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Subscribe to RSSAlda Collins couldn't believe it when her son, James, recently delivered the news: After 30-plus years of receiving a $36 monthly pension for her late husband's service in World War I, that amount would soon increase to $1,000.
The 110-year-old widow, who is believed to be the second-oldest person in Pennsylvania, needed the benefit to pay for the cost of staying in a personal care home, James Collins told NBC News. She was entitled to a higher veteran survivor benefit amount but did not realize it.
Collins said that he applied for an increase in 2008, and was told that it might take six months to a year to process the claim. Instead, four years passed without a decision from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"They were good to me and everything, but it just wasn’t happening," Collins said. "They couldn’t tell me anything."
Earlier this year, Collins, of Carrolltown, Pa., called Rep. Mark Critz, D-Pa., who was able to expedite the process. In addition to the new monthly amount, Alda Collins will get $25,000 as back pay to cover the time period during which she waited for a decision on the claim.
James, who had paid for her care using money from his retirement pension and "dwindling" IRA, said the benefit increase was a relief.
Collins had lived alone until she was 105, and then moved into the personal care home. She remains active, using a walker, feeding herself and reading the National Enquirer each week.
Alda's husband, William, was a sharpshooter stationed in Texas between 1917 and 1920, and died in 1976. After leaving the Army, he became a barber and ran a shop until his death.
A veteran survivor's pension can be available to an un-remarried surviving spouse who meets certain requirements, according to the VA website.
James Collins said he did not realize he could apply for an increase until just a few years ago. "If I’d applied 20 years ago, things would have been great."
Rebecca Ruiz is a reporter at NBC News. Follow her on Twitter here.
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Leave a Comment:
She should have got more than that , The VA is waste of of time they treat vets like crap!! And I'm one U.S army 92-98
The VA, as well as ALL federal agencies, are required to do what they are told, by Congress. I will agree that the attitude, of these agencies, is their own doing, but put the blame where it belongs! Since 1968, when I got involved in Veteran's issues, they have all been liars, self-serving, and idiots. This goes for EVERY President and politician!
I agree with both of you.
As a WWI (World War ONE!!) veteran's widow, every congress-critter, up to and including Obama himself, should open their door and wallet for six months at a time and make sure this woman's remaining years are as worry-free as possible. After she makes it through Congress, the rest of society should do the same, one household at a time.
For the record: I'm not taking away from any other veteran or widow/widower -my own grandfather was a WW2 vet--Cavalry, European theater--and we treat our veterans rather poorly**. But this woman is a rare bird at 110.
**Yes, It's the law, and I understand that, but could these @!$%#s in Washington agree on SOMETHING, like our veterans? Please? Good god, you send them off to war, then treat them like a leper colony when they come back.
Obamacare requires end of life counseling. She's lucky he has not already killed her off.
My mother died in 2007 prior to Obama's election. She received Hospice Care a benefit of Medicare. You were at that time required to have advanced directive and a DNR. There is nothing wrong with end of life counseling many time there can be less painful expensive options than receiing care than having expensiv medical procedures that prolong suffering. People should know their options it does not mean they have no choice.
Wow, She should get Triple that and some back pay. That is totally ridiculous to give this lady a few dollars a month......
My cousin Robert Eckfield died in Iraq and the VA provided his permanently and total disabled father with Parents Dependency Indemnity Compensation. The monthly check is $5. $5 is a complete f-ing joke. Dont fight for you county because your parents, wife, and children will not be taken care of if you die.
Derek---No offense meant(I will try to say it as nice as I can) but why do you think that someone's parents should get free money ? I think a soldiers children and wife should get enough money to live middle class( $5000+ a month depending on the location because different locales have different costs of living) comfortably for the rest of their lives or until they get re-married and then the children should still get it and free tuition at a state school since the tax payers pay those schools a boat load of money anyway(Really since they are state schools federally funded we should all be able to go for free just like K-12 but that is a different story and it has to do with investors like Richie-Rich Romneyhood making money so good luck with that) But somebodies father,really,like Randy Moss says " C'mon man?"........
