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King156
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Posts posted by King156
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3 minutes ago, Navy4life said:
I have no idea what the letter is regarding and what it says. Until then, I can't give you an answer. I was simply making sure the other poster that stated what he stated understood that if the VA erred on a disability rating and the Veteran was getting over paid for it, the Veteran is not obligated to pay it back.
Oh, okay.
Either way, the VSO should be able to view the letter on Monday.
Thanks.
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3 minutes ago, CoolHandDevil505 said:
Sorry. Just trying to help.
Did I write something that sounded harsh? If so, I didn't mean for anything to come across that way. I was just verifying the info seeing if you could figure out what it might be.
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2 minutes ago, Navy4life said:
If the VA has erred regarding over payment in VA disability compensation, they do not require the Veteran to pay it back. They will fix the issue going forward though.
I believe the lady at the VA Debt Center said that it can take around 4 months to fix if the Disability Dept had made an error. Does that sound correct? I can live with 4 months, but I would like it resolved sooner.
Also, if the VA has erred does that mean that I ask for a hearing or ???...this just isn't my area of expertise.
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2 hours ago, CoolHandDevil505 said:
Overpayment letters can come from several sources. There can be overpaid Education benefits, such as keeping benefits from classes not taken or poor self-reporting habits. Overpaid C&P benefits can come from hospitalization with both Compensation and Pension, and usually bad dependent maintenance comes back to bite people on Compensation, such as forgetting to inform VA of a marriage or divorce. Also, overpayment letters can come from unpaid medical bills. The first paragraph of the letter will tell you where the debt was issued from, right before the amount.
-CHD505
Yes, I read that it says "Compensation & Pension". The lady at the VA debt center read through the letter (the letter I never received) & said it's NOT for "Drill Pay", "Education" or something else that I can't remember what she said.By the way, I have never been married or have any kids. So, that should rule out the dependent thing. And I make less than $15,000/year.
I'll be going to my VSO on Monday since I believe they have electronic access to the letter.
However I've never received $11k in Compensation. The number is more like a few thousand in disability pay when I added up everything.
The only time I've been hospitalized was when they baker-acted me a few years ago & for a few different VA ER visits this year. But I never received any bills other than for my prescriptions.
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I need help on what to search for on this forum because I just got thrown a loop.
I had recently completed my 3rd disability claim (I now have a total of 30% disability) & everything seemed fine. However, it's been "complete" on Ebenefits for 3 weeks & I was still awaiting a written notification & my backpay...however, I called the 1-800# twice & the reps kept claiming that everything should be fine.
However, today I just got a letter in the mail saying "the VA recently sent you a letter explaining that you were overpaid $11,000"...first off, I never received a letter saying anything about that (that's not too surprising though). Second, I have no idea of where to even start with this.
My questions:
1) What do I search for in the forums? I don't even know which words to use for the search engine.2) How long does this usually take to get resolved.
3) Can I still move forward with my next disability claim while I am working this out?
Update: I just talked to the VA Debt Center & the lady told me that they can supply a copy of the letter that was supposedly sent to me on Sept. 6...the lady said the letter is several pages thick, but she tried to search for a specific reason & couldn't find any.
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4 hours ago, Vync said:
I have personally filed new claims while the VA was processing existing claims. The VA was able to complete some claims while deferring others (gathering evidence from non-VA docs, C&P exams, etc...). The VA did not just place me in limbo until all claims were completed.
I did this because there is no way to anticipate when the VA will actually finish a claim with a correct rating (I had to NOD many of mine due to VA errors). In addition, I wanted the earliest possible effective dates. I could not see myself waiting for one claim to finish before opening a new one.
Of course, this is just me, my opinion, and what happened in my case.
You could always do an intent to file for your three additional claims to preserve your effective date, but don't forget to act on them before the time limit runs out.
Thanks for clarifying. And it wouldn't be the only thing that a VSO believes is true, but isn't...sadly, I ended up helping a local DAV rep with getting their own personal claim moving; the rep had been "helping" other veterans with their claims for year, yet didn't even know how to "unstuck" their own claim. Yikes!
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I don't know how the ANG works, but I was on active-duty & this is how it went for me.
When I was out-processing the active-duty, they sent me in for the outprocessing medical exam. The doctor asked me if there was any medical/mental problems that began while I was in the military. So, I mentioned to him a bunch of different things. The military rated me at 0% service-connected for those disabilities (by the way, even 0% is a good rating as long as it carries "service connection" next to it, since this tells the VA that it was already decided that you got this issue from your time in the military).
