According to the headline on the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s webpage: “Support Our Troops” is no longer a slogan. It’s an action”. That action was recently demonstrated through a grant to VeteransPlus, a Florida based non-profit financial education organization to provide life changing financial education and counseling to injured service members, Veterans and their families.

VeteransPlus, a 501(c)3 non-profit financial education company headquartered in Clearwater, Florida was founded by Veterans to serve Veterans, active duty service members, survivors and their families. Since 2009, VeteransPlus licensed financial counselors have reached out to over 38,000 men and women through a variety of activities including: DoD initiatives like the Yellow Ribbon program, Transition Assistance Programs and Returning Warrior Workshop events for active duty and members of the Guard and Reserves; Welcome Home and Reintegration events sponsored by various Veteran Service Organizations and communities; and in partnership with State and Federal Departments of Veterans Affairs.

“The men and women who have worn our nation’s uniform have given selflessly to defend those throughout the world who could not defend themselves. As a result of the current economic crises, the youngest generation of America’s fighting force face unprecedented challenges when they come home. When these conditions are compounded by wounds, including the invisible wounds associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the financial stability of thousands of families is threatened” said John E. Pickens, Executive Director for VeteransPlus. “We are honored to work with the Bob Woodruff Foundation to help warriors gain the financial freedom they have fought to defend.”
The Bob Woodruff Foundation was co-founded by award-winning television reporter Bob Woodruff and his family after he sustained serious injuries while covering the Iraq war in 2006. The vision of the Bob Woodruff Foundation is to provide resources and support to injured service members, veterans and their families — building a movement to empower communities nationwide to take action to successfully reintegrate our nation’s injured heroes—especially those who have sustained the Hidden Injuries of War—back into their communities so they may thrive physically, psychologically, socially and economically. A key element of the Foundations mission is to invest in national and community-based programs that connect our troops to the help they need. The Bob Woodruff Foundation grant will allow VeteransPlus to expand their outreach and counseling activities over the next year.

“We are very proud to be recognized by the Bob Woodruff Foundation as an effective program for them to partner with to maximize results and ensure that our injured heroes and their families have successful futures” said Christopher Fitzpatrick, VeteransPlus Deputy Director and Director of Strategic Partnerships.

For additional information about VeteransPlus contact 888-488-8767 or email Headquarters@VeteransPlus.org For more information about the Bob Woodruff Foundation visit www.ReMIND.org ######

Clearwater, Florida – Wounded Warrior Project™, through its Economic Empowerment programs have established a national partnership with VeteransPlus, a non-profit financial education and counseling company to provide financial education and counseling to wounded veterans and their families. Beginning August 1, 2011 Wounded Warriors referred by Wounded Warrior Project’s Resource Center to VeteransPlus will receive personalized financial guidance by licensed financial counselors, to address a host of financial issues including: basic budgeting, debt management, credit counseling, identity theft, credit score awareness and housing and mortgage counseling.

Wounded Warrior Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, FL. The mission of Wounded Warrior Project is to honor and empower wounded warriors. Their purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs. “Wounded Warrior Project offers a number of programs and services that strengthen its commitment to the Wounded Warriors we serve,” said Steven Nardizzi, Wounded Warrior Project Executive Director. “We are pleased to team with VeteransPlus to provide financial education and counseling that will provide long-term financial stability for themselves and their families”.

VeteransPlus, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit financial education company headquartered in Clearwater Florida was founded by Veterans to serve Veterans, active duty service members, survivors and their families.

Since 2009, VeteransPlus licensed financial counselors have reached out to over 38,000 men and women through a variety of activities including: DoD initiatives like the Yellow Ribbon program, Transition Assistance Programs and Returning Warrior Workshop events for active duty and members of the Guard and Reserves; Welcome Home and Reintegration events sponsored by various Veteran Service Organizations and communities; and in partnership with State and Federal Departments of Veterans Affairs “The men and women who have worn our nation’s uniform have given selflessly to defend those throughout the world who could not defend themselves. As a result of the current economic crises, the youngest generation of America’s fighting force face unprecedented challenges when they come home. When these conditions are compounded by wounds, including the invisible wounds associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the financial stability of thousands of families is threatened” said John E. Pickens, Executive Director for VeteransPlus. “We are honored to work with Wounded Warrior Project to help warriors to gain the financial freedom they have fought to defend.”

For information about VeteransPlus contact John Pickens 727.455.0946 or email HeadQuarters@VeteransPlus.org
########################

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 4, 2011

VA Reaches Out to Veterans to Explain Upcoming Changes to GI Bill
Encourages Veterans to Visit VA Website to Learn More

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is reaching out to inform Veterans of recent changes made by Congress to the Post 9/11 GI Bill that take effect in 2011.

