Lemuel

@Vync The 4,000 page RBA was missing about 6,000 pages at the time.  Maybe more.  I received a stack of two sided documents that was more than 6 ft tall when stacked in one stack by 2 boxes with more than 18 inch stacks, 4 stacks, each box having 2 stacks.  Definitely more than 10,000 pages before the up and down in remands with VA employees each copying a bunch of documents, I presume the 1336 pages they have decided was the file at some point to back up their decisions.
You have to file a notice of appeal within 120 days of a BVA Decision.  It has to be based upon law or "arbitrary and capricious" decisions.  (high bar).  If you are getting no help from your rep, write your on brief and motions referencing specifics so that you can meet that "arbitrary and capricious" high bar.  If your rep only stood by on your last hearing, apply for a 38 CFR 20.1000 vacation of the decision based upon failed representation because the rep did not prepare a brief.  If he did prepare a brief and it can be proven inadequate by documents in your file, you should still be able to get the decision vacated and redecided by my reading.  We rely on reps.  They decide what to present.  If they are clearly wrong, then we should be able to get representation to correct the problem.
That is what I am hoping CCK will do for me.
The most you can hope for from the Courts of Appeal is a remand for a re-do with their instructions.  
Your experience with a hearing is the same as mine except the American Legion rep at my 1990 admitted in the hearing as being unprepared because he was not given the file until an hour before the hearing in DC.  At that time a panel of 9 if you ask for a hearing in DC.  Also had a panel of 9 in 1986 at the LA VARO.
You will have to petition the BVA to vacate the previous old decision based upon your rep being no help before you can go to the CAVC.  You could submit a Legacy Appeal covering all of that and ask for a Director, Compensation Service review for "extra-schedular" ratings based upon the actual difficulties you are experiencing compared to the rating given and the rating schedule.  The RO says, for example, you only demonstrate a 30% schedular rating from the C&P examination, but your experience, especially work experience demonstrated a higher disability rating.  Focus on your "chosen field" of employment and try to get current or former employer's statements stating what accommodations they made to employ you and how much the put up with because you were a veteran.
Happy to help whenever I can.  I have a medical background in organic brain issues and spinal issues.

Pacman when were your missing medical records newly found?  I suspect that is the hold up on a lot of us.  Particularly those of us that could prove by our C files that there were missing medical records either destroyed or misfiled that were not in our files.  Remands from the CAVC are supposed to go on top.  Mine definitely has not.
If you received your medical records within the last 10 years, then they are wading into that 5 plus mile high pile of unscanned files the VA OIG found a few years ago.  That will enable us to replace missing records and move on with our cases.  
My case went to the BVA, was seen by a Judge who ignored my offer, during COVID for my brief and motions to be considered and an answering of questions by email since my computer checked out as useable for an in-home hearing but the clerk's computer would not communicate with mine through the BVA system.  I would have been able to communicate with the Judge but the clerk would not have been able to listen in and feed questions.  
I think the clerk engineered slamming me into AMA from legacy to get out of the work of getting those files or briefing the Judge about my claims of the files having been lost or not given to the BVA.
The Clerk was working with a file that was only 1300 pages while the RBA that went to the CAVC on appeal was over 12,000 pages.  And even then the pages I listed as missing were not included.  The length of the file is because of ROs copying the entire file and adding it to their decisions so they could claim the reviewed it instead of just copying the previous decision.
Because my case is on remand from the CAVC the clerk will have to not embarrass the Judge again.  It means a more careful look through my brief and motions which will take time and will include an effort to obtain those missing medical records that are not in the C-file form the H-file including the unscanned hard copy records to complete the file.
My 10182 was filed on 1/31/2021.  The "AMA BVA decision was on 11/29/2022.  Appealed immediately to the CAVC and remanded on 10/26/2023.  My case moved faster to decision because of my age and application to be expedited because of age.  I do not remember the age for that request but i think it is 70.  I am 83 now.
 

