Springfield will need almost $1 million more to cover the costs of veterans benefits by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
Left to right, Bernard McClusky, Veteran of the Year, and Richard J. Tyrell and Robert Sweeney, from the Springfield Veterans Committee, take part in Veterans Day cermonies at Court Square .Western Massachusetts veterans agents are reporting a surge in applications for veterans’ benefits this year, saying it reflects the hardships faced by veterans during a continuing recession and high unemployment.
Those seeking the financial aid, which is an obligated program under state law, include some veterans returning to a dismal economy from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans officials said.
In Springfield, veterans’ services director Daniel M. Walsh III said his office will likely need to increase its $1.4 million allocation for benefits the fiscal year by $900,000, to last through June 30. The state reimburses cities and towns 75 percent of what is spent to assist veterans.
Benefits paid to Springfield veterans and surviving spouses have risen from 197 cases totaling $142,898 during the month of July to 244 cases totaling about $220,000 this month, Walsh said. There were also about 245 cases per month in October and November with payments of $190,163 and $186,490 those months, he said.
Veterans agents in Chicopee, Holyoke and Westfield report seeing similar increases in requests for assistance, in some cases as much as a doubling of the veterans they help each month.
Veterans seek aid from the municipal offices as “a place of last resort,” Walsh said. “It’s a life line. They were willing to make sacrifices and live under terrible conditions, guaranteeing our freedom. When they come back, we make sure we do everything we can to thank them for protecting us, and making their lives a little better.”
The aid can be for housing, food, medical, fuel or other necessities, he said.
Years ago, Springfield would handle an average of 60 to 75 claims a month, Walsh said.
On Dec. 20, the City Council approved a $50,000 transfer from the reserve for contingencies account, expected to help cover the cost of benefits through February.
“It’s for a variety of reasons,” Walsh said. “People out of work, losing their jobs, new people getting out of the service and not getting jobs, people getting older and having medical expenses.”
Springfield veterans services director Daniel M. Walsh III said his office will likely need to increase its $1.4 million allocation for benefits the fiscal year by $900,000, to last through June 30.Under a law change in 2004, peacetime veterans were added to the benefit claims program. Veterans must be residents of the community to which they apply, must be discharged under honorable conditions, and meet financial guidelines to qualify, Walsh said.
“We treat them with dignity and give them the necessary money to sustain their existence,” he said.
In Holyoke, the Veterans Services Department used to have a regular clientele of 45 to 50, but the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - and the recession - have increased that to more than 80, director Kristian Kos Lecca said.
Not only are there more veterans than before, Kos Lecca said, but the tough economy has more veterans seeking help. “We’re swamped in here,” she said.
The office, located in the Holyoke War Memorial at 310 Appleton St., has two full-time employees, including Kos Lecca, and a part-timer. Kos Lecca has asked the City Council to approve $4,900 to increase the hours of the part-timer to deal with the workload, she said.
In Chicopee there were 116 people receiving services when Kimberly A. Babbin took over as director of veterans’ services in April. Now there are 123 and 21 applications are sitting on her desk, according to Babbin, who added that veterans move off the assistance program as they find jobs and no longer need help. Chicopee now pays about $850,000 in benefits annually, 75 percent of which is reimbursed, Babbin said.
Babbin believes one of the reasons for the rise in applications in Chicopee is some of the community work she does. “I do a lot of outreach, so we are getting our name out there. I’m not sure if it is that or the economy,” she said.
Widows of veterans can also be eligible to receive the benefits, Babbin said. She said while her department receives many applications from World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans, there have been none to date from the most recent wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Many are people who are unemployed and whose benefits have run out. “I have gotten a lot from homeless people. I want to ask them why they didn’t come to us when they just lost your job,” Babbin said.
In Westfield, there was a slight decrease in the number of veterans seeking benefits during the first six months of this year, but those numbers are now rising again, according to veterans director Robert E. Callahan.
“Last January we provided benefits to 95 veterans but that dropped to 90 by June, representing a 6 percent decline. But, in July we served 89 veterans and now that number is at 97 for a 9 percent increase during the last half of the year,” said Callahan.
The average monthly benefits allocation totaled $43,225 during the first six months, and it now stands at $45,058, Callahan said. His department’s annual budget is $640,000.
“This is a sign of the economic impact on our veterans,” Callahan said.
Northampton veterans agent Stephen J. Connor is a frequent visitor to City Council meetings, appearing several times a year to ask for more money for veterans’ benefits.
In June, Connor told the council that Northampton is fifth in Massachusetts in the amount of veterans’ benefits it hands out, behind only Boston, Fall River, New Bedford and Springfield. Factoring in the city’s population of about 30,000, Northampton distributes more veterans’ benefits per capita than any community in the state, Connor said.
From Jan. 1 to June 1 of this year, Connor estimates he dispersed $263,869 to veterans; in June, he asked the council for another $95,000.
In Belchertown, veterans agent Raymond J. Janke said his department calculated an increase in benefits for this year’s budget because of insufficient funding the prior fiscal year.
“The economy was a factor, and sometimes new, returning veterans come with their situation that need to be dealt with,” Janke said. “I have been funded sufficiently this year. As long as there are no changes in unemployment benefits or changes with companies firing people, we should be OK. But you never know what is going to happen.”
Janke said he started this fiscal year with a budget of about $200,000, which was roughly $20,000 higher than the amount appropriated at the start of the previous fiscal year, which did not last the entire 12 months.
Staff writers Mike Plaisance, Jeanette DeForge, Ted Laborde, Fred Contrada and John Appleton contributed to this report.