By Jonathan Copsey / STAFF

There are many secrets in the world. Unfortunately one of them is that if you are a veteran, you may be eligible for money no has ever told you about.

It’s called the “Aid and Assistance Pension,” and, by the Veterans Administration’s own tally, less than one percent of applicable veterans get it. Jim Swain and Swain Law Firm do what they can to resolve that.

They [the VA] don’t want people to find out anything about it and they don’t want to tell the truth,” said Swain. “So it’s our job to make the truth shine through and make sure that our soldiers get the benefits they deserve.”

The Aid and Assistance Pension was instituted just after World War 1 to help non-injured soldiers when they retire. It has remained fairly the same all this time. The requirements are simple: A veteran had to serve one day during a war period and receive a general discharge or better; widows can be eligible if they had been married to the veteran at the time of his death and have not remarried, or were married for at least a year unless they had a child; the veteran or couple must not make over a certain income each year. Through this pension, an old soldier who was not wounded during his service but is now in need of medical attention of some kind (such as living in an assisted care facility or needing medicine, etc) can receive money from the VA to help him.

Sounds simple, right? That’s where the problem comes in, said Swain.

“There have been cases where the VA tells a veteran there is no such benefit, because they [the VA staff] don’t look it up. Or the person tells them they need X paperwork. No they don’t.” To combat this general ignorance, Swain has begun assisting other attorneys in learning about the ins and outs of the pension, and informing veterans themselves whenever he can.

Swain and his staff help veterans by compiling the necessary paperwork and guiding it all the way through the approval process. And not just the necessary papers, but also countless unnecessary ones as well. “Every time they ask me for a different piece of paperwork, even if it isn’t required, we add it to the list we have,” said Swain, because, when dealing with the VA, the best guarantee of getting a result is to get the claim dealt with in one submission – the filing system is notoriously horrible to the point that one misplaced page can delay a claim by a year or more.

And their success rate? 100 percent.

“We work with the VA and the veteran until their claim is complete,” said Swain. “It’s as simple as that.”

Jim Swain and the Swain Law Firm can be contacted at jim@swainlawfirm.net, 770-500-3074, or 515 E. Crossville Rd, Suite 110, Roswell, GA 30075.