Department of V.A. - Services for Veterans

The United States Department of Veteran Affairs (V.A.) was set up in 1989 after the establishment of the Veterans Administration. It provides health care benefits and financial assistance to veterans and their families. The Veterans affairs Department is the second largest of the 15 Cabinet departments and offers its services throughout the nation.

The Department of Veteran affairs offers the following services:

• Disability Compensation and Pension benefits:
  The disability benefits include financial support provided to those veterans who are disabled due to some disease or injury incurred during active military service. On the other hand, the pension benefits are offered to veterans with low income and permanent disability.
  
  
• Medical benefits:
  The VA has established several medical centers, with at least one such unit in each state. The VA health care system also includes 1300 health care sites including ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics, several nursing homes and residential rehabilitation programs. There are also the Veterans Centers and about 88 home-care programs for the benefit of the veterans. Such a medical system helps the defense Department at times of disaster and national emergency. In order to receive the medical benefits, the veterans may or may not enroll depending on certain conditions.
  
  The Veteran Centers provide psychological counseling and other social services to veterans who are suffering from war related trauma or any sort of harassment during service. The VA also offers health care benefits to homeless veterans along with transitional housing facilities.
  
  
• Financial assistance for home loans:
  The Veterans affairs department offers home financing facilities to veterans under the G1 Bill. The department has already guaranteed about 17.7 million home loans since the beginning of the year 2005. The fiscal year 2005 registered around 2.5 million VA loans at the beginning. VA's home loan assistance has been able to provide financial support to about 500 disabled veterans with a total grant of $21 million in the previous year.
  
  
• Educational assistance:
  The Veteran Affairs department provides financial support for educational purposes. This has helped more than 700,000 dependants of veterans whose deaths or disabilities are related to their services.
  
  
• Research activities:
  The VA helps in medical research activities as well as a number of Gulf War related research projects. There are also the environmental hazard research centers that conduct researches on the health effects of environmental exposures on the Gulf War veterans.
  
  
• Insurance benefits:
  The VA offers six life insurance programs and supervises the Service members Group Life Insurance and the Veterans Group Life Insurance programs.
  
  
• Rehabilitation benefits:
  The department of Veteran Affairs offers the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Program which includes services that help the veterans with service connected disability to carry out their daily expenses independently and to the maximum possible extent, to obtain and maintain employment.
  

Thus, the Department of Veteran Affairs offers various services ranging from health care and home loan assistance to insurance and pension benefits. About a quarter of the population in the United States are eligible to receive the VA benefits and services as they belong to a group of veterans along with their family members as well as the survivors of the veterans.

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