And you are probably Republican.....Its okay for your uncle/cousin/father tyo get a check but anybody else and they are Obama's freeloaders......Like the whole state of WV
Philly,
You are right that the military does not promise to take care of your entire family if you are a casualty, but the rest of your rant detracts from the the thoughtful first part.
she should get all back benefits from 20yrs ago plus a bigger increase
WW one vets camped out(Like Occupy Wall Street) in D.C. to get their money that was due during the great depression and were shot by the national guard(Google it for exact facts) but if people protest for their rights today they are ridiculed by Fox if they are the wall streeters and MSNBC if they are the Tea Party....bottom line the media pits us against each other and we need to ignore them and all stand together and put aside our petty differences to stand in solidarity about the things we all agree about like this situation......God Bless the people of the USA and God damn the corporate oligarchy...Oh yeah God bless the World Wide Web........
Good for her! It should be more. This is where I want the money to go. Not another repuke aircraft carrier or payments to Afghan farmers not to grow poppies.
Expect no less from the VA. The VA continues to baffle veterans every day.
However, there is one thing that did catch my eye. It may not be a big deal to you, the ones who claim she should have gotten more in...am I reading this correct..."backpay"?
As a veteran, I can honestly say that this "backpay", or retroactive pay, is unheard of in the VA claims process...or at least it is in every case that I know of or have heard of. The VA has never operated like Social Security in that regard. This is the first successful retroactive pay benefit I have ever heard of.
Get excited all you want. Actual Veterans will not.
So sweetheart, how many thousand claims by a 110 year old widow are you privy to???
They took 6 months to process my claim and gave me back pay for that period. So no it is not unheard of. Notice that it was a Democrat who helped. You don't get much from republicans if it means you rate money.
Most veterans when they get out are aware of benefits due them. A widow of a WW1 vet probably wasn't aware of increased benefits. Hopefully it makes her life a little easier.
They paid her from the time her claim was approved and nothing more. There are a lot of veterans that receive thousands of dollars in "back pay sometimes as much as 2-$300,000.00 in back pay sometimes more! The VA is sometimes very slow to approve of their new ratings so the money really mounts up fast. I believe a veteran rated at 100% single will receive about $2800.00 a month.
God bless her and her late husband. She could have really used that money a long time ago.
How much have we spent overseas, trillions...they can't ACCOUNT for 200 Billion, it's missing ??? Give this woman WHATEVER she needs ...NOW !!!!!!! Washington is loaded with crybaby A$$ whipes , get off your duff and do this woman RIGHT for chris sakes....almost made me say a BAD word ! Hope you live to 150 Gram...love you XXXX-00000...GI Joe.
Actually, since the story says her husband served in Texas, it should refer to him as a WWI-era veteran, as Texas was not exactly in the thick of the combat action.
I was thinking the same thing if he wasnt deployed. Doesnt diminish his service at all though.
That's right, cp fro PA. When you are in the military you go where they tell you to go and do what they tell you to do. The military chose not to send him overseas. It was not his choice.
Wow... typical... what is she going to enjoy it for 15 minutes... Congress is wonderful dealing with our vets who put their lives on the line for the financial institutional created wars... who else makes money when we go to war...
Petey, The men in the white caots will be at yuor door within the hour. Please accompany them without resisting.
$36 a month, really? Should have been $1,000 from the start.
Consider he passed 36 years ago. 432 months x $36 = $15,552 over the past 36 years. Versus $436,000 over 36 years if she got what she deserved.
HUGE difference, really sad what you break it down.
$36.00 a month wtf. The damn illegals get more money than that.
