Posted on 08/27/2023 12:17:30 PM PDT by DFG
Sounnds like the LA Fire dept. The number of LAFD captains retired on full disability approaches 100% I learned years ago.
Scamming disability in gov is pandemic. had an ex-LASD deputiy living next door that was on 100% disability for bad back. Did not stop him from many trips to water ski of course.. Glad it was another county paying for his leisure.
“A problem must have a current diagnosis.”
Piece of cake to get. In fact, to get a federal job pretty much REQUIRES a disability in order to score high enough to qualify.
The two most common disabilities are “I can’t sleep” and “I have social anxiety”.
Good point—I laughed when I saw concern about “disability benefits”.
It just means many of the pilots are good liars.
In the VA world, can’t sleep requires records of a base medical officer visit for the problem . . . maybe 30 years ago before you knew anything about all this.
People do not understand the military, which isn’t surprising since vets are presently only 8% of the adult population. An interesting number since the total VA budget is just about exactly 8% of US spending in the budget.
“In the VA world, can’t sleep requires records of a base medical officer visit for the problem . . . maybe 30 years ago before you knew anything about all this.”
Nope. Current healthcare, so GFY.
Thank you. Your explanation makes sense.
It's the same with pilots. Most ex-military pilots are going to have some hearing loss, it's the nature of being around jet engines for years. I also know some who have ejection seat injuries they're drawing VA disability for. Is a 30% hearing loss going to prevent them from flying an airliner? No, that would be silly, that's what a volume knob is for. Should the fact that they have a compressed disc from an ejection prevent them from flying an airliner? No, there aren't ejection seats in airliners. They're eligible for VA compensation for the damage incurred in the military though.
As with most things in the media this article is full of BS and half truths. Far more than the 30% mentioned of airline pilots are ex-military, they listed "commercial" and many have commercial tickets that aren't flying for the airlines. Ex-military airline pilots are almost always older, stuff doesn't work like it did due to inevitable wear and tear when you've been in the military and they've had you on the deck of an aircraft carrier or in a war zone. It doesn't mean you aren't fit to fly an airliner, but they might not do great as a sound mixer for a recording studio with tinnitus. Also ask yourself whether you really want to go harassing half the airline pilots in the U.S. out of a job over BS when there's a pilot shortage. If you think air travel is bad now, pull the medical certificates of half the military trained pilots and see how it goes.
We are short thousands thousands of pilots right now, every last one of them including me will be conscripted to fly for the military when the War starts. You have about a year at best until then.
I don’t understand.
A VA disability requires a current diagnosis. Plus. A “service connection” to an event during active duty.
There is no VA disability declaration without these and the nexus between them. Service Connected disabled is very explicit.
If you are talking about non VA disability, why. The thread is about VA disability.
Yeah. It is VA injury. Not VA disability. People hear disabled and think the guy can’t walk. He’s 10% tinnitus disabled. It takes time from his life walking around looking for the sound, but . . . he can walk around. He’s not disabled. He’s injured.
You can compensate for that or tell him “this is part of the sacrifice you will make the rest of your life because you raised your right hand when you were young and swore to go into battle if ordered to do so.” No reasonable society would refuse compensation.
Thanks for all of the info, but I worked on Air Force flightlines 50 years ago, and hearing protection was definitely mandated then.
I'm mostly deaf now even though I always, always, always wore hearing protection. I've thought about trying to claim a disability, but I didn't notice anything while I was still in the AF. Maybe I should apply even though I might be turned down. (The VA does provide me high quality hearing aids at no cost to me.)
Is this just a “Let’s hate veterans” piece from the Washington Post?
“You will lose the ability to understand women voices first. “
My husband never was in the military and he hasn’t been hearing or understanding me for almost 30 years
You should file. Certain AFSC (MOS for other services) are presumptive. You don’t have to have reported it if you worked a specialty that guaranteed you were around the noise frequently.
You clearly have a VA audiologist diagnosis of hearing loss. Have you reported ringing as well?
If so, you’re highly likely to be approved via the presumptive job.
10% eliminates the income threshold on your VA healthcare. This often means it eliminates some copays. Not on meds, but on treatments.
Look into it. Be sure you reported ringing to the audiologist. If so, you’re good.
This is a very interesting thread minus a very important bit of information.
The words compensation have been used in more than one comment.
I freely admit I don’t know the percentage of disability that might have a compensation number attached to it, or if that number is 100% and your retirement package would then come under the VA disability program.
The reason I bring it up is my 30 percent rating has no compensation attached to it. I am an Air Force O-4 retiree. I receive no dollar amount as compensation. If I understand correctly the VA recognizes a portion of my retirement compensation from their system as tax free. My overall retired pay remains the calculated amount anyone of my retired rank would receive except that a portion subject to my disability rating would be tax free.
I believe the total is approximately 400 dollars a month which would amount to 4800 a year tax free. I don’t have a tax book handy but that benefit would be somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of 4800. That benefit is one reason I still choose to work and pay taxes. So all that tax burden is not on the shoulders of the producers while I am still able at eighty three.
Thanks for the advice.
My understanding is your retirement pay does not change and you do not get 30% disability pay. Instead, that 30% number transitions to your retirement pay and that amount becomes tax free, rather than taxed as your pension is.
So in general it reduces the taxes on your retirement pay. Rather than add it to your monthly payment.
Precisely.
I couldn’t have said it better, and didn’t. LOL
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