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Since expanding the VA Caregiver program to older veterans, the VA has received roughly 135,000 new applications and doubled the number of participants, according to the department. The law clearly states that the VA is to take into account the caregiver's assessment of a veteran's needs and limitations and the extent to which a veteran can function safely and independently. But it also stipulates that the veteran must have a "need for regular or extensive instruction or supervision without which the ability of the veteran to function in daily life would be seriously impaired." The Mission Act which was responsible for having to reduce the number of participants getting care in the program, received overwhelming support in Congress. It had just 74 "no" votes in both the House and Senate. The tightening of the rules it contained made a culling of the veterans eligible inevitable, although lawmakers have begun to discuss countering the more restrictive guidelines. VA Secretary Denis McDonough said the department is looking to determine whether it has flexibility under the statute to make changes. Democrat Jon Tester, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, has questioned the VA's emphasis on the activities of daily living and a requirement that veterans have a 70% disability rating to be eligible. And Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has raised concerns regarding the manner in which the veterans have been notified of their denials, with no explanation for why they were dropped. "Seeing general statements such as the veteran 'no longer meets the program criteria' is not helpful to the veteran or their families in understanding why they have been denied," Rubio wrote in a letter to McDonough in January. "This blanket denial also does little in helping them to prepare the appropriate documentation and materials in pursuing an appeal." The VA has not released data for how many legacy participants have been dropped from the program, but Veteran Warriors executive director Holly Ferrell said that more than 900 have reached out to her organization seeking help with filing appeals. Ferrell said the group is seeing numerous errors and omissions in assessments, adding that obvious mistakes can help veterans win appeals when presented with medical records and other documentation. "You have assessors who are not documenting anything close to what the medical records state," Ferrell said. "A record will say 'veteran cannot be left alone,' but the assessment will say they don't require assistance with supervision. It's crazy." She added that, based on what she has seen, the reviewers face even more difficulty assessing veterans with neurological conditions, including traumatic brain injury, migraines, neuropathy and mental health conditions. "VA has misinterpreted the need for supervision, protection and instruction, and we are now questioning whether they even know what the term 'neurological impairment' means," Ferrell said. The new rules say that to be eligible, veterans must need assistance with activities of daily living or require supervision, protection or instruction for their personal safety. To meet the requirement, they must have "trouble maintaining in a home environment," according to Timothy Jobin, deputy director of VA's Caregiver Support Programs. Jobin didn't elaborate on what constitutes "maintaining," but nodded to examples such as a veteran with a traumatic brain injury or dementia who leaves the stove on or wanders from the home. Other symptoms such as anger -- a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder -- likely wouldn't meet the criteria, he said. "We have people come to us and say, 'I need to be around in case that individual gets angry. We want to take that very seriously, but we have different therapies that individuals can engage in to assist with that. It doesn't quite meet the threshold for supervision, protection, instruction," Jobin said. The VA is aiming for the reviews to be completed by the end of this month. Those being dismissed from the program should receive a phone call, followed by a letter confirming they are no longer eligible but have a right to appeal and even reapply in the future, VA officials said. "They may not meet the eligibility criteria today, but if in three months from now, they need our assistance or they feel like they meet the eligibility criteria, we really want them to reapply," said Richardson, the director of the Caregiver Support Program. The 36-year-old Afghanistan war veteran who can't be left alone with his kids because his hallucinations and outbursts make him a danger to himself and others and his wife hope their appeal is successful but also are making plans if it is not. The wife said she will find a remote work job that allows her to continue caregiving or the couple will sell their house. "Financially, we are going to be hurting, but that's not going to change the fact that I'm still going to be here for him. I don't want to go back to where we were," she said. They said they plan to appeal, based on misinformation in their assessment and will even reapply if necessary, especially if the vet's symptoms worsen with age. But, the wife said, she still doesn't understand why the VA would take away this benefit when, if she wasn't her husband's caregiver, he would hire someone to ensure that he takes his prescriptions, maintains nutrition and makes it to medical appointments. "We worked really hard to at least be stable enough to function in this house, in a protected space," the wife said. "I had to give up on my career. But at least I am proud, because he always says that I pretty much have kept him alive." Veterans Affairs officials announced 22 MAR that all expulsions from the department’s caregiver support program will be halted while officials re-evaluate new eligibility criteria that threatened monthly support stipends for thousands of families. The move is a stunning turnaround for the department, which for months has maintained the moves are necessary to bring the program’s membership into order ahead of a massive expansion in eligible families later in fall 2022. However, not all advocates were as optimistic about the long-term fate of the families who already had been marked to leave the program. Holly Ferrell, executive director for Veteran Warriors, an advocacy group that works with more than 3,500 caregivers in the program, said she hopes the new VA announcement amounts to real change and not simply delaying pain for the families. “Is this a political stunt to get media attention off of the problems, to get caregivers to calm down and to give them false hope?” she said. “We have to remain cautious. [Source: Military.com & MilitaryTimes | Patricia Kime & Leo Shane III | March 18 & 22, 2022 ++]