@Vync  CAVC and all the courts are trying to speed thing up.  If you have an attorney, the rules allow the clerk to remand on a joint motion.  My attorney allowed a caveat that should not have been allowed.
CCK has my BVA claim.  I brought up issues for reopening claims because of failure of the RO to follow the remand orders.  I also brought up 38 CFR 20.1000 reopening of claims and BVA decisions based upon the errors made in processing the claims.  Such things are supposed to be forwarded to the Director, Compensation Services by the RO and DRO.  I have ask the BVA to send my file to the Director, Compensation Services for a full review especially of my TBI, partial and complex partial seizure confirmation, and several other things in separate motions to the BVA.   
Result was a slam from Legacy Appeal to AMA and ignoring of the brief and motions with a lot of specific file pages and line references.  Apparently the clerk did not want to deal with the full C file.  She had only 1,336 pages of over 12,000 pages that were sent to her by VARO.  That alone is enough to get a remand for an incomplete RBA before the BVA.
The CAVC also received an abbreviated RBA the first time.  A little over 4,000 pages with critical items missing.  
By briefing and using motions I am hoping that the BVA will have to address specific pages and lines in the "finding of facts" and not just quote the VARO rating decision and its nonspecific quotes of the copied pages of the file submitted with generalized findings without specific references.
We will see what CCK is able to do anything with my previous filings.  There is a lot of delay with the remand.  Remands are supposed to be handled faster than original 10182 forms.  The remand from the CAVC was on 10/26/2023.  The BVA Docket No. will remain the same.  But no Legacy hearing has been set up yet which seems odd to me.  I had a hearing date much sooner on the 10182 and then had it cancelled by the BVA clerk because I could not communicate with her via the video link on her home computer.  There was no problem with my set up per the test before and after her attempt to verify my connection from her home with the BVA IT guy on a test.  That is what resulted in the AMA and I suspect it was engineered by the BVA clerk who did not want to do the work required on the case.
 
 

The examiners, whether VA or one of the private contractors, are strictly limited by the RO and DRO.  The VA employees doing the ordering do not look at the remand when ordering the examination.  They copy the previous order which strictly limits the examination scope.  
In examining my wrist, the order limits the examination to the articulation of the fingers though the thumb is primarily the digit that has limitations of movement from a 1969 surgery.  That has been the case since the first examination ordered in 1984.
I am back at the BVA on this one issue as well as others for the fourth time.  Not only are the examination orders copied without looking at the BVA remand, but the RO and DRO decisions are copied from the previous decision and a current copy of the C file is added behind the decision.  The decision rarely makes any references to specific file documents and is easily appealed because of missed specific reports that are counter to the decision.
VA OIG reported 10.8 million in bonuses paid to VA supervisors.  The bonuses must be tied to cutting benefits costs because that is what is happening.  Cheyenne VA is again cutting services.  Appointments are for over 3 months when requested.  Seeing a C&P for a 6 month checkup has been changed to 1 year checkup.
I am editing the above post I made because I did not mention that the CAVC Clerk is who ordered the remand.  Therefore, the decision is not finale and not appealable. It was not made by a Judge so the remand itself may become appealable on that basis because of a "limitation" put in the remand. Stuck in the loop.  Hope CCK can break it.

My last appeal from the BVA was handled by Pro Bono vets.  An attorney group that your filed appeal goes to.  There are pro se (personal appeal forms) on the CAVC website.  Easy enough to file.  But your claim must be about the law, not the facts.  Whether or not the law was followed.  Anything to get a new BVA judge to look at the facts.
When you go to the BVA you must point out to the BVA judge, in a hearing or by brief before the hearing, all of the facts of record the rating officer ignored in deciding your case.  FACTS ARE DECIDED AT THE BVA.  The BVA is the sole decider of facts.
There are now two cases where the presumption of accuracy of VA medical records have been overturned.  Still you have an uphill battle to get a BVA judge to find a fact against your C&P examinations.  
CUE is extremely difficult.  Not impossible.  Usually depends on records like inpatient records that were not in the file for your claim showing an error in the summary of you hospitalization record.  Appears to me to be the most frequent.
The CAVC will remand easily in conference between an attorney for you and an attorney for the VA GC.  Very difficult if you cannot get an attorney to take your case.  And no attorney will take your case if you are just arguing the "facts" and not the law applied to the facts because it goes nowhere at the CAVC.  

Qualified to purchase.  Every time i have gotten an increase, I get the letter that I am qualified for life insurance.  When I follow up, I get a quote.  And it is not cheap.