Anyhow, I never sought treatment for any of those disabilities until 9 years later when the issues started to give me problems. So, I went to the VA & I filed an increase for the problems. Within 3 months, I had an increase for 1 disability. So, I put in for an increase for another of the disabilities & got an increase within another 3 months. It was really simple as long as you tell a doctor about your problems before your last day in the military...actually, I believe you have a full-year AFTER you get out to tell a doctor & they will still consider your disability to be "service-connected".
Don't fret about the treatment or the fact that you were scared of retaliation. Focus more on getting diagnosed first for all your problems. This is just my advice, but I would get a military psychiatrist (MD) to officially diagnose me with all the issues since this will help you out tremendously when you get to the VA...and at the VA, all you will have to do is file for an increase which is much easier than trying to prove the "service-connnection"
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For the record, I never emailed a VSO & I've won 3 claims easily just by reading through Hadit.
I only have 2 reasons for going to the DAV to begin with:
1) They have access to the claims decision information before Peggy.
2) The chick at the DAV has some nice breasts to look at.
....really what's the big deal if the VSO's work with the VA, Devil, KGB or whoever?
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On 8/15/2016 at 3:35 AM, nlualum82 said:
I once met a rep who believed that 20% was fair for ANY hearing loss, so the people who trusted him were getting a 20% rating because that's what he requested in the paperwork he submitted.
The rater is the person that decides the rating based on the VA regulations. It's not based on a rep's belief.
Also, I believe I read from moderators on this forum that VA hearing loss is difficult to get unless you are almost deaf.
I'm mentioning this because it sounds like you are saying something contrary.
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On 8/15/2016 at 4:50 PM, Vync said:
And then there are VSO's who helped veterans file their claims. The veteran comes back later with another issue and is told not to file anything else because it "might slow down" their pending claims.
Wait. I remember someone on here said that if you file 2 claims at once, then it slows it down because your file gets pulled off of 1 rater's desk & then has to go to another rater's desk & they end up playing tug-of-war with your claim.
Can someone verify which is the correct situation, since I have 3 more claims that I want to put in but I thought that it's better to wait.
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I think the quickness of the claims processing has more to do with the VA locations than actual workload.
I've had 2 new claims & 1 "increase" claim. They all took the same amount of time, which is a little under 3 months.
BTW, my claims were done in Florida. Maybe the backlog isn't as bad. Although my last 2 C&P's were done on Saturdays.
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On 9/1/2016 at 0:45 PM, Paula H said:
I had my C & P last month. I asked the Docs office if I could have a copy of his report and they said they can't do it. So I asked my VSO is there was an easier (faster) way of getting it from the VA and he said "The exam is part of your VA files. You must request it in writing (as an FOIA request). Unfortunately, it's not a quick turn-around.
There has got to be a fast way. Any suggestions???
Thanks
I had a C&P on a Saturday & by Monday it was already in my medical records on myhealthvet.
BTW, when your rating decision is made, the DAV (and possibly others) can actually access the info before Peggy.
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On 8/27/2016 at 5:48 PM, inthesouthoftexas said:
....and pulling my internet search history dating back to when I was in the military....The ex-wife has said they took pictures of me coming out of a liquor store and that they showed her said pictures, read a college paper I had saved to Google Docs, commented to her on pictures I had saved in Google photos and more; this doesn't sound like an investigator would be reporting those kind of things to a witness/ex.
My question is should I be worried at all about an investigation with my activities, is there a law or regulation saying what I can and can't do with my back disability and is this the way a VA OIG investigation is conducted?
You can't simply "pull internet search history".
And I'm sure they shared with her information about an ongoing Federal investigation.
Sorry to point this out, but you married the her & continue to talk to this nutjob after your divorce, so its kind of making me questioning if you're alright too.
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On 9/10/2016 at 4:06 AM, kent101 said:
I sent the PTSD letter back saying I have gotten somewhat better and didn't want to pursue it at the time. In 2016 I was talking to a VA therapist and she convinced me to reopen my PTSD claim. I did all the necessary paperwork for the PTSD claim and sent it in. Did I mess up my chances at getting a rating for PTSD?\
Relax. A licensed therapist is telling you to pursue a claim for mental health & you are stating that you "have gotten somewhat better". That sentence alone shows that you are suffering delusions & don't even know it.
You need to do 2 things:
1) Google "psychosis" & "delusions". Look up examples of them (you might want to look into specific topics such as Grandiose Delusions) & you'll probably notice that you display a lot of those things in your life. If you have PTSD, then trust me, you'll find that you fit into certain examples completely.
