broncovet

I sure hope Pete is right that cutting off Vets benefits at age 65 wont happen. And, altho I agree with Pete that the VA doesnt care what benefits are paid to Veterans (as long as VA employees Get THEIR BONUSES AND THEIR SALARY INCREASES, most of them dont give a rip what happens to Veterans), I still think the powers that be at the VA MUST stay within the budget..given them by congress. Since the VBA and Veterans health care, and all of those are under Secretary Shinseki's control, they can take money from this department and redirct it to another department. That is, when they blow $342 million in failed IT projects, they have to look somewhere else to make up that money. So, they certainly wont "cut" VA employees salaries or bonues, and the only thing left to make up that shortfall is Veterans services or Veterans compensation. This is what they will cut, to make the numbers work out....Veterans compensation and Veterans services. In short, VA execs keep their bonuses, and Veterans benefits are cut to make up for the money the VA blew. Berta.. I just dont know what Vets would do without you looking out for us. I have no doubts that the Va pressures QTC "docs" into giving them evidence to deny Veterans claims....I just did not have proof of that until now.

I agree with Purple...the VA budget INCREASED by a significant amount..so where is the money for Veterans? Is the entire amount of the increase supposed to go for additional administrative costs/ additional VA employee bonuses and salary increases for employees? We have pretty much not received additional services and Is it not the VA's job to serve Veterans, or is the VA's job to ensure that bonuses are paid to employees? Or did the VA get more money so they could squander it on additional IT projects, without passing any of the increase to Veterans? Is it unreasonable to think that, in light of VA's budget increase, that SOME of this "extra" money should go to disabled Vets? Purple is right..only a few prices have gone down, and mostly everything increased..and, even if prices DID go down, is it a crime for the VA to have Veterans payments INCREASE relative to inflation for ONE year, since most years we dont even keep up with inflation? What would be wrong with increasing payments to Veterans by the same amount the budget was increased? Taxpayers have not begrudged a Department of Veterans Affairs budget increase, so why would they begrudge some of this increase being passed on to Veterans? If the VA doesnt want to call it a "Cola" increase, how about renaming it an increase for Root Beer?

We Vets need to face reality: This committee is under pressure from the VA to cut Veterans services/disability compensation to make up for hundreds of millions of dollars of budget shortfalls created by VA mismanagement, such as the $324 million IT scandall. Story is here: http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfsep09/nf091709-4.htm Cutting Veterans benefits at their age 65 is just one way of making up for the VA squandering money due to Veterans. The VA is hungry to look for more. After all, if Veterans services/disability compensation are left alone, the cuts would need to be made in employee salaries/bonuses? Do you see VA management giving up their bonuses so that Veterans compensation wont be cut? I dont think so. Another way the VA can make up for this shortfall is to delay/deny still more Veterans claims. The VA is already doing this, but there is just too much squandered money to make up for by shafting a few thousand more Veterans. To make up for JUST the squandered $324 million, the VA will have to "squeeze" $1000 from each of 324,000 Veterans. (do the math..324,000 times $1000 each = $324 million) Or, they can try to get a lot more money from fewer Veterans. Each Veteran that gets his benefits cut at age 65 will be loosing much more than $1000 if they live very long. Finally another way to make up for the VA squandering hundreds of millions is to give the VETS zero Cola, so that all Vets have to pay for it. This squandered money has to come from somewhere, and the VA management is trying to make sure it does not come from management salaries/bonuses.

The VA has actually opposed the 25% QOL raise for Veterans, saying it needed "more study". I think we need to give "more study" into why VA employees are collecting $24 million in bonuses, when the VA claims backlog is the highest in history. I also think we need "more study" into why the VA has squandered at least $324 million. Further, I would like "more study" asking why it is that the VA got the largest budget increase in history, but Vetrans are still likely to get a zero percent COLA. That is, I want the VA to answer what they did with this extra money, and why it was not passed along to Veterans, especially disabled Vets?

Delta Yes, thanks for the good advice, and I will look up those 38 CFR's and study them. I have a meeting tommorrow with my VSO. In a nutshell, I am hoping he saved copies of my original application in 2002..because the copies I have demonstrate entitlement to an EED, that is, in 2002 the VA considered only my hearing loss and never considered depression until 3 years later.

