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Agent Orange & Prostate Cancer - How is back pay calculated?
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Jeffrey Smith
Hi all,
I have two questions:
A) I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in early February 2016, filed a claim with the VA on February 16, 2016 and received the VA's 5/17/2016 notice of Original Award of 100% disability rating due to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam (1968-1969). I've done quite a bit of research (including here on hadit.com) trying to understand the VA's back pay provisions to make sure I'm being properly compensated but most of what I've found seems to be a lot more complicated than what I think is my pretty simple issue. The VA's letter itself is a little confusing to me - excerpts follow:
I received payment for 2 months retroactive around 5/17/2016 and payment on June 1 (for May 2016). But it seems to me that if my "Payment Start Date" was 3/1/2016 (presumably for February), I should have had 3 months of retroactive pay (not 2), for 3/1, 4/1 & 5/1 before normal monthly payments began on June 1. Am I correct here or am I misunderstanding something?
B) Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I came across the following information from the " §3.114 Change of law or Department of Veterans Affairs issue", (a) Effective date of award that provides: " (3) If a claim is reviewed at the request of the claimant more than 1 year after the effective date of the law or VA issue, benefits may be authorized for a period of 1 year prior to the date of receipt of such request. (Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1805, 1815, 1821, 1832, 5110(g))" (this info was found at http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/docs/regs/38cfr/bookb/part3/s3_114.doc which I was referred to from this link: http://www.veteranprograms.com/id1757.html ("Section 4. Other Claims"). Since I filed the claim more than a year after the effective date that the law recognizes prostate cancer as presumptive under the VA's Disability rules, should my retroactive pay be for 1 year prior to the 2/16/2016 date of my claim?
Thanks for any help anyone can provide - you all are providing a great service!
Jeff Smith
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