Noteboom The Law Firm

Government Shutdown Will Affect Veterans

March 4, 2011 - Should the powers that be fail to come to common ground on the budget and spending cuts, the U.S. Government could shutdown on March 5th. As hundreds of thousands of people's income depends on government funds and benefits, there are many questions to be answered and certainly scary times ahead. Should the government shutdown, however, the effect on the military and our veterans should be a minor one. Major sections of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will likely continue to operate.

Neither the Department of Defense (DoD) nor the VA have published their plans for responding to a shutdown, and it is unknown exactly how the shutdown would even work. It is probably safe to say any new veterans' disability claims waiting to be processed will face a delay or a standstill. Those veterans just starting to receive their first couple benefit payments may find those payments late or in reduced amounts. Should the shutdown last longer than a few weeks those payments may cease.

This shutdown would likely hit the VA's benefit administration the hardest with veterans' benefits offices not being staffed. This means benefits questions are not answered and disability claims still sitting in their envelopes will not be opened. Along with other payments, VA disability checks are issued in the beginning of the month so a March 5^th shutdown wouldn't affect those payments. It remains to be seen if those same payments would be able to be made in full the next month, however.

With so many veterans and their dependants relying on VA services, it is scary to not know if the shutdown will happen or what will remain open should it happen. All we can do now is wait and see.