NavyWife

Yah, JR is right. Your late payments on your credit cards will still show up for 7 years. And even after you negotiate with them, they will list it as a "charge off", which ruins your credit and stays for 7 years.

In most cases, it is best to file chapter 7 bankruptcy and get everything discharged completely. Within 2 years after the bankruptcy, you can have A rated credit again. Just get a secured card or one card and use it to buy gas every month, and pay it off in full every month. Capital One has a secured card available. Setup auto pay so you don't have to even think about it.

A good rule of thumb is if all your credit card debts equal your annual income then you should file Ch. 7

Save your money for a bankruptcy lawyer. They charge 1,000 to 2,000.

Yah, JR is right. Your late payments on your credit cards will still show up for 7 years. And even after you negotiate with them, they will list it as a "charge off", which ruins your credit and stays for 7 years.

In most cases, it is best to file chapter 7 bankruptcy and get everything discharged completely. Within 2 years after the bankruptcy, you can have A rated credit again. Just get a secured card or one card and use it to buy gas every month, and pay it off in full every month. Capital One has a secured card available. Setup auto pay so you don't have to even think about it.

A good rule of thumb is if all your credit card debts equal your annual income then you should file Ch. 7

Save your money for a bankruptcy lawyer. They charge 1,000 to 2,000.

Yah, JR is right. Your late payments on your credit cards will still show up for 7 years. And even after you negotiate with them, they will list it as a "charge off", which ruins your credit and stays for 7 years.

In most cases, it is best to file chapter 7 bankruptcy and get everything discharged completely. Within 2 years after the bankruptcy, you can have A rated credit again. Just get a secured card or one card and use it to buy gas every month, and pay it off in full every month. Capital One has a secured card available. Setup auto pay so you don't have to even think about it.

A good rule of thumb is if all your credit card debts equal your annual income then you should file Ch. 7

Save your money for a bankruptcy lawyer. They charge 1,000 to 2,000.

Glassrose I dont know about the centralized process but it sounds like you prepared a great NOD to get the support of both of these reps.
I consider the NOD as the first avenue of attack.

In 1988 I prepared a NOD for my husband ( he had gotten a proposal to reduce his 30% PTSD on Christmas Eve 1988.The Xmas tree went flying out the door he was so furious.

Within about 7=8 months his POA ( AMVETS) called him but he was getting out of the car from work ( he worked at the local VA) and AMVETS asked me who prepared the NOD and when I said I did...what is wrong now, they said nothing..it was a good one and they reversed their decision to try to reduce him.

It was the first NOD I ever prepared. I used the exact regs they sent with the reduction proposal and then I used some down right common sense ,in the NOD.

Actually it was pretty funny ..what I said to them as to the common sense part.. but in those days my RO could read and the NOD worked.

By the time my husband got in the door the rep repeated what he had told me and that Christmas the tree stayed firmly in the house.

Their rationale in the proposed reduction was one of the dumbest ones I have seen yet.

Oddly enough, by Dec 1988, they had already committed malpractice on him.I didnt prove that until 1997.
And another ironic thing is that his posthumous award for PTSD at death was 100% with an EED of Nov 1991.

How can a vet jump from 30 % SC for PTSD since 1983, ,with a proposed reduction to 10% in 1988, and then get 100% 3 years after he died with an EED back to 1991 years after the proposed reduction?

Because they are incompetent and medically negligent idiots...... that's why.

I sure hope your NOD might well turn the tide for you.

In NODs I have always scanned into the NOD or typed verbatim in quotes, every single statement they make that is wrong and then I tell them why it is wrong.

Next to responding to a legal VCAA notice,with the evidence they say they still need,
in my opinion, the NOD is the most important document we claimants need to prepare.

Sure, he can request it. The DRO is a senior position and therefore the DRO may have retired by then, depending on how long it's been. If they are requesting a review and a proposed reduction, I generally file a claim for increase or if the claimant is 100% or TDIU, I file for P&T. To me the best defense is to attack!! Remember, if the claimant has been w/o improvement for 5yrs or more, the VA is supposed to consider P&T. jmo

pr

In your situation, ulnless you owe a few thousand, it would be better to go Ch-7 and get it out of the way......no one can touch your VA unless you have child support, but you will get dinged on your credit report trying to go this route about as much as just throwing in the towel and starting fresh.

If his rating decision was three months ago I can't imagine they would downgrade him with new evidence. But who knows....

"Hubby says I'm poking the bear by requesting an increase from VA. He is terrified that by requesting an increase the VA will take away his current rating."

That is what the VA wants us all to think.

A Reconsideration could certainly work but dont let them try to piss away that NOD deadline.