Poison ivy---what an appropriate and ironic name for someone spreading poisonous hateful lies....If someone is illegal in this country they only get money they work for and that is very little an akin to slave wages since they can't very well complain to the Dept. of labor and they sometimes get raped and beaten like slaves also since they can't go to the police for fear of being deported......Sounds like you would be one of the ones who would take advantage of that kind of opportunity with your lies.....Stop spreading your itchy sap....
I am not certain, but I would guess the $36.00 was the number agreed to for WWI vets - so in 1920 - which would have been the equivalent of $340 with inflation etc (checked that on Westegg). Still a pittance, but I am assuming there weren't too many WWI vets and their widows around to be protesting this as inflation occured.
If the government is looking for ways to trim the budget, we know one way they are doing it. Cutting back on VA benefits. As a vet I noticed changes while updating funeral arrangements. Now one must serve 24 months consecutively on active duty in order to qualify for a headstone. I don't know when that was changed but noticed it affected those who enlisted quite some time ago.With the sudden changes in all the medical case diagnoses as well,in being denied benefits, it looks like those who served faithfully can count on faithfully be left on their own. This sweet lady is just the tip of the ice berg.Let's hope she makes it to 120 with great health all the way. Semper Fi.
The VA took four years to process a claim. Gee, they must have expedited this one.
Better not let Paul Ryan hear about this.
I have applied for the VA Pension for my mother. They told me it takes @ 15 months for them to get to your application.
WTF!! Do you really mean to "receive" your application?!?
Call them once a week and make an inquiry.It's works like a charm and I bet you'll get that 15 months cut down to one very shortly.
I used to handle Federal benefit plans for the VA. It was definately a situation where you have to laugh or you'll never stop crying. They regularly lost veterans - they knew they were alive and in the US somewhere.... but they didn't know where (but they kept sending checks!). Or they thought people were dead who weren't. Or alive, who were dead. Or that an entire family died instead of one member. Reconciling the VA healthcare enrollment gave me ulcers. What a mess!
they've not treated vets right in general
but in this one case, I 'm glad her representative was able to get her the increase and the backpay
son drained his own IRA to care for his mother. SHE's 110...he's probably in his 80s or at least 70s himself and could have used the IRA himself.
good son..glad this family is getting some relief
FOUR YEARS AWAITING A DECISION FROM THE VA? Those bastards were hoping to see her dead so they didn't have to pay up. Being a disabled Veteran myself and having gone through the process more than once I think it is safe for me to say that 4 years is waaay too long for that to have been in process. A case like this goes beyond negligence or reasonable delays to the point of being malicious in their intention of depriving this 110 year old widow of a highly deserved compensation. Since nobody can be jailed for this "inefficiency" I think more than one person ought to be sh/t-canned and replaced. If a 110 year old widow doesn't get a priority from those VA employees then no one can count on them and they ought to go, preferably in deep disgrace. It is employees like that who destroy any reputation for good that the majority of employees strives for.
I'd guess you were right. They assumed if they delayed she'd die.
Just think about how this affected this lady, she most likely was barely getting by all these years yet she never complained (not that the VA would ever listen)
All those years missing her departed husband who served his country and the thanks she gets is $36.00 a month! Honestly it makes me sick.
This lady has seen our country grow and much more than most people have in their time being alive but yet we don't treasure her like she should be, she is indeed a national treasure! I bet she has stories to tell that would be just awesome to hear.
I hope she lives until whatever age she wants to finally go! and Bless her so very very much. Her son is also a dying breed, great job caring for his mother as he is.
She should get back support starting when her husband passed away or whenever the benefits changed.
She is 110. That means she was 36 when Social Security started...he had to be a few years older...at least 40. Assuming she did not work (most women did not in those days), she has gotten 45 years of Social Security and nearly that much Medicare from somewhere around 25 years (or less) of his paying into the system. She probably has done a lot better than the rest of us will.
I guess I am the only one that can add here. She should have had 48,000 dollars in back pay. This started 4 years ago so if I can add right 1000.00 each month for 4 years comes to 48 thousand dollars. She waited 48 months for an answer. Maybe I am calculating this all wrong but that's my thoughts.