We need to take this seriously! The VA not only does not want to give us a 25% raise, they want to make it even worse by cutting benefits off at age 65. I dont blame purple for not beleiving it, of course it is not carved in stone yet, but the VA has made it clear: Whenever they get a chance to increase the VA budget, while cutting benefits to Veterans, they are going to do so either individually, by denying/delaying individual Veterans benefits, or, collectively as in this case. Notice again, how the VA is attempting to turn Veteran against Veteran by awarding Veterans of some wars more than others. This is a deliberate ploy to "divide and conquer" Veterans in order to further force Veterans into submission of "the VA way". While VA employees are unaminiously united in achieving more bonuses for themselves, by making distinct classes of Veterans, Vietnam, WW2, Iraq, etc, they want us to "turn" our anger toward each other, rather than toward the VA. What I think must be done is we need to associate ourself with the powerful AARP..because no politicain can even try to cut social security and keep his job. In a similar way, no politician should ever be able to cut "Veterans" benefits just because the Veteran turns 65. To cut Veterans benefits at age 65 is blatant age discrimination which should not stand in court. Further, it is actually discriminatory against Veterans..if Vetrens income is cut at age 65, wouldn't it follow that civilians income should also be cut at 65? The AARP would annihilate any politicians carrer that suggests this, and we should do no differently. Is it right we cut ONLY Veteran's retirement, and not cut, say federal service, and other state, private and local concerns? I would like to see social security and Veterans linked to congresses own pay and retirement, in that, when they cut VA or social security benefits, they are likewise cutting their own benefits/retirement by an equal amount.

Rentalguy While I certainly concur that there "are too many experts pointing the Veteran in the wrong direction", I would like to point this out: Modern medical science did an analysis of an 1890's Doctors "black bag" of medical devices. Guess how many things in the doctors black bag that we consider, by todays medical standards, to be effective medicine? Not one. Zero. Zilch. But people in the 1890's went to the doctor and they got better! Why? Well, I guess because they thought someone cared about whether they lived or died! I may suggest that may apply here. Even tho hadit members sometimes give bad advice, it still helps in that you know that someone else is trying to help you. I say you give that Veteran credit..let him sort out the wheat from the chaffe. Looking back at my posts, I think I have given some pretty good advice, and, at other times, well, I hope the Veteran did not take my advice. I really never meant to give bad advice..ever. However, I sometimes injected emotions where I should not have, in part, because I am passionate about helping Veterans. I think you are, too. Dont beat yourself up if you tried to help a Vet and failed. Years ago I had a girl friend who was studying to take the EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) Course. It was very challenging for her. She told me she just about gave up. Then she read something, that kept her going: "Even worse than a quitter, is the person afraid to start". She is an EMT now..one of the best.

Berta This seems to be another instance similar to 4.16a which is the one about extraschedular consideration for TDIU when the Veteran fails to meet the minimum percentages for TDIU: Basically, it does not happen. While I agree with you that a persons condition is unlikely to deteriote from 10% to 100% overnight..without some steps in between..I also agree that, from a practical point of view the Veteran either got 100% and is happy about it, or is appealing a low ball rating/denial. If the Veteran did eventually wind up with 100%, the VA has a way of putting fear in you that if you appeal, such as for staged ratings or an EED, that you could loose what you have. So, the Vet either does not know about staged ratings, or, knows about them and elects not to appeal. For the most part, the "staged ratings" would likely appear at the appealate levels only and probably would not occur at the RO level. For one thing, VA regs are complicated enough, and the rating specialists are NOT lawyers (with only a very few exceptions), AND staging a rating would complicate something and take the rating specialist longer..so I think that is why it basically is not done at the RO level. Even tho staged ratings may apply in my particular case, I am approaching it from another level. I am asking for an EED for my 100%, rather than asking in my appeal for staged ratings. My logic is this: Altho a staged rating would be preferrable to what I have now, it would be still better for me to get an EED 100% rating. I am not even going to ask for "half a loaf", but rather am asking for the full loaf of bread, and am going to let them suggest we cut the loaf in half. In other words, I am asking for a 2002 effective date for 100%..if they offer 30% from 2002-2004, and 50% from 2004-2007, and 100% from 2007 on, I would probably accept it and not appeal. I would consider asking for staged ratings in my appeal, but I feel strongly that I am entltled to an EED, and, frankly will argue for my EED and I would rather not discuss staged ratings. I guess I am afraid of "opening up a can of worms". A philosopher once said when there are two alternatives, they suggest picking the simplier of the 2 choices. For me, by far the simplier choice is to appeal for an EED and keep my mouth shut about staged ratings.

Delta In a word, no, it should not matter if the VA has slipped a blank page in there. Remember tho, there are some differences, because there are different operating systems (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mint Linux, etc), and different editors (Microsoft Word 2003, Word 2007, Open Office, Notepad, etc) So Berta has the right idea, after you copy the document just make sure the entire document is copied.