2) Tell your VA psychiatrist or therapist (not just the VET Center therapist) that you now understand that you were being delusional when you said that. Be completely honest with them. And tell them any other episodes in the past 6 months were you made decisions such as that & later regretted it (they need to see that you are consistently suffering from it). They will know how to handle everything & they should write down the situation in your medical records (for instance: "veteran realizes that he has been in denial of the severity of his mental condition & expresses concerns that he is suffering from delusions/psychosis")....as long as you are being truthful & as long as they write it down in your notes, then nobody is going to hold it against you for displaying symptoms of psychosis.
If your claim is already being processed, then you might need a way to get this information to them. However, its better to have it in your medical records in case you want to appeal or increase later on.
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I just wanted to thank everyone on the forum. With the help of this forum & another one, I was able to get a service-connection & rating for a 3rd disability.
I thought that I was going to have a problem with this last disability, however, it actually ended up being just as smooth & fast as the other ones!
To encourage others, I want to point out that I received the MAXIMUM rating for all 3 disabilities (10% each) & that each one took less than 3 months from applying to getting my decision.
.....now that I have courage/confidence & a great deal of knowledge/understanding of VA disability, I'm going to tackle my mental-health claim.
Thanks Again!
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Good news, as of yesterday I have been awarded what I wanted for my claim!
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Moderator, please delete. The issue turned out to have fixed itself.
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On 8/21/2016 at 9:37 AM, Buck52 said:
I never understood this.
When a veteran is denied and the obvious is they never read his/her evidence that they submitted and was denied now the veteran NOD's but can't use the evidence they already submitted b/c on NOD THEY require New & Material Evidence now how stupid is that BS.
Anyone care to comment?
Is there actually a regulation that says the NOD requires "NEW" evidence? Or is it just something the VA made up to make veterans give up early?
Either way, was the OP actually diagnosed with PTSD by a MD? I didn't see him say that he was.
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My first 2 C&P examiners were very kind & polite & was very happy with the accuracy of my records from them.
There are a lot of VA employees that are vets or have family that served.
By the way, there were a few times that I've run into grumpy VA workers & then came to find out that they are also Vets with mental issues such as mine.
...but the VA still has more a-holes per capita than any other hospital I've been to.
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By the way, in case anyone needs to know what the form looks like:
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14 hours ago, broncovet said:
Instead, submit new evidence if you have it, or try to get your records fixed:
1.579 Amendment of records.(a) Any individual may request amendment of any Department of Veterans Affairs record pertaining to him or her.
Ok, thanks. Simple enough.
By the way, the claim is in "preparation for decision" (the C&P was 5 days ago), so should I submit it through Ebenefits (where it allows me to upload documents for the claim) OR should I mail it certified-mail to the RO?
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1 minute ago, THOMAS89031 said:
King156...My opinion is to submit your NOD after they send you the decision. Reason being, they will list reason(s) why
/how they reached that decision. Then you can refute what is missing or incorrect. Also, you might want to do some research on the DR. who did the C&P to see if he is qualified to opine on your condition? (Kinda like to make sure he's not a dentist giving an opinion on a heart condition) Who knows, they might surprise you with a more favorable rating than what you were expecting... Thomas
Thanks, I knew that sometimes it's better to file a NOD after the decision since they will list the reasons.
Really, my biggest concern was to get the service connection. But it would be nice to get a rating higher than 0% the first time around.
Either way, I freaked during my panic-attack & just emailed my primary care doctor...and the patient advocate...and QTC quality assurance....and the V.A. IRIS.....and filled out a NOD...and printed up a 21-4138...and started to email the nurse......I tend to freak out big during my panic attacks, if you can't tell.
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Sorry, I'm having a panic attack & it's greatly affecting my ability to hunt around on the search engine.
I've been on here & it's greatly helped me file 3 disabilities (2 of which went through in a few months & had great results)
However, I just got my C&P results from my exam last week & it appears the doctor put down that my disability does NOT affect my work. But my disability DOES affect my work & he never asked me that.
My ebenefits says "Preperation for Decision"...is there a way that I can fill out a NOD or the Statement In Support of Claim AND upload it electronically into EBenfits?
I'm reading conflicting advice on different forums & during my panic attacks I have limited ability to read through complex things & try to reason.
Thanks
Overpayment Letter...WTF?
in Appealing Your Veterans Compensation Disability Claims NOD, DRO, BVA, USCAVC
Posted
Just an update:
I went to the DAV this morning & they looked up my file electronically. However, they could NOT find anything in my file relating to the alleged debt.
However, they confirmed that the VA has already garnished my wages before they even sent out the letter, lol.
They gave me some contact information (which I already knew about from reading posts on here) to resolve this. I'll keep an update on here for anyone that might possibly be going through this in the future.