TESTIMONY
Peter Kempner, Legal Director of Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS), on Enhancing Support for Older and Peacetime Veterans
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4 min
Peter Kempner discusses the need for enhanced legal support for older and peacetime veterans, focusing on end-of-life planning and access to benefits.
- Kempner presents the Volunteers of Legal Service (VOLS) Veterans Initiative, offering free legal services for end-of-life planning to older veterans.
- He emphasizes the interconnectedness of legal challenges veterans face, particularly those serving during peacetime periods.
- Kempner highlights the disparities in benefits access for peacetime veterans, specifically regarding the VA pension program and its significant financial support.
- He concludes with an appeal for New York City to invest more in services and programs supporting veterans, ensuring they feel welcomed and supported.
Peter Kempner
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Holden, members of the committee.
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Good morning.
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My name is Peter Cat and I'm legal director of volunteers of legal service.
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Volunteers of legal service also known as Voll's Veterans Initiative as part of our senior law project.
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Where we focus on end of life and incapacity planning for older veterans.
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We provide these veterans free of charge with powers of attorney.
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Last ones in Testaments live in lills, healthcare proxies, and other advanced directives, allowing them to make their wishes clear at end of life and empower their caregivers to act on their behalf.
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We also do veteran outreach through our microenterprise project, which focuses on small business owners and Michael entrepreneurs for many veterans who are returning home, owning a small business an effective path to financial stability and independence upon their return from service.
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In addition to my work with vowels.
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I'm also a clinical adjunct professor at New York Law School, where I created and have taught their veterans justice clinics since 2015 team.
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I've been a legal services attorney for over 20 years and have focused on serving veterans for over 12 of those This experience has taught me that the legal issues faced by veterans are often inter an interconnected web.
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For an instance knowing that your client has served in the military and when they served can often be the key to unlocking benefits and services that and contribute to protecting their rights.
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Sadly, that's not always the case for veterans who served during what is considered to be a peacetime period.
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New York City veteran the New York City veteran population is an aging population.
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Many of our veterans served during cold war period that we've been talking about this morning, generally considered 1945 to 1991.
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And while of these veterans served during the Korean war period and the Vietnam war period, a a fair amount of them served during what is considered to be peacetime.
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But unfortunately, these veterans may face unique challenges due to the definitions as as was talked about by Commissioner Hunden by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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And and those definitions have been adopted by the New York State And New York City programs as well.
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For some of these programs, these veterans just categorically ineligible because they did not serve what was considered to be an official wartime period.
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As defined by federal law.
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One of the most critical benefits that we look at is veterans the veterans pension program.
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This program provides monthly payments to wartime veterans who are at least sixty five years old, who are totally and permanently disabled, are a patient in a nursing home because of a disability or receiving SSI or SSD benefits.
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Because the veteran pension is only paid to low income veterans with very limited resources.
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It's often a lifeline for veterans who would otherwise be at risk of homelessness or hunger.
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For a single wartime veteran, the VA pension could rate could range from 16,0551 per year up to $27,609 pre year for a veteran who needs aid in attendance aid in the aid in attendance of another person to help with their activities of daily living.
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For Cold War veterans with limited resources who face the same disabilities or the same advanced age.
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May find themselves living off of SSI benefits alone, which only amount to $12,360 per year.
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This differential of 4000 to $15,000 per year could make the difference between a veteran having a roof over their head and food on their table.
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The lack of access to the VA pension is just one example of how Cold War veterans and other peacetime veterans receive dis received desperate treatment when it comes to access to benefits and services.
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These veterans raised their hands and served their country on a but simply because they did not enlist during a designated wartime period, they could be left out.
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Thank you.
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For allowing us to submit this testimony today, and we hope that the city will continue to invest in services and programs that make New York City a place where veterans feel supported.
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Welcome and at home.
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Thank you.
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Ashton Stewart, Veteran Liaison at MJHS Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc., on Enhancing Support and Recognition for World War II and Korean War Veterans
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Can peacetime veterans receive pensions and service-connected disabilities, and what are the challenges in obtaining them?