Department of Labor Office for Veterans

Great site for Veterans who were injuried

http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/

Awesome article from Military.com Vet pensions check it out

Hon. Shelley Berkley: Many Elderly and Disabled Veterans Who Served in Wartime Eligible for VA Pension Benefits

About the Author
As a member of the Veterans Affairs' Committee, Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) is working to honor America's commitment to those who served our nation in the military and to plan for the future needs of our brave men and women in uniform today.
Congresswoman Berkley serves as Ranking Member on the Disability and Memorial Affairs Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. The panel has a wide range of jurisdiction over issues important to veterans of all ages. Areas under Berkley's jurisdiction include: compensation paid to veterans, pensions, burial benefits, life insurance, VA claims and veterans' cemeteries in the U.S. and around the globe.
Now serving in her fourth term, Berkley represents fast-growing Las Vegas, home to more than 150,000 veterans. The Congresswoman recently won approval for a new $295 million dollar VA medical complex for Southern Nevada which will include a state-of-the-art hospital, outpatient clinic and long-term care facility.
Since first being elected to office in 1998, Congresswoman Berkley has represented southern Nevada at a time of continued record growth and her work in Congress reflects the dynamic needs of the nation's fastest growing communities.
Berkley is a graduate of the University of Nevada - Las Vegas and holds a law degree from the University of San Diego. She is a former attorney, gaming executive, Nevada State Assembly Member and Nevada University and Community College System Board of Regents member from 1990 until her election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998. Military Opinions IndexDiscussion BoardHave an opinion on this article? Sound off.
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June 21, 2005[Have an opinion about the issues discussed in this column? Sound off here.] America promised its veterans who served our nation during time of war that they would not have to live in poverty should they become disabled or when they reach retirement age. Sadly, that promise has not been kept, in large part because many veterans are unaware of the assistance available to them through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). A recent evaluation of the VA's Non-service Connected Pension Program found that only about one in four eligible veterans are estimated to be receiving the pension benefits they are owed.
In my home State of Nevada, which boasts a veteran population of more than 240,000, only about 3,000 veterans and survivors now receive non-service connected pension benefits that average about $7,000 per year. Unfortunately, far too many veterans still do not know that this VA pension program exists.
Current recipients surveyed by the VA in 2004 reported that they had been eligible for many years before actually applying for benefits. As increasing numbers of World War II and Korean War veterans reach the point when medical expenses take a large amount of their income, we must do more to inform these American heroes of their eligibility for a VA pension. The cash assistance provided by this program can help veterans with modest incomes pay for prescription drugs, nursing home or in home care, and other out of pocket medical expenses.
In order to qualify for the VA non-service connected pension program, veterans are required to have served during a specific “period of war,” such as World War II, the Korean Conflict, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan. The location of the service, stateside or overseas, does not matter as long as the veteran was discharged under honorable conditions and generally served for at least 90 days.
Veterans may receive a non-service-connected pension based on reaching age 65. Veterans who are under age 65 qualify if they are permanently and totally disabled. For disabled veterans, the disability does not have to have any relationship to the veteran's military service.
Eligibility for the program is based upon need. A veteran is generally eligible if he or she has less than $80,000 in net assets. The home and one motor vehicle are not counted in determining assets. The annual income of the veteran and dependent family member must be below certain limits.
For 2005, the maximum benefit for a single veteran is $846 per month. If the veteran has a spouse or other dependent, the maximum amount is $1,109 per month. In determining eligibility and the amount of the benefit paid, the VA will subtract any income, such as Social Security or retirement benefits, the veteran and his dependents receive from the maximum amount.
Additional amounts are payable to a disabled veteran of any age who is housebound or in need of “aid and attendance.” For example, a single veteran who is considered housebound is eligible for up to $1,034 per month. A single veteran who is paying privately for nursing home care may receive up to $1,412 per month. A single veteran who is blind or needs the aid of another person for daily activities and who receives care at home, can also receive up to $1,412 per month. If this veteran has a spouse, the amount is $1,674 per month. Single veterans whose nursing home care is being paid by Medicaid have their benefit reduced to $90.00 per month, but the $90.00 must be given to the veteran and may not be used for the cost of medical or nursing home care.
In determining income, the VA will count all of the income received by the veteran and his or her dependents. VA will subtract from a veteran's income, out of pocket medical expenses above a minimal amount ($508 per year for a single veteran and $665 per year for a veteran with a spouse or other dependent) paid by the veteran or dependents. Even if the veteran is depleting savings to pay medical expenses, the expenses are still deducted from income to increase the pension benefit.
For example, under VA rules, a single veteran who is housebound because of disabilities, who has $1,400 per month in gross income, and who is paying $562 per month for medical expenses, would be eligible for $157 per month in VA pension benefits. Medical expenses include Part B Medicare premiums, Medi-gap insurance, prescription drugs, nursing home care or other medical care and dental care. Only expenses actually paid by the veteran or dependent may be deducted.
Wartime veterans who believe that they qualify for a pension can contact the Department of Veterans Affairs (1-800-827-1000) for an application and further information. A simple letter requesting the pension benefits (including a request for housebound or aid and attendance if applicable) can serve as an “informal claim” for a pension, allowing benefits to be paid from that date forward, if the claim is approved. Applications can also be completed online or can be printed out and mailed directly to the VA.
Laws passed by Congress cannot achieve their desired result unless those who are intended to benefit from them are made aware of their existence. The VA pension program for non-service connected veterans provides valuable assistance to veterans with limited income and those who are depleting their savings to pay for medical care. Without information concerning the existence of this program, too many of our wartime veterans will continue to live in poverty.

