The Veteran's Survival Guide: How to File and Collect on VA Claims, Second Edition
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • An Excellent Reference!
  • Good info, but some of the political BS is tough to take....
  • Very Helpful
  • A necessity for anyone dealing with the VA claims system
  • Requesting help for disabilities
The Veteran's Survival Guide: How to File and Collect on VA Claims, Second Edition
John D. Roche
Manufacturer: Potomac Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1597970514

Book Description

"Claim denied!" All too often millions of veterans have received this response to their legitimate claims for federal benefits. In most cases, writes veterans' advocate John D. Roche, the claimant didn't understand the procedures needed to meet the myriad requirements of the Department of Veterans Affairs. With the appeals process requiring years to resolve disputes, deserving veterans and their dependents are left confused and frustrated by the agency and a system that was created to serve them. The answer is to submit a well-grounded claim initially, which The Veteran's Survival Guide, now in a revised, second edition, analyzes in detail. This unique book, written in an accessible self-help style, will be required reading for any veteran or veteran's dependent who wishes to obtain his or her well-earned benefits and for those officials of veterans' service organizations who assist veterans with their claims.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars An Excellent Reference!.......2007-10-08

An excellent source of information written by a former VA claims official. Filing a claim for service-connected disability is not quick, fun or easy, and often requires weeks or even months of careful preparation.

This book clearly explains the process of constructing a well-grounded "bulletproof" claim to get approved the first time around! Lose, and the appeals process can take 3 to 5 years.

Wish they issued a copy to every member upon completing basic training!

Ken Fessier, TSgt, USAF, Ret.
60% Service-Connected

4 out of 5 stars Good info, but some of the political BS is tough to take...........2007-09-02

Overall, a pretty good source of information on wading through the bureaucracy of the VA, written by one of the former beurocrats....

The first chapter almost made me send the book back - it was a seemingly incessant attack against the current Bush Administration, and Republicans in general. It turned me off - I get enough of that in the Media everywhere I go every day.....and it's getting very old. The writer is obviously quite partisan, and unfortunately, colors his commentary, and detracts from a lot of good information contained in the book.

Anyone who has dealt with the VA knows the system is a frustrating quagmire and the epitome of a Government Bureaucracy, but it has been broken for a long time....and not just the Republicans are to blame; as this book would have you believe.

If you are a Veteran looking for good info, I highly recommend it.....if you are a CONSERVATIVE former Veteran ....... take you blood pressure medication before you pick it up.

Content: Four Stars, but the political slant detracts from the excellent information the author puts forth.

Welcome Home Brothers;
Bob B. Combat Wounded Vietnam Vet: 1st Cav, '68

4 out of 5 stars Very Helpful.......2007-06-09

This Veteran's Manual on "How to File a VA Claim" is helpful when veterans are preparing their VA claim. It covers all the necessary requirement's. If a veteran follows all the suggestions in this manual he/she will have NO problems having thier VA claims' approved.
Good Luck,
John

4 out of 5 stars A necessity for anyone dealing with the VA claims system.......2007-05-21

This is a must have for anyone filing for VA service connected benefits. If you are reading this you probably already know how frustrating it can be dealing with this system. There are rules, laws, standards, etc...that the author clearly explains. He also makes it clear that the VA is NOT going to help you with your claim, regardless of what they say they will do. You must collect certain information supporting your claim and follow a particular process to gain the best results. This book is by the far the best tool for anyone facing this system. Empower yourself with knowledge, don't just go along with what others tell you. Best of luck!

5 out of 5 stars Requesting help for disabilities.......2007-03-09

I have read the book and very impressed. I have ordered 3 copies, 1 for each Service Officer in Chapter #14 Disabled American Veterans. I recommend this book but do not approve of Veterans trying to get information or service connected Disabilities by themselves. Contact a Chapter Service Officer. Since getting the boks the Srvice Officers have been submitting request and getting excellent results for veterans. The book has been very helpful and will be continued to be used. Everything I have read is true.

Remember the Veterans of this great Country. The Disabled, Physically or Mentally, that need help.

