Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, they are.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, there is a program. In fact, there was a meeting of this group about three weeks ago. We call it the “ministerial forum”. The ministers from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, and the VA Secretary, as well as staff from veterans affairs departments of those different countries, met for a two-day period here in Washington and we discussed how we run our veterans benefits and health care programs.

Veterans Affairs committee  The typical VA education program permits the service member or veteran, once they've served a certain amount of time in the service, to seek either a college education or technical training. While they are in college they receive a monthly stipend from VA. So we pay a single veteran who served in active duty $1,101 a month while they are enrolled full-time in a course of education.

Veterans Affairs committee  One of the things we have found very useful is information that comes off of service members' discharge papers. When one of our members gets out of the military they're given a discharge. We call it a Department of Defense form 214. VA gets a copy of each service member's discharge papers.

Veterans Affairs committee  On the benefits side of the VA, we've been working very hard to put all the applications for the various benefits online so that veterans can go there, fill out the form, and then electronically send it into our regional offices to begin the processing of their claim. We think we've made considerable progress in that area.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, and we recognize that many veterans are not computer-savvy. We are very fortunate to have this strong network of veterans service organizations out there located in almost every community in this country, even in many of our rural communities. Their primary purpose is to try to help the veterans who are members of their organizations submit their claims, and they're able to assist the veterans in better understanding some of the more complex forms that we have.

Veterans Affairs committee  With respect to the disability compensation, we do a lot of outreach to service members who are transitioning out of the military. We try to provide extensive briefings to each of them to let them know what avenues are open to them in terms of applying for disability compensation and to include PTSD, but we rely to a great extent on the veteran service organizations to try to identify the veterans in their local areas who may be in need of disability compensation for any number of disabilities, including PTSD.

Veterans Affairs committee  The one for dependants pays $881 a month. For active duty it's $1,101. For the select reserve, the National Guard, it's $317 per month. For the National Guard and reserve who are called to active duty, it's a maximum of $880 per month.

Veterans Affairs committee  For the benefits, veterans can get disability compensation for PTSD. It requires an application from the veteran, a medical examination, psychological examinations, a gathering of evidence, and then a final determination as to whether the veteran's condition were service connected.

Veterans Affairs committee  That's an excellent question and one that we're currently struggling with. We rely to a great extent on the clinical expertise of the veterans health administration to advise us on many of the claims that we receive from veterans. Yes, it is much easier to award disability compensation based on a bullet wound or an amputation.

Veterans Affairs committee  On the benefit side of the VA, I think our biggest gap is that we have not developed electronic information systems to keep pace with the increasing complexity of the benefits process that our Congress provides to us. Presently our largest program, the disability compensation program, is pretty much paper-driven.

Veterans Affairs committee  Yes, and with respect to the benefit side of our house, we really couldn't get the job done without the support of these service organizations. A large percentage of veterans who file claims for disability are using the services of one of our many veterans service organizations, and in many cases the veteran has given these organizations the power of attorney to submit their claim and to pursue that claim to the final step.

Veterans Affairs committee  Sir, I will take a shot at that, and I'm sure my colleagues might want to weigh in. The simple definition is that anyone who has served in the military for any period of time is a veteran, but that doesn't necessarily mean they qualify for the various benefits that we administer in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Veterans Affairs committee  Good afternoon, committee members. It's a pleasure to be with you this afternoon. I'm going to give you a quick run-through of the five benefit programs administered by the veterans benefits administration. Let me start by telling you that we have 57 regional offices around the country involved in providing these benefits to our 24 million veterans.