We’re live on this one. Happy Friday! I’m Katie. I’m Heather. We’re with the Brandy Austin Law Firm. And today we are going to discuss VA benefits.
Not just for the veterans, but for family members as well. Right. So I’m going to have a little bit of entertainment and hopefully some information that can kind of help the veterans out there. Help our veterans out. By the way, I want to thank you for your service. We greatly appreciate it. It’s deep down appreciation. Yes. All right. Want to jump on in? Yeah. So first question I’m going to ask, just a real general question.
Heather, what are VA benefits and how do you receive them? That is amazing. Well, first of all, you do have to be a veteran and someone that has actually provided service, military service within our great old United States.
You do have to, there’s several different qualifications, but generally the main important one is that you have to have an honorable discharge from the military. So definitely, unfortunately, we still thank you for your service, but due to the actual benefits and the complications that come with it, you’re not able to qualify if you do not have an honorable discharge.
Yes. So some of the benefits, of course, that, you know, that there are different things that come with it and how you receive them, of course, you do have to apply for them through the Veterans Association. And definitely we kind of get into all that fun stuff. Yeah. So, you know.
We’ve got what they are, but what are some of the general benefits? Like if you could just, you know, pick out a few things. What are the main qualities, the main, oh man. The main types or the main benefits you can receive. I can always count on her. The biggest ones, of course, is active duty. There are things as far as like disability compensation.
They do provide education and training, not just for the veteran themselves, but for family members and dependents. We are able to, they assist as far as with employment services, health care options, even home loans. They assist as far as first-time buyers to try to get them into…
not government-based assisted facility, but if you wanted to purchase your first home. So quick question, just to interrupt you. Let’s say, and we’ll get more into this later on, but let’s say your loved one has passed and you’re receiving their benefits after the fact. If they had not purchased a home under those benefits prior to, are you still able to
to use those benefits to purchase a home with a VA loan. You do have to be the spouse. If the person has, the veteran has since passed, if they…
have their wife, they are able to be grandfathered into basically receiving those same benefits. Unfortunately, as dependents at that time, they do not qualify, but of course the spouse of the veteran that has since passed or living are eligible for those. Good to know, good to know. It’s a very good feeling to be able to buy a house. Yes, it is.
And some of the other things, literally, of course, everybody’s aware of memorial services for the veterans, so they do provide burial for the spouse as well. The biggest one, of course, life insurance, pensions, and then there’s DIC benefits, which is not just for the spouse, but the dependents also. DIC, what is that? It’s death accrued compensation. So that’s once the person has passed, the veteran. But there is different things.
They do even assist as far as like with aid and attendance to where, you know, we’re hoping that there’s longevity of life when dealing with veterans. And so, of course, elderly issues come into play as far as, you know, retirement facilities need assistance. So they do an aid and attendance to where if you need assistance with coming in and assisting veterans.
Someone to come and stay with you daily, or even if you go into an assisted living facility or nursing home. So it seems to cover a lot. Yes, they have. A lot of benefits to it. I mean, and in every path it gets into detail. Yes. And coverage goes pretty far. It’s very complicated. So, if I am a veteran, which I’m not, but…
if I was a veteran, how would I apply for these benefits? Of course, you can do it on your own. The only thing, honestly, especially from being a law firm and dealing with it, I’ve seen a lot of people where they start to apply on their own, and it’s just so heavily complicated. There’s so many forms that go into this. It just kind of weighs you down. And the biggest thing, and not to say anything bad about our government, however…
a lot of the time they’re just backlogged. There’s so many different people trying to apply for the benefits if you think about it. So it is very slow. And when they do send out mailing the deadline,
Sometimes some of our clients specifically, they send a letter demanding response within 10 days. By the time they get it, it’s two days. They get denied. At that point, a lot of people think, okay, I was denied. I don’t get to get there. Well, if you have an attorney, we fight for you. I have it all the time. We get letters saying, oh, we didn’t receive this fax. You’d think.
out of all the technology the government has, that they would discontinue using snail mail. And they do not. And that’s a little bit different as well, and kind of complicated issues. Why I do firmly state that it’s well worth getting an attorney to come in and handle. Because, I mean, one, the headache. Two, the hassle as far as the deadlines that approach. Mm-hmm.
Three, we’re responsible to get the stuff completed. Let us take your problems. Yes. Give it to us. I love them. And the phone calls. The majority of the VA benefits that we do, there is some estate planning that can come into effect prior to the VA. But once with the VA documents, we definitely can kind of get in there and do what we need to to assist in facilitating it. Right.