Remember The DAV
Welfare's End (Cornell Paperbacks)
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • Not a good case against welfare reform
  • a thorough look at the real "welfare" system
Welfare's End (Cornell Paperbacks)
Gwendolyn Mink
Manufacturer: Cornell University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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  5. Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card Against America's Poor Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card Against America's Poor

ASIN: 080148393X

Book Description

With her analysis of the thirty-year campaign to reform and ultimately to end welfare, Gwendolyn Mink levels a searing indictment of anti-welfare politicians' assault on poor mothers. She charges that the basic elements of the new welfare policy subordinate poor single mothers in a separate system of law. Mink points to the racial, class, and gender biases of both liberals and conservatives to explain the odd but sturdy consensus behind welfare reforms that force the poor single mother to relinquish basic rights and compel her to find economic security in work outside the home.

Mink explores how and why we should cure the unique inequality of poor single mothers by reorienting the emphasis of welfare policy away from regulating mothers to rewarding the work they do. Every mother is a working mother, the bumper sticker proclaims, but the work mothers do pays no wages. Mink argues that women's equality depends on economic support for caregivers' work.

Welfare's End challenges the ways in which policymakers define the problem they seek to cure. While legislators assume that something is wrong with poor single mothers, Mink insists that something is wrong with a system that invades their rights and negates their work. Showing how welfare reform harms women, Mink invites the design of policies to promote gender justice.

Customer Reviews:

2 out of 5 stars Not a good case against welfare reform.......1999-06-05

Seizing the polemic language of the welfare "reform"ers, Mink uses this same crude style in trying to oppose any type of reform. Was the welfare system in America not working too well? Yes. Was it in need of reform? Yes. Did the 1996 effort by Clinton and the Republicans help remove some of the problems? Yes. The welfare advocates do not recognize any of these facts. They simply point out the false stereotypes employed by the anti-welfare crowd and the problems of this law, which forces women to work rather than care for their kids. Mink, like many other self-styled feminists, does not care for the moral groundings of true feminism or of the original welfare legislation. Instead, she seems to advocate a libertine lifestyle wherein rights take precedence over responsibilities. This kind of polemical work only works when it falls back on statistics - the rest of the time it fails to make a convincing case against a terribly flawed "reform" policy that is simple to refute. Gary Bryner's "Politics and Public Morality" is a much better assessment of this legislation and much more highly recommended by this reader.

5 out of 5 stars a thorough look at the real "welfare" system.......1998-05-19

Mink addresses the topic in a small but powerful volume, analyzing the so-called welfare system as it truly is; an intentional labyrinthian trap, designed to keep vulnerable members of society, men, as well as women and children in a state of economic siege.
Work Over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Detailed, well-written blow-by-blow account of law's passage
Work Over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law
Ron Haskins
Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0815735081

Book Description

Work over Welfare tells the inside story of the legislation that ended

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Detailed, well-written blow-by-blow account of law's passage.......2007-07-15

This book is an extremely detailed history of how the Republicans in the House of Representatives first developed their ideas on welfare reform, prior to the 1994 election, and then enacted them into law, in 1996, after they took over Congress. During this time, Haskins was a senior Congressional staffer for the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee. He thus has very detailed knowledge of the cut and thrust in the House, fairly detailed knowledge of the Senate machinations and only an outsider's view of Bill Clinton's role in the whole drama.

This book is not for everyone. It is all about the process of how the law was passed. You get a very detailed description of each version of the law, and there were alot of them. You get a very detailed description of the various interest groups who were pushing for different versions of reform, from the state governors who wanted the feds to give them lots of money with no strings attached, to the radical right who wanted the bill to combat family breakdown by cutting off welfare payments to single mothers, to the Bob Dole 1996 presidenital campaign, who wanted Congress to not pass the bill a third time (after two Clinton vetos) so that he could make a campaign issue out of Clinton not signing welfare reform.

I think the book is particularly useful for the insight it gives into how laws are actually made. Haskins is that oddity, a trained social scientist with conservative convictions and extensive practical political experience. He is thus able to discuss intelligently both the social science on the issue, and the politics of the isssue. It is a very complicated story, and he tells it well. This book will be indispensable for future historians of the 1990s and welfare reform.
Work and Welfare
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Work and Welfare
    Robert M. Solow
    Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

    GeneralGeneral | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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    ASIN: 0691058830

    Book Description

    The Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow directs his attention here to one of today's most controversial social issues: how to get people off welfare and into jobs. With characteristic eloquence, wit, and rigor, Solow condemns the welfare reforms recently passed by Congress and President Clinton for confronting welfare recipients with an unworkable choice--finding work in the current labor market or losing benefits. He argues that the only practical and fair way to move recipients to work is, in contrast, through an ambitious plan to guarantee that every able-bodied citizen has access to a job.

