Attorney
General Madigan's Military and Veterans' Rights Bureau contends with a wide
variety of financial and legal concerns affecting the military community, such
as financial scams connected to Veterans' Affairs (VA) benefits assistance,
education benefits and housing issues. The Bureau also provides case advocacy
to help service members exercise their due process rights in filing claims for
compensation or pension benefits through the VA.
"Under
the law, veterans and military service members are entitled to certain benefits
and legal protections in recognition of their commitment to our country,"
Madigan said. "It is critical that we work to ensure they are awarded the
full benefits and protections that they have earned for their honorable
service."
In
addition, the Bureau publishes a series of comprehensive resources that detail
veterans' benefits and legal protections for service members. As a member of
the U.S. Department of Justice's Financial Fraud Task Force, Attorney General
Madigan's office led the development of a toolkit to assist
state attorneys general and federal law enforcement partners in identifying
common financial and legal protection issues facing the military community. The
toolkit was designed
to advance collaboration between state and federal agencies that enforce
violations of veterans' and service members' rights. The Bureau also publishes specialized guides specifically for
Illinois veterans and service members, including its regularly updated Benefits
for Illinois Veterans and Legal Rights of Illinois Service Members.
As part of
its effort to provide direct assistance to constituents, the Bureau also staffs
the Military and Veterans' Rights Hotline (1-800-382-3000), which last year
provided assistance to over 500 veterans, service members and their families,
helping to obtain benefits and resolve financial and legal disputes. Direct
assistance provided included:
Mediating landlord-tenant disputes for
service members facing Permanent Change of Station orders that conflict with
lease agreements;
Negotiating with VA medical centers to
expand care for patients;
Assisting seniors with temporarily
suspended VA pension payments due to bureaucratic oversight;
Obtaining assistance to secure short-
and long-term care for disabled or terminally ill veterans;
Helping secure housing for veterans;
Providing guidance for service members
seeking to appeal adverse insurance benefits decisions;
Mediating financial transaction
disputes, such as helping to remove fraudulent credit report entries or cancel
erroneous debts;
Obtaining compensation owed to
veterans or for service members on military leave from their primary employer
for annual guard training; and
Securing
refunds over disputed charges and fees.
As part of
Madigan's Consumer Protection Division, the Military and Veterans' Rights
Bureau also works with the Division's attorneys to pursue enforcement actions
involving cases of fraud that target members of the armed services. For
example, Madigan announced a joint settlement in 2012 with a California-based
company to shut down its website, www.GIBill.com, for
deceptively steering service members and veterans to use their federal
education benefits with the company's preferred clients in the for-profit
schools industry. On the federal level, Madigan called on Congressional leaders
in 2012 to close a loophole in the Higher Education Act that has allowed many
for-profit schools to exploit education benefits available to American service
members, veterans and their families. In 2013, Madigan urged U.S. Secretary of Defense
Chuck Hagel to strengthen regulations under the federal Military
Lending Act (MLA) to ensure service members are better protected from abusive
lending practices.
For more
information about Madigan's Military and Veterans' Rights Bureau, please visit:
http://illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/rights/veterans.html
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