The Department of Veterans Affairs grants disability claims for military sexual trauma-related PTSD at significantly lower rates than other PTSD claims, according to a new report released today. Women veterans are disproportionately denied compensation based on PTSD, as they are more likely to file MST-related PTSD claims, but male survivors who file MST-related PTSD claims face particularly low grant rates compared to female veterans who file MST-related PTSD claims.
The report by the American Civil Liberties Union, Service Women's Action Network, the ACLU of Connecticut, and the Veterans Legal Service Clinic at Yale Law School details new findings resulting from two recently settled Freedom of Information Act Lawsuits against the VA.
"The VA must treat a veteran's disability claim fairly when it is based on sexual violence, regardless of whether the survivor is a woman or man, or lives in Minnesota or California," said Sandra Park, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Women's Rights Project. "It's inexcusable that the VA discriminates against survivors who have sacrificed so much for our country, but we're hopeful this report will lead to reform by shining a light on the terrible hurdles these veterans face."
Key findings include:
• VA granted disability benefit claims for PTSD related to MST at a significantly lower rate than claims for PTSD unrelated to MST every year from 2008 to 2012. The grant rate for MST-related PTSD claims has lagged behind the grant rate for other PTSD claims by between 16.5 and 29.6 percentage points every year.
• Because female veterans' PTSD claims are more often based on MST-related PTSD than male veterans' PTSD claims, female veterans overall are disparately impacted by the lower grant rates for MST-related PTSD. For every year between 2008 and 2011, a gap of nearly ten percentage points separated the overall grant rate for PTSD claims brought by women and those brought by men.
• Among those who file MST-related PTSD claims, male veterans face particularly low grant rates when compared to female veterans who file MST-related PTSD claims.
"This report shows what we've been saying for a long time-VA remains extremely inconsistent in how they handle MST claims and the regulation needs to fixed immediately," said Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. "Regardless of the VA's heightened awareness and increased training on these types of claims, VA cannot train their way out of this mess. MST survivors have been through enough, they shouldn't be afraid that the VA office they've filed their claim with is one of the VA's "worst offenders". They should feel confident that any VA Regional Office will decide their claim in a timely, accurate, compassionate and FAIR manner. It can't be luck of the draw."
"For too many years, VA has fought our efforts to reform benefits regulations for survivors of military sexual violence," said Anu Bhagwati, Service Women's Action Network executive director and former Marine captain. "We were forced to take VA to court to get the data to prove, yet again, that VA has still not fixed the glaring disparities in the way it processes and awards sexual trauma claims. The findings we released today are evidence of a system that is broken through and through. It is heartbreaking to realize that veterans who have suffered such awful betrayals during their military service must then fight an uphill battle for the benefits owed to them by law."
The report also highlights a number of regional VA offices classified as "worst offenders" for rejecting MST-related PTSD claims. In 2012, the top 3 locations with the lowest approval rates were St. Paul, Minn., Detroit, Mich., and St. Louis, Mo. Additionally, the offices in Nashville, Tenn. and Los Angeles, Calif. were highlighted for their notable improvements in approving MST-related PTSD disability claims.
"This report is based on records provided by the VA to settle our Freedom of Information lawsuit," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut. "We're still litigating our request for records from the Department of Defense so that we can continue to shed light on this very serious problem of military sexual trauma."
"Most MST claimants are women, so women disproportionately bear the burden of VA hostility to these claims. But men who bring MST claims are denied at even higher rates than women," said Kathryn Mammel, a member of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic at Yale Law School. "Leave it to VA to figure out how to discriminate simultaneously against both male and female veterans."
"This disturbing news shows that we still have much more work to do to make sure survivors of military sexual trauma are treated the same as other veterans," said Senator Jon Tester, sponsor of the Ruth Moore Act, a bill to make it easier for survivors of military sexual trauma to get the benefits they need.
