WARNING COLA NOT GUARANTEED Bill must pass for Payments to disabled veterans eligible family members

Ajouté : 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]Hey, thanks for making it to Veterans Info. I'm glad you made it. Did you know that COLA, the cost of living adjustment, is not guaranteed for veterans. Every single year, Congress has to put in a piece of legislation that allows the VA to mirror the Social Security Administration's COLA. One, that sucks because you got to jump through all these hoops every single year. Two, it seems like it should be just automatic, but it's not. and we are left with this. So, there is a new piece of legislation out to allow the VA to mirror the Social Security Administration's uh efforts.

[00:00:41]Now, here's the question. Should we just take things for granted? Should we just assume that things will go status quo?

[00:00:50]Should we just sit back and not say anything? Should we believe that Uncle Sam's going to continue to take care of us? I mean, these are all the questions. Um, I if you're like me, you're probably a little bit hesitant to just rely and and hope that people just keep doing the same things. So, with that, it's important to talk about this piece of legislation because look, it's just a phone call and I get it. Here's the idea.

[00:01:26]Yes, probably there's not going to be any issue. Yes, probably this piece of legislation will go through. Everybody will pat themselves on the back and VA will mirror the Social Security Administration's um cola.

[00:01:39]But there is that little, you know, 0001% chance that something goes sideways. So, this what I'm going to say isn't so much to make sure this passes, but it is this. Let's make sure that our congressional members know that we're paying attention.

[00:02:00]That's what this is. And yes, it is about this specific piece of legislation, which is the Veterans Compensation Cost of Living Adjustment Act.

[00:02:12]I'll put this in the description. And I would also put in there the um link to Claim Ravens letterw writing tool for congressional bills legislation. Right?

[00:02:23]So it's a a congressional letterw writing tool. You'll put in there veterans compensation cost of living adjustment act. Uh it should pop up.

[00:02:31]It'll write a a support letter for you and bam, you can send that off to your congressional member. Do you have to write a letter? No. You can make a phone call. You can stop by their office if it's, you know, next to the post office or whatever. show up and just say, "Hey, I just want to say that I support this and want to make sure that that you know, everybody's on board and we get this done." Um, again, it's just tally marks on, oh, veterans are waking up.

[00:02:56]I've said this a thousand times. I'm going to just say it one more time for now.

[00:03:01]There are plenty of groups with whatever interests that they have that are allowed and Congress knows that they're paying attention. Well, guess what? We are not one of them. I am sorry to say it. I'm sure the VFW, the American Legion, uh you know, VFW, American Legion, DAV, Order of the Purple Heart, um you name it, right? PVA, Paralyzed Veterans of America, MOA, TRAA, the list goes on. Uh Wounded Warrior Project, all those groups go to the Hill and they champion whatever they're championing for us, which is good. I'm talking at the constituency level. I'm talking about in your backyard to your Congress person, whoever it may be, we're mute.

[00:03:45]We hardly say anything. And because of the way that the veteran service organizations are set up, well, handcuffs are kind of on those local local entities. They don't really allow them to go out and champion or lobby legislation. They want it all underneath their legislative platform. They want it done um at the Hill, which is fine, but we're lacking. We are absolutely lacking at the constitu and there's no excuse for it. Sorry. There's no excuse. It's not like you need to go run 10 miles to do this. Um you don't even need to leave your house. You just need to call at a at a at a actually there's several at a minimums. At a minimum, it's either a a phone call to your congressional members office. You know, hey, can I speak to uh the staffer that's involved with uh veterans affairs stuff? Hey, I want to make sure the congressperson understands that this is important to me, to my family, to us, whatever.

[00:04:46]Well, let's just say that you don't want to talk to anybody. That's fine. Then call after hours and leave a message.

[00:04:53]Just as good. Again, it's tally marks.

[00:04:57]Well, I don't really like talking on the phone. I don't like my voice or whatever, right? Or it's hard for me to speak loud. You know, I I got some throat issues, whatever it is. Okay.

[00:05:06]Well, then send an email. You can go on your congressional members website and you can send them a message. Send them a message. Um the that's the minimums. I mean, and and you don't need to leave your house to do that. We need we need voices. We need voices.

[00:05:25]And it's not, like I said, it's not even about the specific piece of legislation.

[00:05:31]It's the bigger picture.

[00:05:33]It's absolutely the bigger picture. Yes, sure. We want to get this passed. But you get thousands of us, tens of thousands of us, 100,000 of us, 200,000 of us reaching out to our congressional members. I'm telling you things will be noticed that we as a constituency, the veteran sphere includes veteran, disabled veteran, spouse, dependent, survivors, caregivers that we're actually paying attention and we are watching. And that's important for elected officials, if you know what I mean, to understand. So, I'm going to read through this a little bit just to give you a little a little flavor on uh this article from stars and stripes um regarding the veterans compensation cost of living adjustment act. So, disabled veterans and qualifying relatives through dependency indemnity compensation uh of service members killed in action uh or later died of a service connection uh service connected condition are in line are in line for a cost of living increase to their benefits under a bill led by Senator Jerry Moran. Again, I gave you all the background on on why that happens. The Veterans Compensation Cost of Living Adjustment Act, which Moran introduced this week, will increase the monthly compensation rates for disab uh disability and indemnity compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

[00:07:06]Senator Richard Blumenthal is a primary co-sponsor of the legislation, which has collected endorsements from seven Democrats, six Republicans, and two independents. The legislation, which stands to affect millions of veterans, widowed spouses, and dependents, ensures that VA benefits keep pace with higher costs of inflation. According to supporters, quotation here, "With all of my health issues, any increase will certainly help. My budget is tight because I'm on a fixed income," said Kirby Dehaven, a 100% permanently disabled Army veteran who served from 1991 to 95. Groceries are up. Yes.

[00:07:48]Gasoline is up. Yes. My rent is double from what it was six months ago. Oh, that is nuts. Um said Dehaven. Now, if you happen to be watching this, um reach out to an SSF uh SSVF provider. Um you know, I don't know what your what your full income situation looks like. Uh there may be a there there uh and who knows they might even be able to get you in contact with Hud Vash. Um doubling your rent is definitely not good. 58 years of age uh from Indiana who is unable to work due to a spinal injury, traumatic brain injury, and PTSD connected to military service. The bill reflects changes in everyday expenses and aligns VA benefit increases with those of the Social Security Administration Moran's office said. So again, you know, this is not a separate bill. This is a bill that allows the VA to mirror the Social Security Administration's COLA. Right? So July, August, September CPI data will be calculated, looked at compared to last year, the number will come out, whatever it is, maybe it's maybe it's 4%, maybe it's 5%, who knows?

[00:09:13]And that number will then be adopted as COLA uh and announced in October and um then realized by social security benefit beneficiaries later on. And then the uh VA will then adopt that same number and then roll that out effective December 1st for VA benefits that are impacted by that cost of living adjustment. With that, thanks for watching. I appreciate you very much. You have a great one and remember, if we don't take care of each other, something went wrong.