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My husband died due to service-connected disability and I fought the VA for over 6 years. He died in April of 2010 but my 9 year old son and I didn’t start receiving benefits until October of 2016. The effective day is April of 2010. I was in college when he died and did not complete my degree until 2016. I am now using the chapter 35 benefits to pay for graduate school. However, I got my bachelors degree after my husband died and was wondering if I’m entitled to any retroactive pay when it comes to educational benefits. I have accumulated some student debt from my bachelors degree. Any way I can at least get help paying for the debt?

Do you know if I am now eligible for the 10 preference for employment? I am unsure about that.

I haven't been on here in a while. I'm happy to report that my son and I have ChampVA insurance and I also started my Masters program and using DEA (Chapter 35) benefits:)

Thank you! He's is great. I'm so grateful. I never imagined for it all to end this way.

Thank you! The lawyer Joe Moore called me himself today and confirmed that I do not have to pay them anything. He said I was really lucky of how things turned out with the whole thing. He was very nice and told me if they give me any issues to contact him again. Thank you for all your help!!

Yes, I signed the Appointment of individual as claimant's rep as well as the fee agreement (33%!) for work performed before the department of VA on 5/28/16 not knowing that a decision had been made in November 2014. There's nothing mentioned about any fees to the lawyer. His name is only mentioned on the last page under "cc:" I wonder if the lawyer can charge anything when the BVA made decision in 2014 but did not communicate it with me.

Thank you, Ms. Berta! I would really appreciate it if you could help me if necessary. I will be getting $1564 per month (Including my sons part). The case manager of the lawyer's office said she would get back to me yesterday and never did so I'm not sure at this point. I got the decision today. The decision states that the service connection for the cause of death is granted and basic eligibility to Dependants Educational assistance is established. I hope that means I can receive educational benefits as well. I wanted to go back to school very soon. In the evidence section it only lists evidence submitted before 2014. From my understanding the correspondence from Dr. Gordon is was sealed the deal. Rating Decision shows November 12, 2014! Does this mean the lawyer has no right to charge me the 30%? I hired him in May of this year.

I found out about one week ago that my DIC was granted. I didn't want to get too excited because the letter I received from BVA was quiet confusing, but today I looked on my account and I saw the back-pay! I originally filled in May of 2010! This is so bittersweet to say the least! I have been so emotional all day. I wish I could have my husband back and my son could have his daddy back instead of getting this money:( I can see my husband doing a happy dance in heaven. I was struggling to make it on my own so I know he is able to rest easy now that my son and I are taken care of. He was so upset when they granted him 10% three days before he passed away. 10% after they diagnosed him with PTSD and told him he was non-deployable after they recalled him!? He was getting everything ready to appeal so I am very happy I was able to complete it all for him! Thank you to everyone here on Hadit for all your help! Thank you to Ms. Berta for answering all my difficult and confusing questions at any hour of the day! You are heaven sent! I received the total backpay today without them paying the lawyer anything. I called the VA today and was told that they don't see a lawyer listed on their end. I hired the lawyer in May of this year but from my understanding BVA messed up and didnt communicate a decision with me so there's a possibility that the decision was made before I hired the lawyer. I asked the case manager today if I owe them anything and she said she would get back to me. If I owed the lawyer anything doesn't the VA pay the lawyer first before sending me my backpay? I'm a little bit confused. Also, I asked the VA if my son and I qualify for health benefits and educational benefits and was told no since my husband wasn't 100% before he passed but I could always try going to a VA Hospital to talk to them to them personally?? He said there's always ways around it. I plan to help my parents with the money I received and spoil my 8 year old as much as his daddy would have done if he was here. I also want to pay off all the debt I have accumulated since my husband passed. I also want to put some of it in a savings account. I already had started a college fund for my son before. Should I pay off my student loans with that money as well or just slowly pay it off monthly?

I will try to contact them. Thank you Berta! I have never spoken to the lawyer. Just case managers and assistants. When I personally went to drop off the c-file to the office the case manager didn't even come out of her office to meet me and told the receptionist to accept it for her. She tried to explain everything to me over the phone which confused me even more. Then she send me a link by email to the VA website so I can calculate my monthly income. I asked her to explain to me why they granted it twice and she never emailed me back. So frustrating. The issue with the ebenefits website is that they have a FIN number for me on file and never updated it to my SSN.

I called them. There's an issue with my SSN so I have to fax a copy of my social security card before I can register on benefits.gov.

