pacmanx1

Once the BVA grants service connection it can be returned to the regional office or the DROC-DC or even the intake center. You should get your notification letter from the BVA in a few weeks to a few months and you should get your official notification letter rating your disabilities and effective dates and any retroactive pay due. Pay close attention to both of these in each disability. If you disagree with anything you are going to have to file a new appeal.

IMHO, you can fill out the form yourself and send it into the VA. Make sure that you note on the form that the company or agency went out of business. You can use block 14A and block 22. This way the VA won't take forever to begin to process your claim. Not sure how long the VA will wait but by having this form submitted, it should tell the VA that there is no need to wait because the business no longer exists. There is no need to sign and date the form, just make sure you keep copies of it or them. This is what I did, and the VA awarded me two separate retroactive effective dates. I filled the form out as going to the company and then going to the VA.

I think I was clear, when the regional office denies a veteran’s service connection and the veteran appeals to the BVA. It is very normal for the BVA to only address the issue of service connection. After granting service connection the BVA will then remand the appeal back to the regional office for them to assign it a rating percentage and an effective date. If the veteran disagrees with either the rating percentage and or the assigned effective date, then the veteran would have to file a new appeal back to the BVA. It is what some of us call the hamster wheel, back and forth from the regional office to the BVA and sometimes the CAVC get caught up in this cycle if the BVA denies a veteran’s claim/appeal and the CAVC would/could approve a remand to the BVA and from the BVA to the regional office.

Depending on your 90% rating breakdown, you could be 93% or 94% and the VA rounds down to a combined 90% but the additional 30% from 30% to 60% could possibly get you a 100% combined rating. All you would need is that your rating hit 95% and the VA would round up to 100% schedular.

Due to the fact that the veteran is having multiple symptoms within this category, The VA could actually rate him higher with a 60% rating. This of course does not mean they will. These are the criteria for each rating: GERD. 60 percent – the veteran experiences “pain, vomiting, material weight loss and hematemesis or melena with moderate anemia; or other symptom combinations productive of severe impairment of health.” 30 percent – the veteran experiences “persistently recurrent epigastric distress with dysphagia, pyrosis, and regurgitation, accompanied by substernal or arm and shoulder pain, productive of considerable impairment of heath.” 10 percent – the veteran has two or more symptoms of the 30 percent rating, but less severe. 4.7 Higher of two evaluations. Where there is a question as to which of two evaluations shall be applied, the higher evaluation will be assigned if the disability picture more nearly approximates the criteria required for that rating. Otherwise, the lower rating will be assigned.

Since you are already rated 100% P & T and working, you can only get retroactive pay (money). This is if your effective date is before your current 100% P & T rating. The problem is even though the BVA granted your appeal, they remanded it to the regional office, and the regional office has to rate your percentage and assign an effective date. The regional office could assign you a 0% rating in which there would be no retroactive payment (money) and you win but you lose with no money coming your way. It could also be that with your new ratings the regional office could assign you an even earlier effective date, if your new rating boils down to you being awarded an earlier combined 100% rating. The VA did this to me and I had to file a new appeal. I was granted a 50% rating after my 100% P & T rating which amounted to absolutely no money in retroactive pay. When I filed my appeal, the BVA granted me an unadjudicated award going back to my original date of claim and I won my earlier effective dates.

The only thing I can say is when I was going through Voc Rehab. The lady there told me to apply for PELL GRANT and any loans I felt that I needed. This was before I was rated 100% P & T. She told me that when/if funds are available or came available after all loans were paid out. They look for potential students that they could help and grant their loans. As to CH 35 I think I read here that a former member used CH 35 twice, once while her husband was alive and later after she was granted DIC and CH 35.

I know this is not what you want to hear but Memos are for internal use and more for VA personnel than to the veteran.

I would not put anything past the VA, the thing to keep in mind is if you get a decision that you disagree with you either have to file an appeal or try to file a new claim. I have seen and warned veterans to be very careful not to file claims for secondary conditions if there was no service-connected rating or not meeting the rating criteria. Example: Veteran has ratings of 30% + 10% + 10% and file for a new claim and TDIU. The problem is the veteran does not meet the criteria and if the VA denies the new claim, they can also deny the TDIU claim.

I may be wrong or off, and I am quite sure some others will correct me, but I think you are correct.

Who can truly answer for someone else? The simplest answer, because they have the authority to do just about what they want. I am not trying to be a smart ass. There is no rhyme or reason why the VA does what they do. You could have an incomplete medical exam, or the medical rationale may not be clear enough for VA rating purpose.

If my memory is correct, I believe they call these sheets legacy sheets or legacy pages. Even though these sheets are part of each and every rating decision, the VA rarely send them out with their decision, but they are in the veteran's records.

Typically, when the Board makes a decision, they remand it to the VARO to implement their decision.

Not only do you not qualify at the present time, filing any claim this late when you are already pending a decision would most like delay your decision.

SMC payments are determined by the records and when the veteran met the criteria and not by the date the veteran filed his/her claim.