My son is chapter 35..he has been due "retro" since April, AND he was supposed to get "Advanced Pay" on the first of September. The Va now says he will get it Oct. 1, and I wont beleive that either..until it arrives. Thousands of Veterans due benefits for the Post 911 GI bill are backlogged, and they backlogged Ch. 35 as well.

For years, we have known that the VA uses Veterans as a source of funding when funds are short. In a nutshell Veterans claims are delayed until next year, the following year, and sometimes 10 or more years later. In many cases, the VA NEVER has to pay back this interest free loan, as the Veteran either dies or gives up on his claim. Even if the Veteran is paid back this loan through the granting of benefits, the VA often manipulates the effective dates, sometimes shredding the only evidence of the Veterans original claim, and even if the Veteran is paid retroactively to the date of his claim, he receives no interest on monies due him even tho inflation has eroded the value of prior years benefits. Veterans complaints are given "lip service" by politicians who promise to speed up the claims process. However, the reality is that the backlog of Veterans claims has increased almost every year since it began. The newest Secretary has increased the backlog of claims by 15%, while adding a new category of backlogs: education backlogs. Recent reports show that there are at least 254,000 Veterans/dependents waiting on the Va to process their education claims. In the mean time, student Veterans have little or no means to pay for rent, food, school expenses. Story is here: http://www.wacotrib.com/news/content/news/...=7&cxcat=11 The reason the VA does this is simple. When the Va submits its budget, there is no category for "mismanaged or squandered" money. Congress approves the VA budget for approved items, but would not approve things like unauthorized bonuses. Then, when money is squandered or paid in unauthorized bonuses, this budget shortfall has to be made up else where..and guess where? That's right..VA executive salaries and bonues. No? Oh, yes you are right. This squandered money is made up by cuts to Veterans services and/or cuts in disability compensation payments. That means Veterans claims are delayed or denied. So, the next time you wonder what is taking the VA so long in "processing" your claim, just remember the VA has to make up the squandered money from SOMEWHERE. Right now, there is at least $342 million that has to be made up, so Veterans can expect even longer processing times: http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfsep09/nf091709-4.htm Have you noticed that the VA budget has been increased, and none of the increase is being passed to Veterans? Guess what..those extra billions will wind up being squandered as Vets wont get a dime: http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfsep09/nf091709-3.htm

Good point Berta. If the VA asks for comments on a proposed legislative change, and I dont bother to say anyting, who's fault is it when the Va changes the law, and I am mad about the change? The reverse side of this is, "yea right"...I am sure a homeless PTSD war Veteran has a computer with an internet connection and the computer skills to be able to find and comment on new homeless Veteran proposed regulation changes while living in his cardboard box under a bridge. The idea is that we need to protect the rights of this homeless Vet..the VA sure wont protect his rights. Sure..Shinseki has made a statement that his goal is reducing Veterans homelessness by 131,000. But he has no plan of how he is going to do this. So far, the only thing he has done to reduce Veteran homelessness is to make it worse by increasing claims backlog by 15%. People with a regular steady paycheck and money in the bank are rarely homeless. People often become homeless because they have little or no steady income..and many of those Veterans who are waiting months or years for the Va to process their claim have little or no income. A steady Va check could be the difference between homelessnes and a home. By delaying the Veterans claims for months or years, the VA often forces the Veteran into homelessnes. Other homeless Veterans are unaware they may be eligible, for, say, Veterans pension. And the VA isnt telling them..they would rather the Veteran be homeless or even commit suicide so they dont have to pay. Every day, 18 Veterans take their own life, and one cause is economic desperation. And I want to personally thank you for speaking up for these discarded heroes, Berta.

Rental guy is right. If you do beleive that you caught VD in the service, there is one "school of thought" that suggests you should go ahead and apply to the VA for compensation for VD even tho you have no current symptoms because you may get a 0% rating for it. Then, you have to apply the VA "fuzzy math", which means, in this case 0 plus 0 = 10%. That is, if you have a zero percent rating for SC VD and another Service connected 0% rating, say, for hearing loss, then those 2 combine to 10%. However, people have pointed out that by asking for things such as VD that you got in 1956 but suffer no problems for it, you may not be taken seriously for a potentially much more compensable condition. For example, if you have PTSD from military service, you might want to focus on getting that service connected and forget about your 1956 VD. JMHO.

