Protecting Veterans’ Rights: Exposing Unauthorized VA Practices
Veterans navigating the VA’s benefits system deserve transparency, respect, and the full protection of their rights. But within the Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) program—also known as Chapter 31—things are far from ideal. For years, the VA has quietly used unauthorized forms, implemented improper policies, and allowed privacy violations that undermine the very veterans the program is supposed to serve.
These aren’t isolated incidents—they’re part of a broader pattern that leaves veterans vulnerable and under-supported. It’s time to expose these issues, hold the VA accountable, and ensure veterans have the tools they need to fight back and protect what’s rightfully theirs.
The fight isn’t over. Stay informed, stay empowered.
Benjamin Krause On VA’s Unauthorized Practices
Understanding the Problem: Unauthorized Forms and Policies
Since 2018, VR&E offices have been under fire for using unauthorized documents to collect sensitive information from veterans—without proper approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Let’s be clear: this isn’t just concerning, it’s potentially illegal. These unauthorized forms lack the OMB approval numbers required to ensure privacy and security protocols are followed, including critical notice-and-comment periods.
For veterans, this is a betrayal. It’s a violation of trust, privacy, and the legal safeguards built into laws like the Privacy Act and HIPAA. These laws exist to protect veterans’ personal and medical information. But when VR&E offices bypass the rules and manipulate policies at the local level, veterans are left exposed—vulnerable to data breaches and mishandling of their most sensitive records.
Unfortunately, this isn’t an isolated case. The VA has a long history of violating veterans’ rights:
- GI Bill Mismanagement: In 2018, thousands of veterans were left without their GI Bill payments due to VA IT failures and mismanagement. Many were forced to take on debt or drop out of school entirely.
- Caregiver Program Scandals: Veterans in the VA’s Caregiver Support Program have been abruptly removed without proper notice or appeals processes, leaving disabled veterans and their families without critical resources.
- Wrongful Denials of Benefits: The VA Inspector General has repeatedly uncovered cases where veterans were wrongfully denied benefits due to improper application of regulations or lack of oversight, including disability ratings and Special Monthly Compensation (SMC).
- Privacy Violations: In one infamous case, the VA mistakenly mailed over 500,000 benefit decision letters to the wrong veterans, exposing private information to strangers in direct violation of the Privacy Act.
- Medical Negligence and Malpractice: Veterans have also suffered due to inadequate care at VA facilities, with preventable deaths and injuries reported in multiple OIG investigations, such as the opioid over-prescription crisis and botched surgeries.
Each of these cases reveals a troubling pattern of negligence, lack of accountability, and systemic failures. Veterans deserve better from the very agency entrusted with their care and support.
The VA must be held accountable—not just for the unauthorized forms in VR&E but for the broader systemic issues that continue to harm those who served. Veterans cannot fight this battle alone. It’s time to demand transparency, accountability, and justice for all veterans.
Why This Matters: Violations Beyond VR&E
The issue extends far beyond just VR&E. Similar concerns have emerged in other VA departments, such as the Veterans Health Administration, where veterans’ privacy and rights were similarly disregarded. In 2019, for example, it came to light that veterans’ private information was being transferred to the Amazon cloud without proper notification or consent. This alarming revelation resulted in litigation and public outcry, highlighting a disturbing pattern of systemic issues within the VA.
But the real cost of these violations goes far deeper than just public scandals. For a veteran wrongly denied benefits or stuck in an appeal for years, the financial toll can be catastrophic. Imagine a veteran who could have received $3,000 per month in disability compensation—or used VR&E to fund training for a $100,000-per-year career. Every month spent fighting a denial represents not just lost benefits but also lost career opportunities and wages that compound over time.
If a veteran is delayed for five years in securing their rightful benefits, that’s $180,000 in lost disability payments alone—money they might desperately need to pay bills, access healthcare, or support their families. When you add in the potential income from a career they could have pursued with timely VR&E support, the numbers are staggering. A five-year delay in accessing a $100,000-per-year career could cost a veteran half a million dollars—or more—off the end of their working life.
And for veterans nearing the end of their careers, these delays often mean there’s no way to recover. The window of opportunity closes while they wait, stuck in an endless appeals process or trying to fix systemic mistakes made by the VA.
