Federal shutdown endangers vets' benefits
HYANNIS — If the partial government shutdown continues past late October, payments will stop for disability, education and other benefits for military veterans on Cape Cod and across the country.
"Everything will come to a screeching halt," said Leslie Pierson, public affairs officer for the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Rhode Island, which oversees the Hyannis Community Based Outpatient Clinic for veterans.
On Cape Cod, veterans already are feeling the effects of the stalemate in Washington, D.C., including through the postponement of a $180,000 grant that was intended to help their families.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs posted a document on its website Monday announcing that claims processing and payments in compensation, pension, education and vocational rehabilitation programs are expected to continue through late October.
"However, in the event of a prolonged shutdown, claims processing and payments in these programs would be suspended when available funding is exhausted," according to the statement.
Despite the threat to benefit payments, veterans seeking health services directly from the VA are covered for at least another year.
Veterans Health Administration facilities such as the Hyannis clinic, which serves about 4,000 patients, will remain open and funded through September 2014, Pierson said.
"VHA gets funding a year in advance," she said.
The regional Veterans Benefits Administration offices, including the one in Providence that serves Southeastern Massachusetts, have been shut down to public access, according to the VA website.
About 7,250 employees at the Veterans Benefits Administration — about one-third of the workforce — are furloughed during the shutdown, according to the agency's contingency plan for a government shutdown posted on its website.
The Providence regional office has more than 166,000 potential clients, including 75,439 in Southeastern Massachusetts, according to the VA. It administers about $195 million in annual benefits and other services to veterans.
Additional services, such as processing appeals and remands, also are suspended, according to the VA website.
There are about 25,000 veterans on Cape Cod and an additional 2,000 veterans on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, according to U.S. Census figures.
The shutdown already has reduced services for some of them.
The Nam Vets Association of the Cape and Islands was expecting to receive a $180,000 grant from the VA on Oct. 1, the first day of the shutdown, the group's executive director, Merrill Blum, said Tuesday.
"The money has been allocated for this grant program, but there's nobody there to sign the check," he said.
The grant was for two case management workers as well as subsidies to help veterans and their families find or maintain housing, Blum said.
"It's all about sustainability afterward," he said. "We can't do that work."
The grant's conditions require that the agency help 80 families in the next year, he said.
If benefits are cut, the veterans affected would be those served by the association who are receiving housing assistance and funding for retraining, Blum said.
There are 200 veterans attending Cape Cod Community College under the GI Bill of Rights and the new Veterans Retraining Assistance Program, or VRAP, which provides educational benefits for veterans between ages 35 and 60 who have recently become unemployed, Edward Merigan, director for the Barnstable District Veterans Services, said.
VRAP provides $1,554 a month in educational support, although many of the veterans who use it are able to supplement educational costs with Pell grants, Merigan said.
"We're told that these are phased situations," he said about the shutdown's effects.
The federal government has experienced 17 shutdowns since 1977, and none of them has progressed to the point where benefits were cut off, Merigan said.
Federal employees cleared for WIC vouchers
Government and military employees who have been furloughed as a result of the federal shutdown are immediately eligible for benefits from the Women, Infants and Children food program, according to the head of the program in Hyannis.
The benefits are available under the striking workers policy, according to Magolia Solorzano, program director at the Cape Cod WIC program.
WIC provides supplemental food and nutritional education to low-income pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, infants and children up to age 5.
Clients get vouchers redeemable at supermarkets and farmers markets for products including whole wheat bread, low-fat milk, infant formula, baby food, eggs and fruits and vegetables.
CYNTHIA McCORMICK
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