Veterans service officer reports claims payments and says he has not seen federal benefit cuts

The Sawyer County veterans service officer reported monthly workload statistics and said he has not observed federal cuts reducing veterans' benefits in the county.

For May the office recorded "498 phone calls, 7772 letters, emails, and faxes, and 242 office visits," the officer told the committee. He said the office handled 72 disability-compensation claims to date and had received retroactive payments of more than $187,505.99 for initial payouts decided in veterans' favor. For comparison, he reported the previous year had 87 claims and $144,268 in initial payouts.

The officer described outreach and co-managed counseling with the La Crosse Vet Center and said training sessions were valuable for cross-agency communication. He said the office sometimes cannot speak publicly about specific cases for privacy reasons but emphasized the breadth of work his staff perform, including legal, social-work and medical advocacy on behalf of veterans.

When committee members raised concerns that there had been federal cuts to veterans' benefits, the officer said he had not seen denials or delays tied to policy changes and told the committee: "I have not seen 1 veteran suffer in Sawyer County for a delay or, or denial of benefits because of... where the current secretary is is taking the VA and and how they process and, you know, and do their programs." He urged that public statements about cuts be factual.

A county resident who identified themselves as a veteran spoke in agreement, saying they have not experienced problems obtaining care and that wait times were reasonable compared with other providers.