Jerry's dispute with Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA)
In 1997 Jerry first applied for assistance from the
Department of Veterans Affairs. He first had to prove that he was a
Veteran of WWII as for they had no records of his war record with the
RAF/RCAF. Jerry received help from Josephine Fursman, a lady that was on
Malta during the Blitz of 1942/43 and helped the RAF 185Sqd. and
befriended Jerry.
Later
in 1997 Jerry was cleared for DVA assistance for his medical conditions
from war time injuries. Dr. Walter Wren was the physician that examined
Jerry for the DVA and recommended 30% disabled for Lumbar Disc condition
and 15% disabled for Cervical Disc condition. However the DVA only
awarded 20% and %10.
Part
of the assistance program the DVA offers to Veterans is the Veteran
Independence program, which in short allots funds for Veterans to use to
help them maintain their homes. In 2002 Jerry was receiving this to
assist with House and Garden upkeep ( snow removal, housecleaning etc.)
In
2003 a DVA officer did a home inspection to the Billings home. The visit
lasted 4 hours of him telling the Billings how much the DVA could do for
them in assistance. At the end of the inspection the DVA officer came to
the conclusion that the Billings were being overpaid and stopped
payments of the Veteran Independence Program. The DVA officer event
tried to talk the Billing into selling their house and property and move
to a retirement home.
Here is a letter Jerry wrote the DVA about the home visit and the outcome.
In 2004 Jerry's doctor wrote the DVA to try and help Jerry with the current dispute.
Here
is Jerry at age 83 shoveling his own snow due to the DVA removal of his
Veteran Independence program in 2003. Jerry has damage to both knees and
upper and lower back from injuries sustained during military service in
WWII.
2009 to this day this matter has not been resolved, their has been many news articles written over the years about this dispute with out prevail. In Jerry's golden years he should be enjoying life after a very long and eventful military career, but instead he is left with one more disturbing dispute with the DVA.
The real sad part about this is Jerry Billing is not the only Canadian Veteran that is having problems with the DVA. Jerry has been contacted by other Veterans across Canada with similar problem. I personally have talked with a few other Canadian Veterans and their seems to be a trend with the DVA, very sad.
After reading about the Billing's problems with their house in the above
news articles. Walter Branco owner of Noah Homes LTD. of Ruthven and 7
building suppliers came to the rescue, fixing all the problems with the
Billing residence.