I will try to shorten these instructions on how to copy and paste: 1. Highlight information you want to copy. (If you want to copy everything, go to Edit, then select all or hit "Ctrl and A" at the same time.) 2. Hit "CTRL and C" at the same time. (Or, go to Edit, then select Copy at the upper left of your screen) 3. Go to the place you want it copied TO, such as create a new notepad, Word, or open office document. 4. Click mouse to exact location you want information copied to. 5. Hit "Ctrl and V" at the same time (Or, go to Edit, then select Paste) Remember, you first tell the computer What information you want to copy, then you tell it to copy it, then you show it where to paste it, and finally, you paste it. It must be done in this order. The same instructions, as above, work with "print screen" on your keyboard, and work with everything you see on the screen.

This is my recommendation. Remember that CUE is applicable 1) only to decisions more than a year old, 2) does not apply to a judgement call of a rating specialist 3) must be "material" and affect the outcome (that is, if the rater misspells a word it is not CUE) and have to be what the VA calls "undebatable". I think you should apply for an increase, and forget (for right now) about CUE. Once you get your increase, then you can ask for an earlier effective date, and possibly CUE. Here is my reasoning: Once you utter the word "CUE" to the VA, they stiffen up and go on the attack. You need to take the enemy by suprise. So, just go along like everything is hunkey dorey, but keep copies of every thing, and order a copy of your C file. Study the regulations and cases where Veterans have won CUE. Look for a way to apply that to your case, especially on the EED. After you get a decision with the award you want, then CUE the earlier decisions for an EED.

Berta.. I guess the reason I asked is that I know some court cases set a precedent, while others do not. It is unclear to me which cases I can cite, and which ones the CAVC, for example will ignore. I think the CAVC will pretty much ignore what a BVA said, but, of course, will comply with what the Supreme court says. Is there such a thing as a precedential OGC opinion..how about non precedential OGC opinion?

Babyray You wont be compensated for VD or any other disease/injury that has no symptoms/problems. Basically Va compensation is to compensate you for lack of earning capacity. VD in 1956 that causes you no problems or symptoms now is noncompensable, even if service connected. The same is true if you broke your foot..but it healed and you do not have pain, and you have no problems from your broken foot. Non compensable. In a nutshell you have to have something called continuity to be compensated. Going back to the broken foot, if your foot that you broke in the service develops arthritis, or becomes so painfull you cant use it due to complications from the fracture, then you may get compensated. Continuity means you keep going back to the doc for treatment of the condition.

To Disclose or Not to Disclose is a subject often brought up by many disabled groups. Some disabilities are quite visible, such as an amputee, while other disabilities are what we call invisible. Visible Disabilities: Not really much point..you might as well disclose and you may even find a potential sympathetic employer who actually does give 10 points preference to disabled Vets. Invisible Disabilities: In short, you decide. Weigh the plusses and minuses of disclosing your disability to a potential employer: Plus: As above, you may find the rare employer who actually follows ADA/Veterans Preference/ Disabled Veteran Preference If you are hired, and you need time off to go to doc, you are more likely to get it if you disclose. You can ask for a "reasonable accomodation" to your disability, but it will be hard to do this if you do not disclose. Minus: FAct: Disabled individuals unemployment rates are 3 to 10 times higher than non disabled. This means they wont hire you in spite of the laws. If you bring up your disability, your employer will want to talk about it in detail, and you wont get a chance to discuss your abilities. If you do get hired, other employees will often use it against you. "The only reason he got promoted was because of his wheelchair". The employer will often worry about your accomodations and not hire you because he is not sure he can accomodate your disabilities. You may have to answer questions you may not want to answer that are brought up when you disclose. If your disability is mental, such as depression or PTSD, the employer may not hire you because he fears for other employees or customers safety if you "go off" such as the disgruntled Chuck E Cheese employee who shot several other employees. You will often be offered a lower salary, if offered a job at all because people often perceive others with disabilities as not being capable of anything more than menial tasks such as packing light bulbs in boxes. Often you will be underestimated because of your disability and you will have to work much harder to make up for it. Your employer/coworker may want to "diagnose" you. That is, "YOu dont look depressed to me..have you tried St. John's Wort?" or "Look on the positive side..things will get better" Others may fear you..especially with mental health issues. It will be especially hard to communicate in this environment, and your job, if you get it, will be exceedingly difficult. Some may be jealous if they perceive that you are being compensated for your disability, even if rated at zero percent.

With the VA, you have to draw pictures if you want them to understand since it is a requirement for the position of rating specialist to not be able to understand or consider any thing the Veteran writes.