General Allison Hickey, Under Secretary for Benefits, said “The Post 9/11 GI Bill is incredibly important because it reduces the financial burdens of higher education so that Veterans have an opportunity to achieve their education goals. VA believes it is important for Veterans to be aware of changes to the GI Bill this year and learn more about how these changes may affect them.”

“It’s hard to believe how far we have all come with the Post-9/11 GI Bill the past two years,” stated General Hickey. “Today, more than 537,000 students have received over $11.5 billion in GI Bill benefits to help them take charge of their future.”

Upcoming changes to the Post-9/11 GI Bill effective August 1, 2011 include paying the actual net cost of all public in-state tuition and fees, rather than basing payments upon the highest in-state tuition and fee rates for every state; capping private and foreign tuition at $17,500 per academic year; and ending payments during certain school breaks, to preserve Veterans’ entitlement for future academic semesters. Also, certain students attending private schools in select states can now continue to receive benefits at the same rate payable during the previous academic year.

Beginning October 1, 2011, eligible individuals will be able to use the Post-9/11 GI Bill for programs such as non-college degrees, on-the-job training, and correspondence courses, and they will be eligible to receive a portion of the national monthly housing allowance rate when enrolled only in distance learning courses.

VA is implementing the latest round of changes to the Post 9/11 GI Bill and has already begun processing fall 2011 enrollment certifications. Outreach by VA has helped to increase participation by colleges and universities in the Yellow Ribbon program, which helps students avoid out-of-pocket costs that may exceed the benefit. Today, more than 2,600 schools are participating in the Yellow Ribbon program.

“VA is committed to ensuring Veterans have the information and tools they need to succeed,” General Hickey concluded.

Complete information on the Post-9/11 GI Bill is available at: www.gibill.va.gov. VA’s education information phone number is: 1-888-GIBILL-1. For ongoing benefit information, Veterans and Servicemembers can log into the VA eBenefits website: www.eBenefits.va.gov. To ask a question in a secure e-mail, use the “Ask a Question” tab at: https://www.gibill2.va.gov/cgi-bin/vba.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php.

Excerpts of an article originally posted on AOL SEE HERE

Consequently, other groups are marshaling resources to also supply housing-related financial assistance and other economic aid to military personnel.

One such major effort, which will also launch in April, is the Yellow Ribbon Registry Network being spearheaded by a Florida-based non-profit agency called VeteransPlus.

Currently, when military members face financial difficulty – such as being behind on a house payment – they are frequently referred to databases such as the National Resource Directory, an online list of non-profits and other agencies who are there to assist military personnel with a range of issues.

The problem with such directories, however, is that they tend to be more like yellow-page or white-page listings of thousands of organizations.

So when a service member – or his or her spouse at home – hits an economic rough patch, they will often go online to apply for aid at one of these programs listed in the National Resource Directory and encounter a very time-consuming, labor-intensive process.

Individual applications – complete with a slew of identification forms, military orders, discharge notices, and other paperwork have to be emailed or faxed over and over again for each submission. Even more frustrating, after the process is completely, military personnel are often told that they don’t qualify for a given program for one reason or another.

The Yellow Ribbon Network hopes to change all that.

Rather than serve as an just an aggregator, or listing of non-profits and other sources that offer housing and financial aid to military personnel, the Network will operate as a centralized source and clearinghouse where military members can fill out just one request for help and have their application quickly submitted to numerous entities. The result is a streamlined process that helps more readily connect those in need with programs offering support. Even individual citizens will be able to provide donations through the Network.

Col. David Sutherland, of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sizing up the issue in a white paper called “The Sea of Goodwill: Matching the Donor to the Need,” said the problem for so long hasn’t been getting dollars to help military members. The problem is that up until now no one group has stepped up to efficiently coordinate the flow of these dollars to America’s service members.

No doubt that financial need – especially for coordinated housing assistance – is particularly great.

There are roughly 60,000 non-profits nationwide that help active duty members and veterans. Nearly 50% of the dollars provided to those members of the military – via emergency assistance funds – are for mortgage issues, VeteransPlus officials say.

The growing housing and economic needs of military members help explain, in part, why VeteransPlus in 2010 serviced over 28,000 service members at 260 financial education seminars, workshops and events in 26 states, according to John Pickens III, Executive Director of VeteransPlus.

During those 260 events, “a lot of questions come up about mortgage issues” says Pickens, adding that “there are lots of credit challenges in the military community.

Credit and financial readiness is a sensitive issue in the military, Pickens explained, because: “If you have credit issues, you could be pulled from an assignment. You’re also not promotable. And ultimately, you could be discharged.”

MSNBC
Posted: Friday, December 3 2010 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

That’s the stunning conclusion of a San Diego company’s analysis of 290 million Social Security numbers, which found that 40 million of them have been attached to more than one name. The study, conducted by the fraud-fighting firm ID Analytics, is the first of its kind that’s been made available to the public.