Only my first name and SSN and C number were redacted.  Finally, I got some items that were in my file that were prejudiced against me redacted.  Like someone's NJP that was from a base in Greece that I had never been to and a note from  a C&P examination that was obviously about someone else and their last 4.
My C&P file suffered redactions by the total removal of needed seizure clinic and back clinic files and some letters by me to the VA.  The only redactions I saw were errors.  And anything redacted that you want to know why you can request a review of the redaction and an explanation which I believe will be some error of some kind.  If the redaction that is reported as favorable to you, but you believe it is unfavorable, you can ask the BVA to review it if you have a claim before the BVA.

There is a problem with pain level reporting.  I first define my pain level.  And how long I can go with it without committing suicide for relief.  I have to explain that depression is used to suppress the pain level which means my face does not show it the way the addicts fake it to work them for meds.  5 continuous for weeks is enough to drive you over the edge from there it only shortens the time before you are looking for that finale exit.
Fortunately for me, Keppra, my seizure medication enhances my pain medication as well as reducing pain.  I have not had a level 5 since I began taking more than twice.  The longest lasting once was when I fell and fractured my knee cap.  It took a day before I started feeling the fracture pain and because it was a broken bone, I got more than I needed.  I will have to throw the left over away in another year or so.
As the suicide rate rises again, there will be a new look at whether it is better to occasionally give an addict his fix rather than miss someone who really need the pain med.  Yes the problem with back pain is that the source is not always seen on radiographic reports.
I have MRI reports two weeks apart on my neck.  The one done by a resident in training and signed off by his supervisor showed a lot of stenosis as the source of my pain.  The other, read by a VA contractor showed no stenosis on an MRI of the neck by a different VA only a week later because the neurosurgeon wanted his on MRI to look at and the earlier one was not in the record yet.  The problem with the readings may only be how much the two different sources pay for their software.  The better the software the more you can see.
In Japan the software is Nationalized.  The research is done at state Universities.  And every level of physician has the best software.  Not so here in the land of the big Px.  Most clinics cannot afford the best and the only time you get the best reading is if you go to a VA that works in association with a land grant university medical school.

Veterans often get outside medical treatment and evaluations for "independent medical opinions."  (IMO)  And should do as you have done, because VA examiners, even the contract ones, go through training to do more than weed out false claims.  They have to strictly follow examination orders and cannot go anywhere the examination leads them contrary to 38 CFR Chapter 4.  
For example:  My thumb/wrist joint has been excluded from my wrist claim for years.  Still do not have an evaluation on the ankylosis of that joint.  Only the flexion of the wrist as a whole because I claimed a "wrist problem".  Same goes for a "hearing problem".  Any examination of the wrist is supposed to be of the wrist as a whole.  Any examination of a hearing problem should automatically include decibel loss and tinnitus.  You should not have to claim each joint separately, especially if multiple joints are involved.  You should not have to assess and define the audiology of your hearing loss. You are not a doctor and should not have to self-diagnose.
Those are the examiners problems that they have been trained to assess and should not be limited in assessment, according to 38 CFR, but somewhere in the VABA C&P process there is authority to limit examinations paid for by the VABA.
I do not know if CCK will get me EEDs that I made motions for in the BVA decision that was remanded by the CAVC.  Too few specifics in the joint motion for remand.  Not clear if the remand was for a "legacy hearing" or for AMA.  I was angry at the pro bono VA attorney who did not get specifics in the remand and in fact allowed the VA GC to get a vague limitation in the remand.