I tried to register last night and it tells me that the personal information you provided was not found in DEERS. I contacted the RO today and they said the case is not closed yet so they don't know what the status is until it closes. I called the BVA as well to get more info and they said all they can see is that a decision has been made and sent to RO but they can't see anything else. So frustrating!

That's all I have and the case manager telling me that the appeal was granted but somehow never communicated with me? BVA said they made a decision and sent it to RO in Baltimore. I keep getting stuck on the "dismissed" on the last page.

The case manager at the lawyers office does not a great job of explaining everything to someone as clueless as me but from what I'm understanding so far the BVA granted the appeal and send the decision to the regional office. I was told by the case manager that it can take up to 90 days for RO to issue an appeal decision to award benefits.

My lawyer said that I was granted DIC so I won the case. I am over the moon right now! She said it takes up to 90 days to hear from them. But it looks like they made the decision back in February of 2016 and somehow made a mistake and did not send me any documents so nothing was being done. I hired the lawyer in May of 2016. Does this mean I still owe the lawyer 30% eventho the appeal was granted before I hired the lawyer?

Yes, it was the correct. http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp14/Files1/1409068.txt

What are they exactly saying in the attachment below? I'm so confused and I know I will talk to the lawyer tomorrow but I am being a little impatient.

Hi Berta! No, I have never received any award. My lawyer is Joseph Moore. He is located in Maryland.

i just got the decision in the mail today and I am heartbroken. From what I am able to understand they dismissed my appeal (see below). They attached the papers for an appeal. What does that all mean now? If I appeal again, does that mean everything will start all over again and take several years to get a decision again? Is there a chance that the lawyer will not represent me again? I have not spoken to my lawyer yet.

Hi guys, I haven't been on here in a while so I thought I'd check in to give an update. I got my husband's cfile 30 days after the congressman requested it. I went and hand delivered it to the lawyer's office to speed things up. I got a few additional statements from a few family members as well as my husband's platoon sergeant. The lawyers office told me that they had to wait on the copy of the cfile they requested in order to continue moving forward. I submitted my 90 day stay back in May. We waited for weeks....nothing. Finally, I was told that it was decided that they would work off the c-file I provided rather than waiting for BVA. I was only told so far that the c-file does contain positive evidence. They submitted a legal argument to the BVA and now the waiting game continues.

No, not at all! I appreciate all your advice. Getting the police report, the autopsy report and the medical records have brought up a lot but it's just part of the process. You guys have helped me so much. Thank you!

The witness reports state that he ran the red light at a very high speed and as I said he knew that street so well and his behavior right before the accident was very out of his character. He lived .3 miles from that street for 10 years. The witnesses also stated that his helmet was not locked so it flew off during the crash. He woke up that day cleaned out the house, cleaned the patio (I had asked him to do that for weeks), he cleaned his closed, took our son to the playground and left. The day before I tried to convince him to move to FL and he said "no I want to die in Maryland." I think his behavior was very strange. He was a very great dad. He was mister mom in our relationship and he would have never put his life in danger like that in a normal state of mind. I had never seen my husband cry during our relationship until he was recalled and he got so scared. He didn't want to go back to Iraq and one day he called me from SC and he started crying like a baby saying he doesn't want to leave our son for one year. I am convinced that he had an episode before the accident.

I just got 6 pages of the autopsy report I believe, but no heart slides or anything. The lawyers office were saying that the IMO written by Dr. Gordon was really good and that they don't usually see a doctor write 6 pages. They asked me if I paid her and I said no the American Legion had her write it. They said that their fee is higher because they don't take on a lot of workload. The lady from the law firm I talked to said they have a 90% successful rate. It sounded like they might not suggest a new IMO but I don't know for sure. I will have to see what they say once they take a look at everything.

Thank you for that information! I just contacted his buddy who wrote the only buddy statement I have and he said he will reach out to the other soldiers who were deployed with my husband. Hopefully I can get some statements from them. I will also ask his other brother and sister who served around the same time as him and who were both stationed in Germany as well to write a statement as well. I wrote a new statement myself as well since I left a lot of information out of the first statement I wrote. I was going through a hard time then so I'm hoping the new information will help the doctor when writing the IMO. Thank you again for pointing that out.

I have one more question...if my son and I do receive any benefits would it be starting from the day my husband filled his claim, the day he passed or the day I filled?

Thank you, Buck! I'm used to being patient...its been 6 years since I filled the claim:)