© 2005 Hon. Shelley Berkley. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.


©2005 Military Advantage

Correct domain name selection

So you want to be an Internet superstar, work from home and earn six figures cool we are working on doing just that.
In previous articles we have discussed figuring out what you want to do for your home business another term for this is finding your niche.

We then discussed a few different programs available to help you if you are a Veteran, or Single mother. (There is a lot more of this to come)

We will now discuss the step three in designing your income producing website.

Proper domain name selection.

When selecting a domain name there are a couple of key questions you should ask.

Is my domain name easy to remember?
When purchasing a domain you want to keep it as short as possible and avoid hyphens whenever possible. For example H-B-S.biz is much easier to remember then Home-Business-Success.biz. In this case we bought both names. We use the shorter domain to put on business cards, flyers, and brochures. When a person types in H-B-S.biz they are automatically forwarded to our long domain website. The long domain URL has two of our keywords in it, which should help with the search engines. The bottom line is the shorter and more memorable the domain the better. It is suggested to put keywords into your domain name wherever logically possible. Try to keep the domain short and use a maximum of three words. If you want to brand your company you can insert your company name in the domain. Be as specific as possible, for example if my company was called: XYZ marketing and one of my websites was about Home business I could purchase the domain XYZHomebusiness.com. In, this example we have both our company name and keywords, so this would be a good domain name to choose. With some niches such as Home business the competition is tough so as in our case you might have to settle for a domain name with hyphens in it. Try to avoid it but it is not the end of the world. .

Has anyone owned the domain prior to me?
When I was first looking for a domain name for H-B-S, I was happy to discover that Home-business-xxxxx.com was available so I bought it. Big mistake. We proceeded to build the page and gather incoming links as well as doing some manual submissions to directories. After a few weeks we noticed that our site was not getting crawled by the search engines. We also noticed that any emails I sent to Jeff using the new domain got blocked by his email spam program “Spam Cop”. We both wondered what the heck was going on. It was then I started to do some investigation to find out if someone else had owned the domain name prior. There are a number of ways you can check this. The first way is to go to Alexa.com and use the Wayback machine. Check to see if the site has ever been published on the net before. If the site is about Gambling, or a Pill store I suggest you look for another name.

Should I only buy a .com URL? Two years ago I would have said yes, however, today a .biz URL is fine. A majority of people who surf the net are aware of the .biz extension and your customers should also be able to remember it easily. As with the hyphen example above if you can get the .com and a spammer has not used it in the past go ahead and get both the .biz and .com versions.

Should I buy all the extensions available? In a nut shell yes! With the cost of a domain name starting at around $7.00 each I suggest for peace of mind and future growth you buy the .com, .biz and .org variations of your domain name. I know of a case where a person put up their site and built it for six months very successfully. Well about three months later the person discovered someone had bought the .biz version of their URL and was trying to steal traffic. Listen you are investing in your future success, spend a few extra dollars now to avoid a potentially major headache in the future.

Should I buy a domain name from a Domain auction? You should save your money. There are thousands of combinations of domain names that will fit your business. Take that money and invest it into your website promotion perhaps through Pay per click or pay for submission to a few of the upper level directories.

I hope this article has helped you and will make your domain name selection easier and more profitable.

Stephen Mistretta is a Freelance Writer and a Partner in the Work At Home Website
http://www.Home-Business-Success.biz