MARICOPA — With unprecedented employee slashing at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and limited services for veterans in Pinal County, who must seek healthcare benefits in Phoenix or Tucson, Paul Smith saw an opportunity to help.
The 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran and retired senior veteran services representative for the VA recently started a small business to help his fellow former servicemen and women get the benefits they earned.
“There’s still a great need to serve that segment of our population. There are so many veterans I’ve met … and there’s a camaraderie that exists,” he told American Veterans Magazine. “A lot of times, veterans are unaware of what the entitlements are and what they’re eligible for.”
Smith spent nearly 15 years doing just that for the VA, which prompted him to start DD214 VA Claims last month. The launch comes at a time when the VA intends to cut more than 80,000 jobs across the country, which officials fear could delay access to services. The uncertainty has led to an uptick in third-party companies exploiting veterans, Smith said.
“Some of them have bad reputations for milking the charges they bestow on our veterans,” he said. “A lot of times, they will advertise there’s no startup fees … but they’ll want to get up to six times of the backpay veterans may receive from injuries received in active service.”
Smith, who also operates Bubba Brewing Company in honor of his late son who died of peritoneal mesothelioma, said his new company will charge just $214 to complete and submit benefits applications and will be “with the veteran from the beginning to end” of the process.
“I don’t get any [of their] backpay because I don’t need that. I don’t want to rip off other veterans,” said Smith, who lives in the south Phoenix suburb of Maricopa. Rather, the fees are “just for my time, for helping them get benefits that are going to last them for their rest of their lives.”
For more information, visit DD214VAclaims.com.
