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My Cue

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DavidinNC

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Hello,

I am starting a new topic, unfortunately I had hijacked another veterans. My apologies for that.

I was discharged from the US Navy in August 1995 for having contracted Type I Diabetes. I was provided a severance check from the Navy. I submitted for VA education benefits and VA disability compensation in Charleston, SC. I was awarded the education benefits and enrolled in school. I lost my job, and we had to move to NC for another position. I went to the VA in Winston-Salem to apply for education benefits and disability compensation. I was denied the education benefits since I now had a job. Thanks VA! I never heard back from the VA on the compensation. I applied again later in Georgia, but never received any response from that either. Frankly, I gave up in disgust wondering how such an organization could do these things to our Veterans and get away with it for decades.

in 2010, I decided to reapply for disability benefits. I had diabetes for 15 years, and was wanting to have this settled so my wife wouldn't have to deal with it after I was gone. I received a phone call for a Compensation hearing appointment on a Friday, stating the appointment was the following Monday. I informed the caller I was not able to make that appointment due to an overseas business trip, and requested the appointment be changed, which the caller stated she would. Several weeks later, I received a notice from the VA stating I had failed to appear for this hearing, so they had given me the default compensation rate of 20%.

I requested another hearing in November 2013. In May 2014, my Insulin pump was failing, and I learned the VA was now issuing those. I went to the clinic to begin the process of getting a new pump. When i requested an appointment, (again, I was there on a Friday) I was told I had two appointments coming the following Monday, for guess what? My second compensation hearing. I never received notice of this. I asked the attendant to print the appointment letter for me. At the bottom of the letter it stated if I failed to appear, my request would be dismissed. I was beginning to understand now.

I attended the hearing the following Monday, and the doctor was kind enough to mention she saw in my file the original request for disability compensation from August of 1996 when I had moved to North Carolina.

I obtained a DAV representative, who helped me get my compensation to 40%, but I wont see any of that until something like 2017. Also she has filed a CUE asking VBA to retroactively change my compensation date to August 1996. I have attached the documentation requesting the change.

I would like to know if this stands much of a chance. If it does, what chances are there they will consider my 40% rating to that date, or if they will default to the 20% rating?

I wish I had not gotten so frustrated with the poor service, and at the time, the horrible medical treatment for vets. I was having seizures, wrecking cars, and my employment and family were threatened, but the VA wouldn't help me with an insulin pump. Ive broken bones, knocked out teeth twice and other things, but because they were not documented to the VA, they act like they never happened.

I apologize for the long rant, but this has been a real source of aggravation for me for nearly 20 years. The doctors I now have at the VA and the treatment has improved, but the VBA still seems to hide behind a wall of deny, delay and die mentality.

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VA's logic is impeccable. They are right. An informal claim must be consummated like a marriage. Once you filed the 21- 4138, you had a year to follow up. It's a two-way street in the claims business. You cannot just push send and wait for a return email. If you do not hear back, you have to act. Assuming you kept the same address, VA says they mailed you a 21-526 to file with. If you blew them off, you lost your chance to complain after a year. You could also have refiled at any time after you did not hear back. Informal claims are a valuable tool to excavating an old claim but to insinuate CUE, you need the ammo. Sad to say, it looks like you do not. I've had one case like this. The Vet moved but did send them an address change. VA still mailed it to the old address. Since he never got it and VA had the correct one, it put the claim in cold storage. He won it six years later in 2012 after going to the BVA. The CUE occurred in 88.

CUE is a hard nut to crack under the best of circumstances. I have found some VSOs who don't even know what it is. The rules are adversarial in the extreme. A motion to revise is an extreme judicial action not taken lightly. I suspect more investigation on your part would have revealed how futile this claim was going to be.

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I was advised by my VSO rep that any CUE had a less than stellar chance of success normally. I think my VSO rep felt that since they had already concurred on my 20% disability for my Vocational Rehab benefits, it should have been logical to do at least the same for my compensation, and that in fact they did choose that in 2010 when VBA reviewed it in 2010. I was receiving medical benefits at this time, and was keeping my address updated to receive medical supplies, but I surely don't recall receiving the 21-526. At this point, it seems it doesn't matter anyway. I dont know why I expected any different an outcome from the VA now, than I received from them in 1996.

We're told we will be taken care of if needed, giving up our lives and families to run all over the world in any conditions they dictate. When they say jump we say how high. Never imagined they would hide behind a wall of legalize to make their refusals seem honorable.

Thanks for the advice and guidance.

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Was there any evidence list or more to the CUE denial than that?

Is it true that they did not have evidence warranting the CUE claim at time of the older rating?

As Asknod said, CUE is a tough nut to crack, and takes a LOT of reading before attempting to CUE them.

I learned most of what I know on CUE from reading many many BVA CUE decisions, and I learned as much from the denials as I did from the awarded CUEs.

"Never imagined they would hide behind a wall of legalize to make their refusals seem honorable"

That wall of legalize, for us claimants willing to take the time to understand it, in some cases ,will bring CUE awards.

I just regret that any of us have to practically become lawyers to wade through it all.

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Berta,

Indeed. I was naïve when I was young. I gave up on trying to get anything out of the VA. The care was horrible, in some cases I felt negligent, and the compensation seemed like such a swamp to get through. I also spent time in the gulf, and I know there are many illnesses considered as accepted as part of that service, if I read correctly. How do I get those evaluated and considered properly. I have problems with my stomach, my intestines, sleep apnea, have had these for many years. I submitted them in my last Compensation Exam, but they all came back denied. I wish I knew better what I was doing, and I had being absolutely at the mercy of some faceless non-entity. They wont even put their name on it. Its so dehumanizing.

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