AFButch

I know your frustration! I watched my claim's projected dates change at least twice. Then it sat stagnated for several months saying it was past their projected date but as sorry as they were, they would get to it when they could. I have been told that the dates you see as projected completion as well as phase dates are automatically entered based on similar claims at the RO your claim is being worked but basically DO NOT rely on them to be accurate. Example: mine said completion (finally) would be the end of June, they finished it yesterday, May 23rd. I have no idea why the need for the dates in the first place, they do not reflect the actual process. I saw something about your particular issue on another post on Hadit where the VA was not suppose to interrupt dependent allowance when the kids go from high school to college. You might want to look around for it. Seems the post also said although this was in place, it was not being practiced. It is absolutely a flaw (one of many) in these VA benefits! Wishing you well with the progress of your claim. HUGE CONGRATS to those twins in college, WTG shouts to you for getting them there!

I fixed the percentage, Carlie. Thanks for the well wishes. Just so all can compare. This dependency claim was the ONLY claim I had in process. It took a little over 13 months to complete. Hoping better for those who follow with theirs.

Claim closed today! Notification has been sent. Can see on the Benefit Verification that my monthly compensation will now include my spouse/dependent but can not find anywhere where it says the amount of back pay I will receive. Sure the bank will show it in a few days. LONG haul but finally feeling much better. My wife is now officially and recognized with the VA.

Congrats! Enjoy the peace of settlement. Thank you for your service.

Maybe or MAYBE I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My 13+ month dependent claim MAY be on its way to completion. It was already sent back for a correction to the notification letter and is now back into the authorization phase at PREPARATION FOR NOTIFICATION phase. This is in the Portland, Oregon RO. They still show projected date of the earliest of June 21st for completion. My contact at that RO says not to pay any attention to the dates posted because they are automatically put on ebenefits. He did not offer a personalized estimation for the actual completion. So, I will be closely watching EBENEFITS, my bank account and the US Mail. More optimistic than I have been in awhile but not counting on it until I see it in the bank. Could be as early as this week or as long as next year, LOL.... Just wanted to let folks know, things are moving along after what I felt was a long wait for a dependent claim. (Just to add my wife of 27 years following my 100 compensation rated claim finalized last March 2012 with a backdate to 10/2010.)

Just when "action" is finally being taken on an old dependency claim.... good to know it is their problem, nothing specific to my account. Thanks Indyman for the response.

Anyone having trouble with ebenefits today? I can't get my claim status to come up at all..... just wondering if I am alone on this or if there may be a problem with my personal account. I will call their tech number tomorrow if still not working. I was finally able to pull up my pending claim late last night. Good news found, my dependency claim is in NOTIFICATION phase. Not sure how long from here to completed. I know it was already returned to the developer (last Friday) to correct the notification letter. Hoping not too much longer, been 13+ months now since it was received by the VA with a 10/2010 back date. So nice check coming.....

UPDATE TO MY DEPENDENCY CLAIM: Just to keep my record clear there has been some change to my dependency claim which means THE VA IS working on these non-rated claims, at least in the Portland, Oregon RO. My claim remains in the Decision Waiting Approval phase but a message about it was determined it needed further review now appears on Ebenefits. I made contact with the Outreach Specialist who has attempted to assist me with this claim. He did a quick check and found that a decision has been made but that the notification letter was returned from the approval person to the development person for corrections. (An internal issue, nothing will be required from me.) The dates on projected completion went from over-due (sorry we know this is over-due, we will get to it when we can message) to actual dates. Phase completion as early as this week. Claim completion as soon as the end of June. I have seen these dates change twice over the last 13 months so I remain optimistically hopeful, NOT excited about it. The Outreach Specialist was as surprised as I was to see work progress (or regression) because he was flatly told these claims would NOT be worked on until the earliest JULY. I continue with wishful thoughts for ALL backlog issues to be resolved for ALL of us!!!!!!!!!

Many websites you "visit" can track you in computer land. Some can tag personal information from other sites you have volunteered personal information to. I understand the need for the DOB of children and marriage dates to make a completed calculation BUT I thought this was not considered as part of your original claim. Dependency claims are filed separately. Determining the retro pay for a compensation claim would NOT require these dates, IF that be the case. Determining the dependency retro once it is filed isn't difficult and would not require a computerized program, possibly a calculator to simply the calculation. BUT, this is a take on my understanding of how this whole mess works, I may be WAY out in left field???????? I do not know if Rodger Dodger's program is a "trap" and have no opinion on it. Just wondering why there was a survey in the first place.

Surely the VA will have specific wording saying that the claim has been awarded PROVISIONALLY, not making the VET have to guess???? It should outline the year to provide the "missing information" and that after that you will have appeal rights and an additional year????? There I go again, assuming, LOL.

