will be paid retroactively to the initial claim file date.

This new initiative is also designed to allow a vet to appeal a decision, including lower benefits than expected, a denial of claim or another issue. The vet will have one full year to submit additional evidence, after which, the VBA will contact the vet to inform them that their rating has been determined and will provide standard appeal information.

The plan is that, as the oldest claims are processed, the average claim competition time through the VA’s system will improve and the average number of days a claim is in the benefits inventory will dramatically decrease.

During the pending phase of compensation claims, vets who are eligible can receive their healthcare benefits from the VA. Vets from recent conflicts are currently eligible for as many as five years of VA healthcare for free. More than 55 percent of vets who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan are now using VA health care.

Wounded Warrior claims, meanwhile, are continuing to be processed separately with Department of Defense via the Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES). Vets designated as “Wounded Warriors” are receiving their VA compensation benefits just 61 days, on average, after separating from military service.

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact a veterans lawyer, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com/ or call 800.693.4800