WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- The U.S. Army intentionally denied benefits to soldiers suffering from a widespread stress disorder after they returned from service in Iraq and Afghanistan , a veterans advocacy group charges in a suit filed Wednesday . A soldier is welcomed home from Iraq by his son at Fort Stewart , Georgia , earlier this month . The lawsuit , filed by the National Veterans Legal Services Program , accuses the Army of illegally cutting off benefits to thousands of veterans and their families by refusing to assign a proper disability rating to those veterans after they had been discharged with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) . As a result , the veterans have been denied benefits , including , among other things , lifetime monthly disability payments and free medical care for themselves and their families . `` I experience firsthand the horrors of war '' said Juan Perez , an Iraq veteran and one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit . `` My expectation was that the military would be there for me , and my country would be there for me . Instead , the way I was treated felt more like a slap to the face . '' All disabled veterans are assigned a disability rating from zero to 100 percent . According to the Legal Services Program , a rating of at least 30 percent is required to qualify for benefits such as monthly disability payments and free health care . Soldiers receiving less than a 30 percent rating are entitled only to a one-time lump sum severance payment after being discharged . On October 14 , the Defense Department ordered the Army to assign at least a 50 percent rating to all soldiers discharged with PTSD in the future . The lawsuit seeks to provide full benefits to all veterans discharged with PTSD in the past six years . A Rand Corp. study released in April indicated that nearly 20 percent of all military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reported symptoms of PTSD or major depression .
Soldiers : Army denied them disability rating , so they were denied benefits . Lawsuit filed by veterans rights group on behalf of vets with disability . In October , Army ordered all future PTSD sufferers to be eligible for benefits . Soldiers want benefits to go back six years .