So VA benefits, they last for life, right? Yes, they do carry over. Usually the biggest pension comes with, of course, the veteran living. Same thing with Social Security. Once the decedent, the veteran, passes…
a portion of those benefits do carry over to their spouse. But in the event of both passing, they are able to go to the children as well, too. Yeah, that was going to be my next question. Unfortunately, there are some children out there that both parents are in the military, and that does happen, unfortunately. So that was my next question. As far as…
is there anything that they would have to do above and beyond just simply applying and gaining those benefits to make sure that they retain those benefits or after they do pass that it passes on to family? Is there something that if you were trying to do it on your own that you wouldn’t know to do? There’s a lot that goes in. And usually, I mean, generally speaking, if the veteran has applied for the benefits themselves,
Upon passing, if the spouse at that time notifies the VA of the passing, they usually are pretty good at sending a letter to that spouse, deepest sympathies and condolences. And usually it does carry over. They’ll submit some documents for you to complete and then go ahead and basically kind of forward those and it will kind of handle it.
Where I’ve seen the disconnect is both if the veteran and the spouse passes and the children are left there.
Because a lot of children don’t know their parents’ situation, let alone finances. But, you know, especially what they’re able to do with burial and different things. What about in the event that children are fairly young and they are then either appointed a guardian or go to another family member or an extended family member? Does that extended family member that becomes guardian of the children…
Do they receive any benefits? They technically don’t receive the benefits, but the dependent, the children, they do. So technically, they are able to be kind of trustee over those finances, especially for minor children.
But there are also other benefits as well as Social Security and different things that, you know, in the event of both parents do pass that they try to, you know, try to get in there and assist with the day care with the children. So another good question. What is that? Can anyone, would it ever be possible for someone to claim your VA benefits? Like sort of a VA identity theft. Is that possible?
That’s kind of interesting that you brought that up. Um, I’ve literally been doing this for 10 years. Um, and within the actual VA portion, a lot of it, like I said, does go back to estate planning, but specifically with, it’s difficult for someone to steal your identity. However, I have had a situation where the person goes and gets remarried. Um,
Technically, a divorce was not on file, so there is, yes. So within the death certificate, the unofficial wife was eligible for the benefits pursuant to the death certificate.
Great thing, of course, she did not apply for the benefits, but we have had someone come in wanting to get their spouse’s benefits. Looking into it, we had to amend some death certificates and find out who the real wife is. So yeah, there are different things that can kind of happen from it. Keep your eye out. Yes. So as far as, let’s talk about education and training. I know a lot of veterans have a hard time getting back into the civilian world.
and finding something that fits their needs as a veteran, whatever that may be. What kind of education and training do they provide? It really is specific as to, one, what type of job that they had while they were in the military.
But they definitely always want to try to assist as far as getting them back out there, getting them acclimated. Unfortunately, a lot of, and this is a personal opinion and not from the Brandy Austin Law Firm either, just myself, there is a disconnect, especially mental capacity that kind of comes back in. There is a lot of PTOSD that kind of come in and they can’t get jobs. But there’s different things that go…
They’re laughing at me. There’s a lot of things that go into place where they can’t get that information. And so within that, again, it’s a bad one. Because I know the medical end, it’s a fairly slow process, right? Yes, very slow. For veterans, unfortunately. They do have those medical benefits, but I know that we probably, in my personal opinion, need to step that up for them.
Again, it’s federal, it’s government. I’m honestly not a big fan, and again, this is my personal view. I’m not a big fan of Medicaid, and I’m not a big fan of the veterans. They go over there, they do this service for us, and come back, and then just the health care, the different things, and it’s upsetting. And a lot of veterans that I speak with, they don’t even apply for veteran benefits because they feel that it’s a handout. And literally…
when speaking to the families or even to, and it’s more so the men, speaking with the men, they don’t want that handout. And so the best way connection-wise is you did this service for your country. It’s not a handout. This is for you. Exactly. So getting that stipend kind of works, but still there’s that disconnect as far as with the actual medical care that our veterans are receiving. Right, right.
Well, and, you know, you hit on that discord, you know, they feel like it’s a handout. But, hey, if you don’t have to handle it and we do it all. Exactly. It becomes my, you know, responsibility. No worries. We do see it from beginning to end. Like I said, a lot of the information it is, we do offer flat fees. So, definitely contact us. We do offer free consultations. Like I said, each case is specific to that veteran. So, yeah.
I definitely would love to sit down with y’all, go over the assets, see what we can do, and then get the benefits for you and your family. It’s your benefits, and you need them now. Exactly. Well, thank y’all, and hopefully you enjoyed today’s Facebook Live and that you got some information. And definitely feel free to contact us at BrandyAustinLaw.com. Our phone number, everything, 817-841-9906. Invisible Inc. phone number.
Y’all have a happy Friday. Bye.
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