    Solow contends that the demand implicit in the 1996 Welfare Reform Act for welfare recipients to find work in the existing labor market has two crucial flaws. First, the labor market would not easily make room for a huge influx of unskilled, inexperienced workers. Second, the normal market adjustment to that influx would drive down earnings for those already in low-wage jobs. Solow concludes that it is legitimate to want welfare recipients to work, but not to want them to live at a miserable standard or to benefit at the expense of the working poor, especially since children are often the first to suffer. Instead, he writes, we should create new demand for unskilled labor through public-service employment and incentives to the private sector--in effect, fair "workfare." Solow presents widely ignored evidence that recipients themselves would welcome the chance to work. But he also points out that practical, morally defensible workfare would be extremely expensive--a problem that politicians who support the idea blithely fail to admit. Throughout, Solow places debate over welfare reform in the context of a struggle to balance competing social values, in particular self-reliance and altruism.

    The book originated in Solow's 1997 Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Princeton University. It includes reactions from the distinguished scholars Gertrude Himmelfarb, Anthony Lewis, Glenn Loury, and John Roemer, who expand on and take issue with Solow's arguments. Work and Welfare is a powerful contribution to debate about welfare reform and a penetrating look at the values that shape its course.

    Download Description

    The Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow directs his attention here to one of today's most controversial social issues: how to get people off welfare and into jobs. With characteristic eloquence, wit, and rigor, Solow condemns the welfare reforms recently passed by Congress and President Clinton for confronting welfare recipients with an unworkable choice--finding work in the current labor market or losing benefits. He argues that the only practical and fair way to move recipients to work is, in contrast, through an ambitious plan to guarantee that every able-bodied citizen has access to a job.
    Social Capital and Welfare Reform: Organizations, Congregations, and Communities
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • A Kinder Gentler Welfare System
    Social Capital and Welfare Reform: Organizations, Congregations, and Communities
    Jo Anne Schneider
    Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    ASIN: 0231126514

    Book Description

    In this groundbreaking study, Jo Anne Schneider considers the reasons behind the limited success of most welfare reform initiatives and offers evidence-based recommendations for enhancing the effectiveness of welfare policy.

    Schneider draws on her rich and nuanced ethnographic studies of Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Kenosha, Wisconsin to clarify the role of social capital for both individuals and institutions. She shows that the social relationships and patterns of trust that enable people to gain access to resources like government services, organization funding, and jobs are crucial in helping families achieve their goals. Schneider examines the complex ways in which social capital functions in conjunction with economic, human, and cultural capital, and explores social capital dynamics among government, nonprofits, and congregations that together provide the welfare support system.

    Social Capital and Welfare Reform is compulsory reading for researchers and students in social work, sociology, anthropology, public policy, education, community psychology, social psychiatry, and non-profit and public administration as well as policy makers interested in welfare reform, poverty, and nonprofits.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars A Kinder Gentler Welfare System.......2006-04-19

    The present day welfare system in the United States started its development in the mid 1930's as a result of the Great Depression. The basic structure has since been expanded through a series of additional efforts by Congress. We have reached a point where the attitudes of those early years have been replaced with an understanding that the system isn't working very well. This is perhaps best exampled by the interviews with refugees from Hurricane Katrina. One example of a lady: 'I've been here (Houston Astrodome) four and a half days, someone should have found me a place to live.' She had no sense of self responsibility at all. She appearantly had no idea of how to go about looking for a place to live.

    In this book Dr. Schneider, an anthropologist by education looks at the reform of the welfare system in conjuction with the development of 'social capital.' 'Social Capital' is defined differently by various authors but is generally considered to be a network of friends, family, church, community or others that assist a person in filling their needs for services, jobs, and government contracts.