God Bless her heart. She deserves it and it wouldn't hurt the govt to reimburse her son for all the money he had to use to make sure his mom was taken care of in the home she is in. He really loves his mother and it shows. God Bless him too.
Your math is correct but I bet you that check was taxed.It's shameful but true.They drug their feet hoping she wouldn't be around much longer and they'd never have to pay it to her.
You would also have to subtract the 36 dollars or however much it was she was receiving during that time....But no I don't believe it is taxed...Just like they don't count your tax refund as income or apply food tax(like on soda and chips in some states) to food stamp purchases....
Damn Right! Good for HER! Give it ALL BACK to Her! She Might Outlive the SYSTEM!
3 years to get her claim approved.....I wonder how long it will take doctors to get there claims under another gov run operation called Obamacare.
Your insurance company will still be handling the claims just like before(Hint--Don't listen to Sarah Palin, she is not in government,is not a lawyer and does not know what she is talking about)
but she can see Russia! lmao
They gave her the increase because they figure she won't get it for much longer. Or they wouldn't have done it, trust me!
My Aunt received this benefit when her husband was killed during World War II.She remarried a few times and it was taken away after the first remarriage.She became widowed from her fourth husband and her benefit was reinstated.It took my mother one phone call and in three months time my aunt started receiving her benefit again.Sometimes the government does do something right.
A doctor I know once told me that back in the early 1980's there were still a couple of wives on the books, collecting Civil War benefits from their deceased husbands.
Apparently they were in their teens/20s when they married these old vets in the 1930s. I always wondered what the benefit was...$5 a month?
i'm not trying to be mean here but...her husband served 3 years. from 1917 to 1920...if i'm reading correctly. he was not killed in action. doesnt even seem like he saw action. i am former military so i have nothing against him im just wondering why she gets benefits? he got out in 1920, then died 56 years later after running a barber shop. so for his 3 years of service (which he was paid for) she starts getting benefits when he died? i could see this if he had retired from the military but he served 3 years then served 56 years as a civillian in a barber shop. he should have provided his own retirement or savings for his wife in his civillian life. it just seems werid to me.
It seems werid to me that she is getting any benefits for her husband who passed 56 years after he got out of the military. he served 3 years. he didnt retire from the military he ran a barber shop for 56 years after he got out of the military. it doesnt say he was hurt in the line of duty or anything. just that he served 3 years. why was she getting any money at all? im not trynig to be mean but he didnt retire from the military. i am former military, i dont expect my husband to get money every month after I die because i didnt serve 20 years and retire. I served 5. if he got hurt or killed in service i could see her getting something, but he did 56 years as a civillian he should have provided her with money to live on after he died during that service as a barber...why should the va support her if he only served 3 years? he obvioulsy didnt have any deminished capacity to get a job because of his service so his earning potential was not effected. again, thats fine good for her to get what she is entitled to but my question is why is she entitled to it?
I am sorry this is stupid a 1000 dollars a month for state side service for just three years. I worked for a auto industry for 23 years and all I get is a 1000 dollars a month. I think that money could be put to better use to help the families of the vets that have been killed or wounded in action. Or devoted thier life to the service. Every day on TV I see a new ad for some vet charity. First there should not be any of these groups like DAV, amvets, the wounded warrior project etc. (about 30 of them with 30 project people salaries. first any problem the Vets have should be taken care of by the government . They should get rid of VA hospitals I have been to one a long time ago and it was a dump they should be allowed to chose the hospital they want. There should be no need for all these other groups to exist any problem they have should be taken care of by the government. And they should not be extravagant payment like a grand a month for three years service.
Isn't that great. Even more of the public money can be eaten up by the parasitical long term care facility.
Cool,
Have you applied for a positon on the Obamacare death panels?
You are a shoe-in.