I almost forgot.  Get a tape measure, and measure your bathroom door width, as well as the width of your bedroom door, front door, etc.  "If" you need the chair to go to the bathroom, and only you can answer that, then the chair needs to fit through those doors, so, if your door is 30 inches wide, for example, then you can tell them you need a chair that will clear 30 inches.  The width of the chair can be super super important, depending upon the width of the doors in your home.  Of course, I dont know how wide the doors are in your home, but some have "standard" width 32, or 36 inches, while, especially older homes can have almost any width door.  Measure the door opening with the door wide open, as some doors simply wont open all the way for various reasons.  The "size of the opening" is important, not necessesarily the size of the door.  This is especailly true with bedroom and bathoom doors where the door wont open all the way.  
Its possible you need modifications to your home to accomodate a power chair.  And, this may be a good time to think about those, also.  
You could (or should) call a local reputable contractor and ask them for a quote assessment to see if your home would work for a power chair, if in doubt.  There should not be a charge for an inspection to see if the doors, hallways, bathrooms, etc need modifications.  And, if so, how much those would cost.  
If you dont have "grab bars" to keep from falling, in/near the shower, those should likely be installed BEFORE you fall and break something, rather than after.  You probably know if you have stairs/wheel chair ramps.  
Popular with seniors is the "walk in" shower tubs.  People sometimes get injured stepping over a bathtub/shower.  A walk in shower tub is a much lower step so you are less likely to lose your balance.  And, of course, you can sit down in the shower.  
Your local "medmart" type of store may be able to help you with some of these things.  
Consider asking for "meals on Wheels" if you are not able to cook healthy meals, and/or you dont have someone to cook for you.  Your health will go down fast if you eat poorly.  
I think you may have mentioned you get A and A, if I recall.  Hire the help you need.  You may be able to get some help through community (senior)  services, not necessarily just VA.  
My wife got a total knee replacement on Jan. 10, and I asked for, and got meals on wheels for 90 days.  We get them for both of us.  (She's 73, Im 72 this year.).  I really did not want to cook 21 meals per week.  We got the meals on wheels by asking her social worker at the hospital where she got the surgery, when she got discharged from the hospital.  (Its the community, not VA).  Take any advice that helps, disregard that which does not apply to you.  I wont be offended either way.  
Our church is wonderful, and people their bring us meals while Rhonda was "down" with surgery and I was also down with a bad cold.  We have many friends there, and have helped others, and they are more than willing and cheerfully they help us when we need it as well.  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Lemeul:  While it is possible that VA insists on a single company VA wide, that would raise some big red flags with competitors and they would likely complain to their congressmen.  I cringe whenever I hear "I was told".  
You were told that by who?  Were they authorized to tell you that, such as the VASEC's office?   While Possible,  Probably not.  More likely the person who said that may have some incentive to lead people to a certain VA provider.  VA, for example, has many different kinds of VAns to transport Veterans:  Chevy, Ford, Toyota, Dodge, ETC.  The VA does not have an "official Veteran transport VAn" of any particular make.  The other companies would scream bloody murder.  I would not blame them.   The US government purchases many government vehicles each year, and buys many brands, virtually never limiting it to a single brand.  
As a sales person of supplies sold to companies, I once called on the VA hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado.  I was offered for my company to Bid, the bids were so low, they were below my company's costs.  
However, Between Denver, where most products come from, and Grand Junction is the continental divide, a huge mountain often closed with snow or even avalanches in some places.  I knew that.  
So, I got business from VA by simply telling them, "if your supplier cant make it across the mountain, call us, we are local and we can supply you the same day".  The comepetitors cant do that because we were in the same town, and they were hundreds or thousands of miles away.    Even tho we were not price competitive, we got orders every time the roads closed and VA was out of supplies.  They were appreciative, as patients, and employees, were not happy, for example, when there was no toilet paper in the hospital because of a road closure, which happened sometimes 2 or 3 or more times per year in most years.  They had the flexibility to buy from pretty much who ever had it when they needed it.   My boss was stunned and amazed I got business from VA, tho not every week, but over a years time, they ordered a lot from us.  
All of the sales people told me, "Dont bother calling on VA.  You never get anywhere with them.  You will get in a bidding war which will go nowhere".   I did not listen to the naysayers, and my boss was thrilled.  

I think the fights are worth it.  You do not want a big fight with a lot of issues like mine.  Take them one at a time as they come up and try to get them handled properly even if you have to give some back pay to a NOVA attorney or firm.
I have a lot of issues now and not sure how many CCK will want to bring up.  Too many at one time makes it harder to get justice on any one issue unless you are trying to get SMC and they all count to that.  Still seems it would have been easier to get SMC if all issues were resolved and no requests for additional ratings were needed.