We first wrote about the problem of “SSN-only” identity theft five years ago, and estimated that millions of Americans were on the “secret list of identity theft victims” whose SSNs had been misappropriated by an imposter to obtain work or credit.

The IRS often knows when this happens, when the imposter pays taxes. The Social Security Administration knows, too, for the same reason. And the nation’s credit bureaus usually know, because the imposter often ends up applying for some form of credit. Plenty of financial institutions also have access to this information.

But no one is telling you. In short, all these government agencies and financial firms don’t think you have a right to know.

We’re no closer to finding out who’s on that list today, but at least we now know how big the problem is: much bigger than we originally estimated.

ID Analytics is a data collection firm that specializes in helping companies separate imposters from honest consumers. Its client list is long, and includes many major financial firms as well as the Social Security Administration. Over the past decade, it has amassed files on virtually every American who is active in the financial system. It now tracks 290 million Social Security numbers and nearly 300 million people.

Normally, the company receives credit applications from clients and checks them against its vast database, looking for signs of fraud. Criminals do crafty things like apply for a credit card at 10 different banks using SSNs that are only one digit away from each other. Or they use slightly different first names or street addresses in an attempt to evade a poor credit history or crime record. Because ID Analytics receives applications from multiple industries, it can spot these signs of fraud in ways that the individual companies cannot.

20 million use more than one SSN
One typical pattern: An imposter uses one name but alternate Social Security numbers in an attempt to circumvent the credit reporting system; ID Analytics is geared up to spot just that kind of evasion. It’s a tough job, because the incidence of multiple numbers connected to the same name is enormous: Dr. Stephen Coggeshall, chief technology officer at the firm, said 20 million Americans have multiple SSNs associated with their names, or 6 percent of the total population.

That doesn’t mean there are 20 million identity thieves out there, even though it might feel like that. In many cases, typos are the culprit, Coggeshall said. Any time a consumer gives an SSN to a company, there’s a chance it will be incorrectly entered into its system, and the error will then propagate throughout the credit system. Once that happens, SSN No. 2 is forever connected to the rightful holder of SSN No. 1. The incorrect SSN might belong to a real person, which can cause a headache for both people, or it might be “synthetic” — an unassigned number that becomes a new entity in the credit system. No one knows how many of these synthetic “people” exist in our credit system, but there are likely millions of them.

It’s relatively easy to spot innocent mistakes, Coggeshall said, because the number is used only once in connection with the name. It’s easy to spot fraud, too — any time a person shows up in the system using SSN No. 2, or No. 3, or No. 4, over and over again. Deliberate fraud is responsible for less than half of the 20 million names attached to multiple SSNs, but it is still a large percentage.

“A good fraction of that group, maybe 15 to 20 percent, of these mistakes are deliberate,” Coggeshall said. “There are systematic variations, deliberate manipulations. … I see many people who have a lot of Socials (SSNs).”

How many? ID Analytics says it has 3 million to 4 million names that have been used to commit identity fraud.

That’s an astonishing number, but it pales in comparison to the next figure.

Five million SSNs attached to three or more people
Recently, Coggeshall decided to reverse his research. Instead of looking for people connected to multiple SSNs, which is most useful for businesses, he looked at SSNs that are connected to multiple people, much more interesting to consumers. In other words, how many people in the U.S. are essentially sharing their identities with someone else?

The answer: 40 million. That means nearly one in 7 SSN holders in the U.S. have two or more names attached to their SSN records.

Please note, this is not an estimate conjured up from a sample. This is ID Analytics looking at its own data, picking out SSNs that have more than one name attached and building its own list. We now know: The secret list of ID theft victims has 40 million people on it.

Coggeshall said it’s important to note that not every one of those consumers is hit with fraud. Many are on the list because of typographical errors. For example, if a company incorrectly enters an SSN and the number accidentally belongs to someone else, as explained above, the rightful holder of SSN No. 2 would end up on this list. Coggeshall said he believes many of the 40 million are on the list as the result of such mistakes.

But millions of those SSNs are being used to commit fraud. Some cases are obvious. More than 140,000 SSNs are associated with five or more people, and 27,000 are connected to 10 or more people, for example.

“Once an SSN is connected to even three people, it’s pretty clear something is wrong,” he said. The firm found that 5 million SSNs have been connected to three or more people.

In addition to criminals committing financial fraud, there’s a more controversial reason that some consumers end up on this list: They are essentially sharing identities with undocumented workers who buy or borrow an SSN in order to fill out necessary paperwork to obtain employment.

The number of illegal immigrants using Americans’ SSNs to obtain work is unknown, but a series of studies provides some hints.