That is what they keep saying "you will receive your back pay once this is approved." As nice as it will be, it would be better to have had it all along! I am 100% disabled. Just adding my wife of 27 years, LOL. Was beginning to worry I would die before it was completed. Good luck on your claim's expediency. Hoping it means they now have your dependent claim being processed under your pension benefits! I guess they got too wrapped up in the backlog to realize not every claim is for the disability compensation process. I didn't realize ebenefits would have new postings applied on a Saturday....wondering if that means some ROs are working the mandatory over-time on Saturdays.

The email I received from the Outreach Specialist: It means a decision on your dependency claim was made. The notification letter detailing what actions VA took needs correction before the claim can be authorized. Once its corrected and the decision is authorized, you will receive your notification letter.

There has been some recent change on my dependency claim (5/17/2013)! So they are working on them! It surprised even the Outreach Specialist who has been most helpful to me. Not sure exactly what it means but evidentially the Rater had to return "the letter" back to the developer for correction. The letter is one that explains what the VA did on this claim. I am now told that once the letter is corrected it will return to the Rater for approval and that a decision has been made on the claim. Still have to wonder because it has been in the Decision Waiting Approval phase for over 7 months now. I was not given a specific time line or time frame to expect BUT ebenefits project that this phase will be completed as early as next week with a claim completion as early as the end of June. I have seen those dates change at least twice so although I am cautiously optimist, I know better than to apply too much credit to the dates ebenefits now has posted. BUT, the important thing here is that I need to amend previous statements that NO dependent claims will be worked on until acceptable dent in the backlog has been achieved.

I checked ebenefits this afternoon and found that the status has changed on my dependent claim adding my wife. It is over 13 months in the processing. I have no other pending claims or appeals. Through this frustrating experience an Outreach Specialist took pity on me and has provided me with his personal email and phone number. He made efforts to get this thing done but met brick walls even with his inside connection. When the mandatory work on claims over 2 years was placed on the VA he was told NO dependent claims would be processed until at the earliest July 2013. This is out of the Portland, OR RO. Well today there was a message on my ebenefits: Copied directly from ebenefits: Change of Status: We determined that your claim needed additional review. If additional evidence is needed from you, you will receive a letter from us explaining what is needed. That worried me. I had been assured ALL was there that they needed to complete this claim. It has sat at Decision Approval Pending for at least 7 months. NOW WHAT?????!!!!! So I emailed my VA contact. He replied with: I guess they listened to my pleading to get it done. The authorizer sent it back to the developer to correct the letter. What letter???? I emailed him again asking what letter. To that email he replied: It means a decision on your dependency claim was made. The notification letter detailing what actions VA took needs correction before the claim can be authorized. Once its corrected and the decision is authorized, you will receive your notification letter. I do not know what this means as to the completion date. The Developer has to make whatever corrections needed. Then the claim has to be authorized. This could be next week or next year, no way to know. Ebenefits now projects between June 29th and September. But, SOMETHING was done, the letter correction is an internal issue, nothing missing from my portion of the process. So, although they are focusing on the backlog SOME other stuff IS being done! I hope it means that not only my personal claim will soon be completed but that their backlog is progressing favorably as well. I am once again hopeful but optimistically. The paper shuffle is frustrating.

Goodness, why would differential pay come into play when OT is merely extending a work day? (Maybe there is a cut off, 4 hours OT into night shift or something like that = shift differential?) Now a second shift is a totally different issue. Are there available staff available to fill a second shift? Maybe I missed something here. I thought the issue was that they have been mandated 20 hours MONTHLY for each employee to work on this backlog. That is an hour extra a day. Not so sure it is enough to be of any help anyway especially if used at one hour intervals. Would have been more practical to call for volunteers with Supervisory assignments of what exactly they would work on.... that is difficult for supervisors to co-ordinate, maybe that is the problem. I speak from experience. Wondering if Saturday could come into play with focused hours rather than a measly hour a day. Just as in all the excellent ideas for solutions I have read on HADIT for all the problems with the VA, we the Vet in need have NO control over any of this. Can say that based on their administrative handling of our claims, they will likely mishandle this OT as well. OT was like a gift where I came from. I had PLENTY staff WANTING to work it. (The money was great, when allowed some enjoy the comp time as an option.) I set up the assignments well before they arrived and we got enormous amounts of work done, especially on Saturdays when there were no outside interruption. Specific task assignment was a given, with expected results. My staff jumped in and did exactly what was expected. (The donuts I brought may have come into play with their sugar highs, LOL.) My supervisor and theirs all the way to the Warden knew exactly what we had to work on and expected productivity from that OT. Oh well, I JUST worked at one of the most notorious Prisons in the US, maybe didn't know what we were doing, LOL. OT is really NOT the focus here, who works when etc, the focus is what will be accomplished with this mandated OT. Accountability with expected and achieved goals for it should be mission.