In my appeal before the BVA, I raised the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, "taking of property without compensation," issue.  CCK has that to raise now if they see fit.
My argument is that all back pay should be paid at current rates.  You should be able to buy the same amount with the money in your shopping card as you would have then.  For example (not exact figures):  If a loaf of bread cost X$ in 1985, then the difference should have been calculated in current $ so that I could by the same X number of loaves of bread on the date the increase was made as the unpaid back date.  If a loaf of bread cost $1.00 in 1985 and in 2017 in cost $5.00 then I should be paid the $4.00 difference x how many dollar difference there is between the 1985 rate and the 2017 rate when I finally received the back pay to buy those loaves of bread.
That is clear as mud, but I think the smart people at CCK will get my drift.  Whether they will bring up a "Constitutional Question" that would result in a lot of "back pay" correction for a lot of living veterans and their substitutes, is the question.
Paid at the current rate in 2020, my back pay would have been over $200,000.00 more.  If I had been paid from 1985 the full 100% I would have been able to buy a house, in 1985, that would have been worth the over $200,000.00 more, in the Los Angeles area where I was living in poverty, in 2020.

When I got my EED for TDIU back to September of 1985 in 2020, I was paid the difference between the 100% in the year paid and the rating in the year I had already been paid.  I went from 40% in 1985 to 50% in 1989 to 70% in 2009. I was paid the differences to my 70% award in 2009 in my April 2020 EED award by the Director, Compensation Services.  From 2009 to 2017 I was paid the difference between 70% and 100% awarded by the BVA on the "presumptive" rating.  
I will attach my analysis of the 2020 award.  It was off under $5.00 short so I did not quibble.
I think you can see how it is done with an EED.
20200708 TDIU payment calculation by Lem abrigded.pdf

Often radiologist reports are incomplete and incorrect.  I have Xray results that say WNL when they mean, no change.  Very misleading.  MRI report does not report the "left lateral blowout of the spinal disc) only the disc on the sciatic neural foramina.  The directions of the blowout connects to the T-bone MVA.  So BVA judge had to rely on my medical background to remand the decision to AOJ.  Still the AOJ ignored the remand for the lower back.  Accepted the remand for the cervical neck and granted SC.  Lower back is secondarily connected through the T-bone MVA caused by an absence seizure confirmed in the record.  But because a physician put notes on another patient in my file that dated his injury earlier than my T-bone MVA, I still have not been granted SC for lumbar spinal disc disease.
The films are important.  Even a laymen can understand the pressure on the disc causing a directional blowout like popping edamame.

You are right.  I try to be an independent, but I strayed to one side in that post.  Thanks for binging some balance.  The issues are what is important.  Not the party or the person.  Hope I can do better next time and not hit one party.

Need an MRI of the neck also.  May have damaged the cervical discs or vertebra in that first injury.  I had cervical spine SC in 2020, 51 years after the injury that caused an undiagnosed disc herniation.  I had a slight loss of sensation on the left forearm that caused me to not be able to feel mosquito bites on that part of my arm until 2003.  That change was enough to get the 20% for cervical disc disease.  Going to ask for more because stenosis in the neural foramen is causing motion limitations causing difficulty getting dressed.  Will ask CCK to submit the claim so it can be decided by the BVA during appeal.
Put in the claim.  The examinations should be done from that.  If they are incomplete complain at the BVA and they should send them back to be done right.  If the BVA judge does not, appeal to the CAVC.  A pro-bono attorney should be able to get it back to the BVA for the right orders for examination.

Has everyone with a reason for an expedited appeal applied for advancement on the docket?
My 01/31/2021 Appeal to the BVA was denied on 11/29/2022.  Appealed to the CAVC and remanded back to the BVA on 10/26/2023.  I am 82 years old and meet the criteria for advancement on the docket.  I did not wait for 3 years for the BVA denial.  Only almost 2 years.  
Those of us with reasons to advance apparently only get about a year faster.  And push everyone else into further delay.  Probably would not have requested the advancement if I had considered others and was not worrying about losing my mental capacity before getting heard with my wife still alive and needing results.
Just for me, I could drop it now.

Agree with Dustoff

You always file on everything.  And remember to include, "residuals of" before each item.  May be 0% now, but you never can tell the future.  Much easier to get it raised than to get the service connection in the first place.

