The Post Service Officer shall assist members of the Post, their surviving spouses and orphans and other worthy cases brought to their attention in obtaining rightful entitlements from federal and state governments. The work of a Service Officer shall be performed in accordance with the instructions contained in the VFW Guide for Service Officers under the general supervision of the Department Service Officer. The Service Officer shall perform such other duties as may be incident to the office and as may from time to time be required by the laws and usages of this organization or lawful orders from proper authority. It is important to note that VFW Post and District Service Officers are not accredited by the VA. As a consequence, their ability to assist veterans and other claimants prepare claims for submission to VA is limited. Post/District Service Officers should be familiar with the basics of the compensation (for service-connected disabilities) and pension (for nonservice connected disabilities) program. However, the PSO should fill out forms for the claimant only when requested. In this capacity, the PSO is not a claim preparer but rather someone whom rely records information provided by the claimant. The application should be immediately returned to the veteran to submit through proper channels such as the DSO or a VFW-accredited state or county service officer. Under no circumstances should a PSO retain any veteran’s personal information for any length of time, as this is a violation of the law. Further, under no circumstances should the PSO provide any personally identifiable information concerning a claimant to any member of the VFW who is not a VFW accredited service officer (e.g. DSO, Assistant DSO or Claims Consultant.)