by Lucy Miller & John Kregel
Chapter 15 in the Monograph: Workplace Supports & Job Retention
Any successful return-to-work or community reintegration initiative focused on veterans with TBI must include an analysis of the impact that paid employment may have on
the disability benefits provided by the various branches of the Armed Forces within the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
If veterans with disabilities perceive employment as risky, in terms of its adverse impact on essential disability benefits, they may elect to protect their benefits instead of pursuing employment. Four major policy and practice areas within the DoD and VA disability benefit programs are identified and analyzed in terms of how they affect civilian return to work efforts of veterans. There areas are: the manner in which the military determines that service members are unfit for duty and subsequently separated or retired from the service; the manner in which disability ratings are determined and how disability ratings affect benefits; the designation of total disability ratings for veterans who are deemed to
be “Individually Unemployable”; and the manner in which earned income is treated by the VA Disability Pension program.
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