IAVA's 2012 Member Survey

The  Iraq and Afghan Veterans of America  (IAVA) published a 2012 Member Survey.

As the nation’s first and largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, IAVA has a real‐time understanding of what our member veterans think, believe and experience:

2012 findings include:

• Our members’ unemployment rate was almost 17% - significantly higher than the 12.1% average unemployment rate for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans in 2011
• Almost half (49%) of unemployed members did not feel that employers were open to hiring veterans
• More than 50% of our members are interested in starting a business in the next 3 to 5 or 6 to 10 years
• 37% of IAVA members personally know someone they served with or another Iraq or Afghanistan veteran who has committed suicide
• 2/3 of our membership do not think troops and veterans are getting the care they need for mental health injuries, including combat-related stress or military sexual trauma
• Almost 1/3 (31%) divorced or broke up with a long-term partner as a result of deployment and the return home
• 1/4 of IAVA members with children said their child had emotional problems (25%) or had problems in school (24%)
• 60% of our membership does not think the military/ Department of Defense is doing a good job of reaching out to troops and veterans regarding their mental health injuries and care, and less than half (49%) think the VA is doing a good job of reaching out to troops and veterans regarding their mental health injuries and care
• 35% of our members are already taking advantage of their New GI Bill benefits, and almost 50% plan to use it for themselves or their families.
• The majority of our members do not think Congress (75%) or the President (61%) listen to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans enough, and 69% didn’t know or guessed incorrectly the name of the current Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Secretary Shinseki.

Download the complete survey here.:  IAVA member survey     

Ninety per cent of IAVA members are registered to vote and most live in CA, VA,TX,NY, FL or NC. 

Rightardia would mention that the VA is a high priority item in the Obama administration and the VA budget was increased by 30 per cent. There is also an agreement between the two parties that the VA budget won't be cut in the out years. 

Va Secretary Eric Shinseki has vowed to clean up the 800,000 backlog in claims by 2015. The VA also automated the claims process with the Disability Benefits Questionnaires (DBQ). 

It is our opinion that the VA has substantially improved during the last 4 years. 

Rightardia is still waiting for the IAVA 2012 Congressional Report Card. It was supposed to be released last week. 

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