Carlie I have a VCAA letter from the VA dated in June, 2002 which states, in pertinent part: "To Establish entitlement for Service Connected compensation benefits for hearing loss, the evidence must show 3 things: 1. An injury in military service or a disease that began in or was made worse during military service, OR an event in service causing injury or disease. If we do not yet have them, we will get your service medical records and review them to see if they show you had an injury or disease in service... 2. A current physical or mental disability. This can be shown by medical evidence or other evidence showing you have persistent or recurrent SYMPTOMS of Disability. ...We will review this evidence to see if it shows you have a current disability or symptoms of a disability. 3. A relationship between your current disability and an injury, disease, or event in service..." Notice that the above requirements do not require a doctors diagnosis, but require only symptoms of a disability. This is partly because doctors sometimes misdiagnose problems as some diseases have similar symptoms, or sometimes no symptoms. I also would suggest you go to NOD's website. He is an expert at Hep C and B as well as HIV claims. hcv website He has great cases to help you, and he knows well that you can have Hep C for years without ever being diagnosed with it and then get cancer from Hep C and die from it.

I was trained as a pilot in the military. Here is how they train you. They take you out back to the manure pile. They tell you to pilot it from this pile to that pile.

Pete If your brother is using his walker, you just dont see very many people working who use a walker, and I suggest there are good reasons for that. I dont think, however, that a 4 day hospital stay, in itself, would qualify anyone for LTD or TDIU. I would suggest he apply for applicable benefits..that is, LTD with his insurance Co, SSD, and both VA Pension (if he makes, or expects to make less than about 12k per year) and TDIU, along with the increase in disability rating for arthritis. The key is probably going to be if his doc says he is disabled. Social Security is ran much better than VA and will probably get your brother a decision within 90 days. Appeals for Social Security usually take 2 years. Compare that with the VA, who pretends they get Veterans their benefits in 6 months, while we all know the six month number is pretty much a lie. VA benefits take 2 to 10 times longer than Social Security, and I venture a guess that the VA's real processing time, including appeals averages about 4 to 5 years. Since only a small fraction of VA claims are fully granted on the first decision and have to be appealed, their 6 month time frame is a deception.

MDB1968 Yes, you are new here. Many of us know about VA employees getting bonuses for delaying claims, and other VA scandals. Yes, I agree the media should get a hold of this. However, the VA is experts at diffusing scandal after scandal after scandal. Stories are here: 1. Employees get bonuses for delaying Veterans claims: http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfmay09/nf052209-5.htm 2. Shredder Scandal is here: http://www.vawatchdog.org/VAshredderscandal.htm 3. IT scandal where VA employees stole $24 million in bonuses. (Remember the VA budget money is supposed to go to Veterans, so these employees are, in effect, stealing from Veterans) http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfaug09/nf082109-2.htm And there are many more scandals such as the Walter Reed Scandal, the Colonoscopy Scandal, and others. Many of these VA scandals are at www.vawatchdog.org. Even worse, when you complain, the VA can retaliate against you, such as this widow: http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfsep09/nf091609-3.htm

I think the post by "hurryupandwait" has some very good stuff. That is, it is possible to present a CUE for an incorrect disability rating percentage. I always thought that a rating percentage is a judgement call, and not subject to attack by CUE. However, there are certain criteria, and if you look closely at the rating criteria, you can sometimes find CUE as in this post. However, I must ask another question, that the legal eagles may be able to answer. Is a General Council Precedent binding on the court, that is, of course, unless the General counsel Precedent has not been updated or even eliminated, in some cases? In other words can you cite this Precedent, expecting the court to concur, similar to the way you may cite a Precedential CAVC or Federal court case.

Carlie While this may be obvious, you have to prove CUE if you are appealing a 1978 Rating decision where a NOD was not timely filed. Importantly, you have to not only prove CUE, but that the error substantially affected the outcome. In other words, if they misspelled a word in 1978, that would be an error, but it would be insufficient to "pry open" your case. I will provide an example. You are appealing the effective date, so you read the decision and find they misspelled "the" to "teh". You use this misspelling to get the VA to "notice the error" but you really dont care about the spelling..you are trying to get the VA to look at your effective date, but you know the effective date, in itself, wont meet the strict CUE standard, because it was a judgement call of the rater. IMHO in the above example, you would loose. To qualify as CUE the error has to be "material", and misspelling the would not qualify as material evidence. On the other hand, if the decision stated the EED was July 1, 2008, which was a typo that meant July 1, 1998, that would be a "material" CUE, as this error would mean you were entitled to 10 more years of retro.