I actually thought the last reconsideration request I made would produce an award, but I was suffering from an illusion.

They did respond to everything I sent and responded to, making it appear as if they were actually working on the claim...but they weren't.

I filed the NOD within about a week of the deadline.

That claim was set for BVA transfer but the Nehmer Philadelphia RO awarded it...in three weeks.

The claim ( actually 2 claims) had sat at my RO in Buffalo from 2003 to 2011 at that point.

Others here have been far more successful with recon requests.

The claim and recon request I had was a CUE claim. The VA hates CUE claims.I dont blame them for stringing me along.
CUE is a collateral attack.I wanted to go to the BVA. But didnt have to, when Nehmer 2010 came along.

A disability claim recon request ,however, with a current DBQ , and from a Real doctor, is Definitely worth poking the bear!!!!!!

I think a bearskin rug would look good on your floor. VA bearskin that is, heh, heh. Skin the bear before he skins you. If you went to DVA NSO he will beg you not to ask for an increase. I heard this for years. If you have the evidence then file the claim is what I think. I must have filed 7-8 claims since I got TDIU back in 2001. I won almost all because the evidence was there and I got IME to back me. I would not file a claim just for the hell of it.

John

Most vets who are receiving their righteous amount of compensation didn't get there in one 'trip' to the VA, Navywife.

It came in increments over years/decades.

So- what you're doing is normal and accepted - and it's time we start makin the VA more afraid of Us.

You got this.

John, it is odd that every single thing that could go wrong with my husband's claims, and my claims and even my daughters first claim as a veteran, went wrong.

But it is through fighting them back over wrong decisions , that I gained a lot of knowledge that I sure hope has been helpful over the past 17 years at hadit...

When I look back ( I have been going over some past decisions I got but most of them are in a heavy file cabinet my neighbor stuck facing a wall in a room I am trying to repaint and carpet). I must admit that I did make many mistakes in the way I approached some of those those older claims.That added more time to receive the proper award.

Worse mistake of all I ever made... I had NSOS and vet reps long ago ,who I thought knew more then I did and would act in my best interests.

EVERY0NE here knows more then they did.

I dont know how I came up with the fish sandwich remark as I was typing here yesterday. But I did coin the phrase Shreddergate here at hadit and that phrase still stands for the downright incompetence and deliberate anti-vet nature of the VA.

I think most of us have been victims of FISHGATE!

I feel bad that I left my PC ,went to our annual Church Christmas Party, then did a volunteer job for my church, about more then 3 hours ago and never closed the last hadit post here I made...
I guess it doesn't matter but still I should of closed down the PC.

Ms berta, I agree
New and Material Evidence in 38 CFR3.356 (a&b) is the most important Reg's we have, if all veterans would take a little time and read up on the CFR'S It would make the claims process a little better to understand and help them with their claim...when a vet has all his T's & I's crossed it makes it hard for the VA to denied.

Just my opinion I don't think the VA will ever get ''caught up'' and there will always be a backlog!

Like the union pricks who used to work for me would say, "We don't want to work ourselves out of a job..."

Have a fish sandwich and get outta my face!

Stressors are conceded due to combat.

PTSD diagnosis is given by VA.

Examiner marked Total Occupational and Social Impairment.

Looks like 100% to me!


Hopefully they will rate you at 100% based on this strong opinion given by the VA examiner. If for some reason the rater decides to give you 70% instead of 100% you will definitely want to appeal. Everything that is needed for them to rate you 100% is given in this exam report.

It's possible you might even end up with an SMC - S rating once all your other conditions are rated. That would add approximately $300 to your monthly compensation.

Any other claims for mental health such as depression or anxiety will be rolled in with this PTSD rating -and they will only give one percentage for any mental health ratings.


If any of your other issues get denied due to no Nexus-you will want to check and see if they are on the list of Gulf War presumptives.

I did not realize how important it can be to review your C-file until yesterday. My VSO called to tell me of my approval for my current claim and while on the phone he was reading my file and noticed that I had been denied in 2007 on the same claim. He discovered the VARO had made that decision for denial without all of the logs. They only had reviewed part of them. When I had re-filed in 2012 I had submitted all of the logs as I had only then found where to get them.
I had assumed the VA in 2007 had reviewed all of the logs and accepted their denial. The VSO is asking them to cue themselves on this evidence and retro back to 2007.
I would advise anyone to not assume anything about your c-file. Get a copy and go over it.

I think if you were entitled to TDIU and "S" before you became 100% scheduler then you should have an EED for "S". How much time are we talking about for the EED for "S"? You got to wonder if you have enough time left in life to pursue it. If it is a lot of money I would hire a lawyer and forget about it if you can get a legal eagle to take the case. They do like the easy money most of the time unless you have my lawyer. I got "S" via a CUE and I had TDIU. I did get retro of about 2 years for S. I just asked the obvious question as to why I did not get "S" since I was Total plus 80%. Oops......The VA forgot.


