uh60james

I feel your pain 11cvolley, hang in there. I am not familiar with the Cleveland VARO so can't help you out on that. How long have you been waiting? Did they really deny you IU for playing video games? That is a load of crap if true, my C&P doc said she actually see's that a lot of Vet's with PTSD will play video games with buddy's from the service as a coping method, I am one of those Vet's.

As navy04 said try not to worry, hopefully it will be complete soon!! Good luck to you!

Congrats!

I don't know that I would trust either of them completely. I will say my eBennies remained accurate throughout my claim. I'm guessing it depends on your VARO's input into it.

Awesome work helping him out!

Update on the extra 12 months of retro. New "claim" was opened on 5/9/2014 per eBennies. It is listed "Administrative Review". As of today it is pending decision approval. Fingers crossed.

My retro payment took roughly a week to hit after the claim showed as closed in eBennies. My letter which I received about a week later said 15 days. I imagine it varies by VARO and the number of signatures required for the dollar amount. I believe the information on eBennies get's updated when your VARO decides to get around to entering the data. My updates throughout the process of my claim usually showed up online between 5 and 6pm on Monday or Tuesday. I assume this was an overtime task for my VARO.

I don't know the answers to your questions but congrats Mike!

Congratulations on the victory!

Congrats!

Thanks NavyWife! I don't understand how the RO didn't know about the program in place the grants one year retro either. I hate to say it but I wonder if they just put them through as they used to and hope that the vet's don't catch it or know about it. I definitely have a good VSO and I am lucky that he works in the RO so he can get answers fast. He also made sure to include my dependents in my claim so I am already getting that!

Congrats on the apparent quick movement. You are correct about the IBS being a presumptive, you just need the diagnosis.

No response to my IRIS inquiry yet but my VSO has contacted the supervisor over the team that handled my claim and she agreed that I should have gotten a year extra retro benefits. He said he is going to stay on them and make sure they get it fixed.

Congratulations!

Checked my bank account this morning and received retro back to Feb of this year. I just sent an IRIS inquiry due to the amount of retro I received. Still haven't gotten the envelope in the mail but the retro was confirmation enough that they don't plan on giving me the extra year. Will have to wait and see what they say now.

Thanks.

Thanks John. It has actually been more than a year since my discharge but the VA started a program last year to try to get more first time filers to use the FDC program. It is possible to get one year retro from the date you filed if you meet certain conditions which I believe I do. I will have to wait for the big brown envelope or retro pay to hit to see what it says since I don't know how they indicate the effective date on the AB8 for those entitled to the retro. I feel like I maybe could have gotten 50% for the PTSD even with the C&P notes as they are. What kind of things would I need to have stated on the IME to file a NOD and hope for 50%?

I didn't read real deep into this but it looks like the VA has to say you are unemployable to get your loans discharged. Maybe this will help navy. http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/disability-discharge

Congrats Jefferson!

Congrats on the win and the backpay!

Thanks everyone!

Update with disability percentages. You can actually view these before you get your big brown envelope if you start a new claim in ebenefits, it will list all your current ratings. PTSD - 30% L Knee - 10% (Pleasantly surprised by this since the doc basically indicated no problems and gave an inactive diagnosis) Tinnitus - 10% Hearing Loss - Not Service Connected (Tests came back within limits)

Don't let there new found ass kicking affect any comments you may be asked about your quality of service! They are in CYA mode now.

Congrats!

Yes. https://www.usdirectexpress.com/edcfdtclient/index.html#