I believe, records in military archives but not actually in the VA file at the time are also considered to be "of record".  Example:  IPTR of injuries that include a head injury because of unconsciousness noted in the IPTR but not in the NARRATIVE SUMMARY which is the only item from the hospital inpatient records that was in the old hard copy files.  My case, complex partial seizures noted by description in the Nursing Notes in the IPTR but not in the NARRATIVE SUMMARY.  I was unaware of the notes also until 1989 when I spotted them in the IPTR.  I had filed an extra-schedular claim for TDIU when my combined rating was only 40% but a C&P physician recorded I would not be able to hold a job "because of his spells."  In April of 2020 I was granted TDIU back to September of 1985, my last full time job, based upon that unprocessed 1987 extra-schedular claim and not having worked at all, even parttime since 1990.  There was a CUE in it because the BVA failed to take into consideration page 2 of my parttime employer's statement.  It would have qualified as a CUE because the 21-4138 2 sided form was in the file.  Just obviously not read by the BVA judge writing the decision as well as the unprocessed extra-schedular 1987 claim. 
By 2020 there was also the CAVES Social Security record in the file.  I was granted SSDI after a very exhaustive investigation effective September of 1990 in 1996.  The VA claims process is not the only slow process.
Now, I believe, that is not a problem because all of the digital data records are moved to the VA benefits file including the IPTR of any military hospitalizations.
I am currently in a CUE claim that involves a nexus for seizures in the IPTR that was not recorded in the NARRATIVE SUMMARY.  A BVA decision on an RO decision that did not have the IPTR but the IPTR may have been in the file by the time of the BVA Decision.  But the IPTR was not in the BVA benefits file in 1974 and would have caused a more thorough injury residuals examination had it been there.  When I finally get this issue heard, I will post it quoting all of my posts which ever thread they are in.

I believe, records in military archives but not actually in the VA file at the time are also considered to be "of record".  Example:  IPTR of injuries that include a head injury because of unconsciousness noted in the IPTR but not in the NARRATIVE SUMMARY which is the only item from the hospital inpatient records that was in the old hard copy files.  My case, complex partial seizures noted by description in the Nursing Notes in the IPTR but not in the NARRATIVE SUMMARY.  I was unaware of the notes also until 1989 when I spotted them in the IPTR.  I had filed an extra-schedular claim for TDIU when my combined rating was only 40% but a C&P physician recorded I would not be able to hold a job "because of his spells."  In April of 2020 I was granted TDIU back to September of 1985, my last full time job, based upon that unprocessed 1987 extra-schedular claim and not having worked at all, even parttime since 1990.  There was a CUE in it because the BVA failed to take into consideration page 2 of my parttime employer's statement.  It would have qualified as a CUE because the 21-4138 2 sided form was in the file.  Just obviously not read by the BVA judge writing the decision as well as the unprocessed extra-schedular 1987 claim. 
By 2020 there was also the CAVES Social Security record in the file.  I was granted SSDI after a very exhaustive investigation effective September of 1990 in 1996.  The VA claims process is not the only slow process.
Now, I believe, that is not a problem because all of the digital data records are moved to the VA benefits file including the IPTR of any military hospitalizations.
I am currently in a CUE claim that involves a nexus for seizures in the IPTR that was not recorded in the NARRATIVE SUMMARY.  A BVA decision on an RO decision that did not have the IPTR but the IPTR may have been in the file by the time of the BVA Decision.  But the IPTR was not in the BVA benefits file in 1974 and would have caused a more thorough injury residuals examination had it been there.  When I finally get this issue heard, I will post it quoting all of my posts which ever thread they are in.

Thanks for your input.
Expect to have to do that if a Judge does not redo the Clerk's Order and Mandate on my motion to reconsider (and vacate the clerk's order).  One the Clerk does not have the authority to do the order unless it is accepted by the Appellant.  So no signature on my part other than the email included in the motion, it takes creative reading to believe that I accepted the JMPR and Order as written.  Also the JMPR lists citations in the BASES FOR REMAND.  The bases for remand calls for a full vacatur but the preceding part only lists two issues which are copied in the "boiler plate" (according to the attorneys) clerk's order.  I cannot be certain the order and mandate will not be binding, because the JMPR only ask for two issues to be remanded instead of a full vacatur.
Which is the original problem with the BVA AMA Decision.  It takes creative reading to of my motion to do the hearing by email and my pleadings  with responses to the Judges questions about my pleadings as an agreement to drop my pleading and let the Judge decide based on the evidence of record at the time of my appeal and my NOA.

Same.  So where is the decrease?  If medical, dental, groceries, etc. are going up and our COLA is eaten up by things we have no choice but to pay just for sheltering, something must be going down that is in the COLA calculation or we are being scammed.
 

Just the utilities have gone up more than any COLA until last year and that still barely exceeded the increase in utilities.  Did not touch the increase in groceries.