    This is a thoughtful, well reasoned look at reforms in the welfare system that may yield lasting results in getting people off of the welfare roles.
    Welfare System Reform: Coordinating Federal, State, and Local Public Assistance Programs (Studies in Social Welfare Policies and Programs)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Welfare System Reform: Coordinating Federal, State, and Local Public Assistance Programs (Studies in Social Welfare Policies and Programs)

      Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

      Social Services & WelfareSocial Services & Welfare | Poverty | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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      ASIN: 0313284857

      Book Description

      The nation's $200 billion public assistance system is a fragmented array of policies, programs, and organizations that often serves its clients poorly. In this book, experts from universities and think tanks and practitioners from all levels of government analyze serious coordination problems in the system. Cutting through the plethora of agency programs and regulations, these authorities offer practical reforms to make the system more effective, accountable, and efficient. They provide widely sought recommendations that will be useful to managers, students, scholars, experts, policymakers, and activists concerned with welfare reform and the future of public assistance programs. The essays in the book address the coordination problem for all types of public assistance programs for all age groups and types of problems. The book provides specific analyses of the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program under the Family Support Act, job training and employment programs under the Job Training Partnership Act, programs for youth-at-risk, and particular efforts to integrate the delivery of services to public assistance recipients. The authors provide essential information about institutions, processes, and policies at the federal, state, and local levels. They define critical issues and formulate policy and administrative recommendations to improve such critical features as executive leadership, Congressional decision-making, agency management, state government planning and policy development, and local service delivery operations.
      From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        From Manual Workers to Wage Laborers: Transformation of the Social Question
        Robert Castel
        Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        ASIN: 0765801493
        Educating Students to Make-A-Difference: Community-Based Service Learning
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Educating Students to Make-A-Difference: Community-Based Service Learning
          Joseph R., Ed. Ferrari
          Manufacturer: Haworth Press
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover

          Social Services & WelfareSocial Services & Welfare | Poverty | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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          ASIN: 0789006847

          Book Description

          Educating Students to Make-a-Difference covers a range of issues related to service learning, addressing the "who," "why," and "so what" of service-learning experiences. It provides information that will aid in the development of service-learning programs and courses.

          The in-depth studies on student volunteerism found in this book will show you how incorporating student service objectives into your curriculum can improve your students' self-esteem and school involvement, as well as alleviate depression and problem behavior. Educating Students to Make-a- Difference will enhance your knowledge and understanding of volunteerism and its many benefits, showing you how to ignite the volunteer in each of your students. By encouraging volunteerism, you'll increase your students' problem-solving and leadership skills, as well as their awareness of social issues, and see the positive impact service learning has on students, faculty and the community.

          Educating Students to Make-a-Difference gives qualitative and quantitative assessments of attributes that predict volunteerism in student populations and the social values that are developed or enhanced as a consequence of service-learning experiences. You'll learn about student predispositions and motivations for community service across a variety of student populations. In addition to promoting moral and social values, service-learning opportunities present educational benefits as well as benefits to personal and professional growth. You will see this as the book explores:

          the "who", "why", and "so what" of service learning

          educational benefits of service-learning opportunities

          self-esteem and self-efficacy

          faculty benefits

          comparisons between volunteers and nonvolunteers

          motivations and predispositions for student volunteerism

          selection and retention of student volunteers

          Your colleagues will want to borrow your syllabus after seeing the results of your new community service incorporated class material. Educating Students to Make-a-Difference gives you the insight on student patterns and volunteerism and data to service learning activities that enhance your students' educational experiences.
          Enterprising States: The Public Management of Welfare-to-Work
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Enterprising States: The Public Management of Welfare-to-Work
            Mark Considine
            Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Paperback

            Economic ConditionsEconomic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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            ASIN: 0521000521

            Book Description

            This book explores two fundamental shifts in the paradigms of governance in Western bureaucracies: the widespread use of privatization, private firms and market methods to run core public services, and the conscious attempt to transform the role of citizenship from ideals of entitlement and security to new notions of mutual obligation, selectivity and risk. Mark Considine examines a key service of the modern welfare state unemployment assistance--to explain and theorize the nature of these radical changes. He has undertaken extensive research in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand--four countries which have been among the boldest reformers within the OECD, yet each adopting distinctively different models and programs.
            Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden
            Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
            • businessmen for socialism
            • Praise for Capitalists Against Markets
            Capitalists against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden
            Peter A. Swenson
            Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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            ASIN: 0195142977

            Book Description

            Captialists Against Markets challenges the conventional wisdom that welfare state builders took their cues from labor and other progressive interests. Instead, Peter Swenson argues, pragmatic social reformers looked for support not only from below but also from above, taking into account capitalists interests and preferences. With original theory and surprising historical evidence, Capitalists Against Markets illuminates the political conditions for greater economic equality and social security in capitalist societies.

