peaches79

Mrs.Berta, I have read alot of your posts and they are very helpful. Do you know the St Paul Regional office Director number.bi have contacted the Undersecretary and which she reach out the Atlanta office which forward nice gentlemen that was helpful but my claim was dispatch to St. Paul MN office since Atlanta office is overwhelmed. My claim been back and forth from preparation to notification to pending approval which is backwards. Could you please help me?

Folks:

I just opened up "ebenefits" and it says 80% (140% Overall) Service Connected! But the claims status says "Status Change" then from "Pending Decision Approval" (for 10 weeks) then back to "Gathering Evidence" today in claim status area? It never went to "Prep for Notification" ? So I then checked and it gave me a status of all of my original FDC submitted contentions, and said most were approved for SC, a few were deferred and a handfull were not service connected. Also, a friend at my office said to quickly download all of the posted letters because mistakes are made sometimes, but they all say the 80% and also provided the extended benefits that go with 80% if it were official? Anyway, I wanted to jump (and still do) for joy at first but if you remember my earlier posts, there were some odd delays with my claim? Consequently, I was pending "Decision Approval" for 10 weeks, so I called the 1 800 # rep 2 weeks ago and he said "your claim had been decided already and signed off"? But then he hesitated and he said, "wait just a minute as he looked at the claims notes, then he said, "it appears that they've re-orderd more DBQ tests" for your claim and it's not done yet? So, I have those additional tests scheduled over the next week and do the first one tommroow. But, when I looked at the new DBQ's/ tests that were ordered and they also are related to the same contentions for the new exams for this week? It says that they are all of the newly ordred exams are for defered contentions -which makes sense because they need to be finished? But, earlier the 1 800# rep left me with the impression that I first needed to get these last DBQ's tests done before my claim would be finished and the results would be officially announced? Although, he would not tell me directly, I could hear from his demeanor that the results may have been favorable for me - his voice pepped up while he was reading the notes? Once, I saw the ebenefits updates -I make copies of everything-just in case...

At first, I thought it was someone else's claim but all of the contentions match up--so it is my claim- without a doubt. Anyway, So, I'm perplexed now; does this mean my claim is done for the first claims stage and this is really official now, and/or am I now just working thru the deferd contentions now as part of the original claim? Or does, it appear that this information on "ebenefits" was released prematurely before the results of my newly scheduled DBQ/exams are finalised and reviewed by this week by VBA? My biggest fear was that although I knew I had solid smr evidence, I was worried that it was not digitised in VBMS due to the FOIA issues I went thru? This is very interesitng turn of events because I've been working on an article to publish regarding what I've gone thru with the ups/downs of the FDC Program from the start and I hear that the FDC is going away soon as the backlog gets down?

Anyway, does this seem offcial or does it seem to be a premature release of information since the claim never went to the "Notification Stage" and therefore not officially completed? Has anyone had experience with something like this before?

Hello all...I just wanted to post a couple successes that just recently came through. The first is on the social security front. As soon as I became entitled to TDIU I applied for SSDI. at process took 4 months and required absolutely no medical or physical appointment in person. I just printed out the TDIU letter from ebenefits, downloaded my medical history from myhealthevet and printed it off, which was subsequently sent to Social Security. That process took 4 months and required absolutely no medical or physical appointment in person. Just a quick 10-15 minute phone call with a representative. I was awarded yesterday and applied initially February 24th.

The other is the Total and Permanent Disability discharge for student loans. Again, I applied the second I was awarded TDIU and that, as well, came back as being discharged yesterday. My loans totaled $64,000! I feel very fortunate to have some of the resources that have been made available to me by this website. The joy I experienced yesterday was like Christmas, my birthday, and coming home from both of my deployments wrapped all into one! I wish you all the same amount of fortune.

WONDERFUL NEWS....

I bet you had your ducks in a row for the TDIU claim...and they were well armed with Evidence!

It is sad that SSA can award solely for SCs, in mere months, yet that evidence might take VA a year or more to render a proper TDIU decision.