Bill would expand benefits for veterans suffering from PTSD, brain injuries
A proposal in the Connecticut General Assembly would expand the veterans who are eligible for certain state benefits.
The bill would allow veterans, who received a discharge other than dishonorable as a result of being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or a traumatic brain injury, to qualify for state veterans' benefits.
State Rep. Stephen Harding, a Republican whose district covers Brookfield and parts of Bethel and Danbury, introduced the bill, which he called a proposal, and said the final language is still being worked out.
"Some of these veterans are coming back from battlefield with post-traumatic stress disorder issues or traumatic brain injury issues and due to that, they have issues with their discharge," Harding said by phone Monday. "In my opinion, we're sending a bad message to a lot of veterans ....by not giving them the credit they deserve. They're not receiving benefits they're rightfully owed."
Harding said veterans would have to prove that their diagnosis of PTSD or TBI stems from their wartime service. Despite lawmakers' need to cut costs given the state's fiscal constraints, Harding said he didn't expect the bill, if passed, to result in "astronomical fiscal costs." A fiscal analysis will be performed later in the process.
State statute defines a veteran as someone who was honorably discharged or released under honorable conditions from active duty in the armed forces. In Connecticut, veterans, who served at least 90 cumulative days on active duty in the U.S. armed forces during a time of war are eligible for certain benefits not available to veterans without wartime service, such as local property tax exemptions.
The issue has already received attention at the federal level. In 2014, then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel directed the various military record correction boards to give "liberal consideration" to PTSD-based applications.
A report by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School looked at the boards' performance in the year after the directive, and found that the overall acceptance rate for all veterans applying for PTSD-based discharge upgrades at the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records rose from 3.7 percent in 2013 to 45 percent.
Late last year, Connecticut became the first state in the U.S. to put in place a program to help veterans who have post-traumatic stress disorder appeal their "bad paper" discharges.
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