John

I think vets are much smarter now than in my day. I think OIF/OEF has generated a couple of hundred thousand claims at least with no end in sight. With lowering barrier for PTSD and inclusion of new AO presumed the VA will never catch up. It is impossible for them to tie shoes and chew gum at the same time. Every one of my decisions right or wrong has been screwed up in some way. They get something grossly wrong. The internet and websites like Hadit help younger vets a lot. They don't have to depend on dumb ass DAV or VFW. Those two actually caused my claims to be denied in the past with screwball reasoning like asking for compensation for a personality disorder I did not even have. Thank you VFW. This was in the 80's but nothing has changed.


John

foreveryoung,

if you think you might qualify, by all means apply. Everyone has the right to apply before someone determines whether they are eligible or not. I don't really know your circumstances that well. So any ideas I give may or may not apply. That would be great if the quarters you paid back entitled you to both. I think they make some other adjustments for military time too.

Keep in mind that there is no partial disability on SSD. You are either disabled or not. They don't rate on percentages like the VA. I personally think it would be difficult to show you were unable to work for the last 30 years when you were working.

You may very well qualify for retirement income from SSA. Even if you are close, you could even consider doing something very part time if you are able to, and pay in a few extra quarters over the next few years to make you qualify.

But then again, you know much more about your own circumstances.

In much of the time I fought my claim for accrued benefits and DIC, many people told me I would not win my claim --including VSOs, a couple of attorneys, and even some people on this forum, However, my research told me different, and I kept up the fight.

So by all means, if you think you are entitled to benefits, keep up the fight - Don't let anyone talk you into not fighting for what you deserve.

The real impact and meaning of "call Bob" - - -
It is possible for the VA to respond to claims in a timely manner.
There are at least a few people within the VA that "know" what they are doing.

There is something else - - -
The Secretary, (if he chooses) by law, is the final "administrative"
and, in a few instances, the final legal remedy in a veteran's claim.
(Other than going into the federal court system beyond the authority of the secretary.)

When a bad decision on a claim is made, it reflects back on the secretary, since it's done "in his name"

That would be fast as lightening for the VA. God knows if it works do it. I may email Bob and tell him to fix my wife and all the nuts on my side of the family including myself.
Bob is like God. You just ask and you shall receive. If you ask for 100% would Bob hand you a serpent?

NavyWife - I do I'm trying to get one rating bumped from 10% to 60% as I do meet the criteria and have a DBQ from a specialist stating that as well. The DBQ was submitted with the initial attempt but they lowballed me in a big way. The other rating is for my migraines and that should go from 30% to 50% since I meet the criteria for that as well. If I get both to the appropriate percentage that puts me at 100% schedular.

I'm researching DRO hearings now and will probably start a thread to get further advice on the proceedings in the very near future.

Thank you again for your encouragement and insistence that I email Bob. I can honestly say it's the only reason my claim has moved this far forward so quickly and I have you and the other members of hadit to thank for that. Have a Merry Christmas!

Thanks georgiapapa! Today hubby received his first full check including the dependency pay! That's sure nice to see in the bank account, but I do feel like I aged 5 years over the past 12 months of researching & being worried about his claim.

by 2015 it will be even worse. More vets are getting educated on the process. Its not like it was even 10 years ago. Poor ole farmboy goes back to the woods. works his ass of until he dies and VA never paid a dime/. Now you can be in bunfunct Egypt, have a computer and get a good handle on your rights and benefits in short time. The internet brought transparency to alot of things in this world. The VA has been getting over for a long time, by not rendering veterans thier just compensation and benefits/ most just didnt know they were entitled. Them days are over. Once this country truly realizes the true costs of war, maybe our leaders wont go sticking thier nose in every conflict that comes along, and let other countries fight thier own battles. Countriesw like saudi arabia and Kuwait are filthy rich, and we go spill our blood to protect them, and get nothing in return. We are billions of dollars in debt, and fighting other countries battles. theres something wrong with that.

Hi Snake doc,
I am not the best on MH ratings, but other members might be able to better assess this for you. In my opinion, section 4 is marked "total occupational and social impairment", which could indicate a possibility of getting a 100% rating. Please note that I could be wrong on this.

Good luck!

I like it, T - you have a lot of great info/links in a small space without a bunch of distracting graphics like so many sites have.

NavyWife- this isn't the new forum page; that's why no View No Content (which I also use daily).
This is just the main web page where you can link to the forums.