            Customer Reviews:

            4 out of 5 stars businessmen for socialism.......2004-08-07

            In the early 20th century, the attitude of the capitalist class in Sweden was almost the exact opposite of conventional wisdom. Not only did business organizations welcome the growth of unions, they actually aided in the process. For the most part, they offered at best half-hearted opposition to the expansion of the welfare state and sometimes eagerly backed it.

            The Swedish labor market of the early 20th century was perhaps the mirror opposite of what we associate with modern industrial economies. Rather than suffering a labor surplus (high unemployment) the Swedish labor market was suffering a chronic labor shortage, in part because of emigration, to the US and elsewhere. Eager to control the union demands, the lockout was a regular tactic used by Swedish employers associations. If the author is to be believed, they were quite successful at mounting lockouts within industries and sometimes across industries. Fearing the militant unions, the mainstream unions often tacitly approved of the employer tactics.

            What runs through the employer strategy is an ingrained fear of competition from other capitalists who would lure employees away from existing employers, or alternately undercut the established companies with lower cost products. Unlike some American employers who attempted to ensure worker loyalty with "welfare capitalism", Swedish employers judiciously rejected the notion of non-wage benefits and were particularly strident in their attempts to curtail the introduction of such benefits by non-compliant employers. They also feared "chiselers" who undercut the sales of the mainstream businesses with lower prices as a result of lower labor costs. Viewed from this perspective, "solidarism" with the state and labor in the form of an array of social benefits financed through broad-based taxation was appealing. Thus the author takes issue with those who claim Sweden's generous welfare state is a result of labor agitation alone, rather he suggests capital was an active and willing promoter.

            The author notes similar attitudes among some US business leaders although he doesn't really try to determine why the American capitalists were less inclined to support a similar level of state-financed social welfare. Curiously, the Swedish capitalists in his book seem indifferent to the level of taxation imposed upon them. The failure to address these two points weakens the author's thesis slightly. However, it is still an interesting proposition and one that has plausibility.

            5 out of 5 stars Praise for Capitalists Against Markets.......2002-12-03

            "Capitalists Against Markets highlights the important role played by employers in the creation of the American and Swedish welfare states. In a brilliant and original analysis, Swenson shows how employer strategies--solidarism in Sweden and segmentalism in the U.S.--were rooted in each country's economic development and gave rise to distinctive public programs. The book takes on both rational choice and social democratic arguments: employers acted rationally, Swenson shows, but their choices were historically constrained and far from being reflexively anti-labor or anti-government, right down to the 1990s. Adroitly blending theory, history, and politics, Swenson has created a masterpiece of comparative scholarship. "

            Sanford M. Jacoby, Anderson Graduate School of Management, UCLA

            "Capitalists against Markets is a magnificent follow-up on the author's much acclaimed Fair Shares. In this new book, Peter Swenson proposes a much needed correction to the mainstream - and myopic - focus on the role of labor movements in the making of welfare politics. He offers both rich history and strong analysis of how capitalists helped give shape and form to the welfare state and to labor market policies in Sweden and the United States, two countries that exemplify the welfare state extremes. It is both impressive and path-breaking scholarship and it will no doubt provoke controversy. It certainly should, as it forces us social scientists to take the politics of capitalists far more seriously than has been our want."

            Gosta Esping-Andersen, Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

            "This is a book of great importance. Marshalling detailed historical evidence, Swenson persuasively challenges the view that employers were uniformly hostile to the creation of the welfare state by showing that this was untrue even in the United States. As an added bonus, it is quite a gripping read."

            David Soskice, Research Professor of Political Science, Duke University

            Books:

            1. Trading in the Global Currency Markets Second Edition
            2. Understanding Sonet/Sdh and Atm: Communications Networks for the Next Millennium
            3. Urban Transit Systems and Technology
            4. Warehouse Distribution and Operations Handbook (McGraw-Hill Handbooks)
            5. What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know about Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures
            6. Windows Vista: The Missing Manual
            7. Wireless# Certification Official Study Guide (Exam PW0-050)
            8. 2007 Assemblies Cost Data (2007 Means Assemblies Cost Data)
            9. A Brief History of Neoliberalism
            10. A History of the Federal Reserve, Vol. 1: 1913-1951

            Books Index

            Books Home

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            10. Zur Biologie Und Systematik Der Flechtengattungen Heppia Und Peltula Im Suedlichen Afrika