The bottom line? These systemic failures cost veterans not just money—but time, dignity, and opportunities they can never get back. The VA’s mishandling of privacy, benefits, and rights isn’t just a bureaucratic issue—it’s a direct attack on the livelihood and future of our nation’s veterans. It’s time to hold them accountable. How much longer can veterans afford to wait?
In certain areas of the country, you’re guaranteed to get fucked if you hang around in that system long enough. One of those areas is where the new VA secretary is from so it’s safe to assume he knows what the hell is going on. Question is.. will he simply perpetuate the broken system and sweep everything under the rug as usual or will he do what needs to be done? Ultimately the dereliction of duty by the federal courts is why this system is unchecked and a failure. There’s nothing Doug can do about that part.
Psychologists who believe that PTSD is a pre-existing condition, pre service that is, still feel the need to work at VA for some reason. When they get disgruntled over there bogus philosophy, they’re gonna start with the abusive behavior. They should just leave instead, and shame on the VA for hiring such people.
You lose just about every right constitutional or otherwise as soon as you walk through the door. Only if people in there commit just straight crime against the veteran will they recognize rights violation. As far as Constitutional rights, you don’t have any. When was the last time someone won a constitutional rights case against VA? You mean to tell me they NEVER have or do? I don’t think so. And we know healthcare isn’t a right in there either if they want to deny it. Only thanks to their friends in Congress and on the federal bench are they allowed to continue to do some of the things they do and don’t do so ..so much for separation of powers. The executive and judical are in bed and you suffer as a result of their refusal to govern according to the Constitution and laws made by Congress.
The Veterans Healthcare Administration is supposed to provide healthcare for service connected conditions. That’s the law, but the Veterans Healthcare Administration is a lawless organization. It’s a system where in many cases doctors are forced to commit malpractice to keep their jobs. For instance, say you have cervical disk herniations, service connected, the doctor knows surgery won’t be authorized. And that’s the only thing that’s really gonna make that better. But they’re still forced to provide some kind of care because that’s what they need to do to seem legitimate. So what do they do? Send people around in circles for a decade and to “physical therapy” which is in many cases bullshit. It’s just a meeting with someone. So in doing these things they at least aren’t treating people and at most making people’s conditions and mental health worse. That my friends is malpractice, aided by the federal courts, who turn a blind eye to it so it will continue well into the future. Our government and political system is a failure in many ways and justice isn’t being done. The federal courts allow the Veterans Healthcare Administration to engage in systemic malpractice and denial of care mandated by Congress.
The Department of Justice, Federal Bureau, and the federal courts all know about the mistreatment and denial of care that happens at the Department of Veterans Affairs, and not a one of them will do shit. They think remedy for the rights violations and injustice would reflect poorly on the government, but they don’t understand the impact that overlooking these problems is having on these systems and the American people. Trust in government is at an all time low because of their dereliction of duty and dishonesty, and these problems will persist because they refuse to act. That’s the way they should be looking at it but they choose cowardice, dishonesty, dishonor, dysfunction, and dereliction of duty in bringing justice to the victims of rights violations perpetrated by employees at the Veterans Healthcare Administration. Finger pointing and sweeping things under the rug has gone too far.
The federal courts, being derelict in their duties in our democracy, are responsible for much of the Injustice because they aren’t issuing judgements against those who deny care and abuse at the VA. So the executive has no incentive to do anything else but sweep it under the rug and continue to promote the place as if it’s great. Job protections, unlimited legal resources, and immunity is also a problem. The people who work for VA will simply blame the voters and politicians… but that’s bullshit. They have the money, still care is denied in many cases and abuses aren’t being remedied as they should. That points to a failed political system as the federal courts are supposed to perform their function in government. They’re not.
I will flush out these scoundrels!
He’d have to fire like 50,000 clowns at VA which would cripple the system. He didn’t do it the first time, he won’t make a difference this time, it’s a busted system. He also can’t get the courts to participate in solving problems either. He’s in charge so why would he risk looking like a failure or why would he risk having to take responsibility for this rogue system being what it is? The federal courts however, have no excuse. They’re derelict in their duties by not issuing judgements against the VA. People have been harmed by that system. They can be found everywhere.