The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that there are about 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States. Those who are working are required to give a SSN to their employer. In 2007, the IRS said it believes 6 million undocumented workers paid federal taxes. And every year, according to the Social Security Administration, nearly 10 million workers pay taxes using the wrong SSN, ending up in what the agency calls a “no-match” situation.

Again, no study has been conducted to identify precisely how many of those can be attributed to mistakes and how many to undocumented immigrants. In 2006, the Social Security Administration sampled its records and determined that 12.7 million out of 17.8 million discrepancies were caused by clerical errors. On the other hand, an earlier study by congressional investigators found the majority of filers on the no-match list worked in industries like restaurants and agriculture, where the presence of undocumented workers is high.

Workers who pay taxes using the wrong Social Security number are a boon to government tax revenues. Social Security taxes paid in such situations don’t earn proper “wage credits,” because the agency doesn’t know whom to give credit to. The funds are tracked in what’s called the Earnings Suspense File, which has shown explosive growth this decade. From 1932-1999, the fund accumulated $300 billion. By 2005, the most recent data available, the file accounted for nearly $585 billion in uncredited wage credits, ultimately adding roughly $40 billion to the U.S. Treasury during that six-year span.

The issue of “shared identities” is among the forgotten elements of the immigration debate, but it rears its head once in a while. Recently, two U.S. courts ruled that using someone else’s SSN is not an identity theft crime, drawing widespread criticism.

SSN is not a secret
Viewed purely as an identity management problem, Coggeshall said his study produced one clear result: “The Social Security number is not a secret,” he said. “It was never intended to be a secret. In today’s world, it is used incorrectly. A lot of businesses have the assumption it’s a number known only to you. That’s not the case.”

Unfortunately, the actual list of victims remains a secret, for now. ID Analytics has contracts with its data providers that forbid it from sharing the information with the public.

“The way we’ve been able to get visibility into the data … is by assuring companies we will not release this data,” Coggeshall said.

The firm has presented some of its findings, including the location of fraud rings, to law enforcement and “that information was well received.” But generally the company does not work with law enforcement on specific cases.

“ID Analytics provides a service to our customers and only they can determine whether or not to pursue law enforcement actions,” Coggeshall said.

The firm does offer a Web-based tool that allows consumers to get a sense of their risk, called MyIDScore.com, but that only generates a score based on a 1-1,000 scale suggesting the likelihood that someone else might be using your SSN or other elements of your identity. The tool is free, and consumers can check their score without supplying their SSN, but the website includes advertising for paid identity theft protection services.

Further, even if there’s a second SSN connected to your name, your score might not be high — if ID Analytics believes that incident is an accident, as opposed to a malicious data theft.

And if your score is high? The tool points you to the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center and the Federal Trade Commission. Neither of those agencies can tell you if someone else has your SSN either. But they can help you clean up an identity theft mess after the fact.

Consumers who obtain their credit report hoping to see if anyone else might be using their SSN are often disappointed; records of such imposters are often kept on separate reports, sometimes called sub-files, which cannot be view by the rightful holder of the SSN.

Annual Social Security wage earnings statements also don’t include the data, because wages earned by workers using their SSNs go into that Earnings Suspense File and don’t show up on the report.

The most recent systematic effort to deal with the problem occurred in 2007, but it didn’t involve victims. Instead, the Social Security Administration announced it was sending a round of so-called “no-match” letters to businesses with employees whose names and SSNs didn’t match on their employment verification forms. Simultaneously, the Department of Homeland Security said it would crack down on companies that didn’t respond to the letters. Citing widespread inaccuracy of the data, immigration rights groups sued and managed to stop the process.

Credit bureau Experian, when asked about the report, said that it believes most errors surrounding SSNs involve honest mistakes.

“Social Security numbers can be associated with multiple individuals, and that individuals can have multiple SSNs associated with them. The majority of these conditions are associated with data entry errors during a creditor’s reporting process to a credit reporting agency like Experian, or joint account activity related to family members or legitimate associations,” said spokeswoman Susan Henson. “Only a small percentage of these conditions are related to malicious intent, and Experian’s fraud prevention tools detect and compensate for the majority of these cases.”

Credit bureau Equifax declined to comment, and Trans Union did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Coggeshall said he believes consumers should have the right to know more about what has been called the “secret life” of their SSN, and the recent court cases that seemed to downplay risk of SSN-only ID theft concern him.

“Certainly you are causing harm” to the victim, he said. Even if the number is used only for employment purposes, eventually it “gets around,” he said.

But solutions to the problem are hard to come by. One agency he doesn’t blame: The Social Security Administration.

“Certainly, they know there are problems. They are the first to understand this,” he said. “It’s not a problem of them issuing numbers. They were never intended to be a unique identifier … but in the past few decades, businesses have used it because it’s easy.”

Published October 18, 2010 | The Wall Street Journal

Many of the most popular applications, or “apps,” on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information