I know a guy who is 85% disabled and receives about 40K in disability per year. He also has his wife qualified as his "caregiver" and the state pays her 12K per year to "care" for him.

He works on the line at one of the Big Three factories and makes about 85K per year (skilled trade) and more if he works the overtime that is always available.

AND BRAGS ABOUT IT.

There is nothing wrong with him. I saw this person twice a week for many many months (contact with him at my place of employment) and when my coworkers and I gave him crap about it, he brought in documents to prove to us that he was, in fact, getting 52K per year from the government for a disability that didn't preclude him from anything, let alone being an auto worker.

And then, we were paying him a fee plus his mileage, so he was getting even MORE money!!

Don't even get me started on the billions of dollars our country wastes on nonsense! And it always seems that the people who really DO need the help are the ones that have to jump through 40 hoops to get it. My dad married a woman with 2 kids. Her son is 2 years older than I am. I met him when I was 14 and he was 16. Super nice guy, entered the military to follow in my dad's footsteps. Was deployed to go to Desert Storm and was given a whole bunch of shots to prepare him for over seas. Something they gave him f'd him up and mean f'd him up like big time! He went from totally "normal" to has difficulty walking, can barely speak, feed himself etc. The military gave them a terrible time about giving him disability benefits. My dad's wife has said many times that if it wasn't for my dad fighting for him, her son would have gotten nothing, because she would have given up just thinking that no means no.

Fraud is not as rampant as people believe and the small amount that there is it usually makes more financial sense to just pay out than to try to crack down on it and prevent it all. From the sounds of his history perhaps they decided 2.5 million was a small price to pay to get him out. If your annual budget was the size of the militaries, maybe you'd agree to pay him 2.5 million to keep him out of your life?

This whole thread just makes me sick. :sick:

Like any government program, disability benefits for military/vets is ripe ground for fraud. And there is PLENTY of it going on.

I know professional people who work in the VA, and they've been disgusted by this for years. Part of the problem that plagues the VA is due to the fact the system is plugged up with many of these so-called "disabled" vets who have jumped on the gravy train.

The veterans who DESPERATELY need the care and are deserving of it often can't get an appointment because the system can't handle the overload!

I've been told that PTSD is a huge cash-cow. Not saying that there aren't people who are deserving of care for the condition, but it's one of those conditions (like backaches) which can be difficult to prove or pin down. Plus, when properly treated and monitored it's a condition which should allow a person to get back to some semblance of a normal life, not be on 100% disability.

The irony is that many folks who actually have PTSD don't even want to be treated for it as they fear being stigmatized. And there are all these young vets with significant injuries ... like those who will need prosthetics for the rest of their lives, and the system is being clogged and drained by these free-loaders and phoneys.

The other big ones are sleep apnea and carpal tunnel syndrome. Yes, veterans can get paid disability benefits for life for having sleep apnea or carpal tunnel! It's become standard practice for those getting out/retiring from the military to get just about any physical condition counted towards that magic VA disability percentage so they can get a check for life, on top of their 50% retirement pay. Plus, they can still go out and get a civilian job once they get out.

I know a retired servicewoman who got 30 percent VA disability for carpal tunnel and hemmorhoids. No joke. Not bad for someone who "retired" in her 40's - she got 50 percent of her military pay for the rest of her life, military health care for life, VA disability check and got a high-paying job right after she retired. She never served a day on deployment, either.