How Long Are Claims Taking?

[retiredat44]

How long are claims taking? Jusy wondering,, as I just started mine... it looks like about a year...

not counting unforessen circumstances...

sorry if this is already in some other thread..

Thanx..

alos, is the length of time it takes regional?

[Ironman]

I filed a claim for Major Depression on Sept 28 2008.

Had C+P exam on May 29 2009.

Claim was being looked at by rater starting June 12 2009.

Decision was made July 20 2009.

As of today no letter or money in bank.

So as you can see it took the rater a month and a half just to look at my claim.

Thats a job I think I could actually do.

[cannoncocker]

My claim ended up being very messy but I got a decision/approval for several issues in 14 months in NC. 2 items were deferred for further examination. 1 denial. So really not so bad considering but the statement regarding where you are is probably very if not the most relevant factor IMHO. Of course complexity is right on up there too.

[broncovet]

Well, there you have quite a few answers. They range all the way from as little as what the VA tells the world..that it takes 6 months, up to the guy who applied in 1972 and still has not gotten his benefits...about 37 years. I also know a man who applied in 1973, and still no answer from the VA. So, somewhere between 6 months and 37 years is the average, but you really need to count the appeal time also...you are kidding yourself and setting yourself up for a fall if you dont count appeal time, as most claims are NOT awarded the first go around. To get benefits, the majority of us had to go through an appeal process, and the VA NEVER counts the appeal process in its numbers and is, therefore decieving the public because far less than half of claims are approved the first time, EVEN THO it was the VA that caused the VEteran to have to appeal anyway. If they would have just award the benefits (Do it right the first time), a lengthy appeal process would be unnecessary. I find it interesting that the VA's errors are ALMOST NEVER in the Veteran's favor..if they were true errors, it would appear that an equal number of errors would be resolved in the Veterans favor as those unfavorable to the Veteran.

It reminds me of stores "price scan" errors. Quite a few years ago, NBC news went around to dozens of stores, bought stuff and compared it with the prices quoted. Most of them were correct but of those that were wrong more than 90% of the wrong price were in favor of the store, and less than 10% were in favor of the customer. Since, statistically, there would be a 50/50 chance of an error being overpriced as underpriced, it leads one to beleive the "errors" were not just mistakes, but rather, overpricing on purpose. Same with the VA. If these were true errors, 50% of the time mistakes were made it would be in the Veterans favor. However, that does not happen.

[Angelo Hurtado]

ive been out since november of 2008 and ive had 2 sets of claims already go thru and approved and im working on my third...im guessing its easier for me since i dont really have to prove nothing was service connected?

[cannoncocker]

Well, there you have quite a few answers. They range all the way from as little as what the VA tells the world..that it takes 6 months, up to the guy who applied in 1972 and still has not gotten his benefits...about 37 years. I also know a man who applied in 1973, and still no answer from the VA. So, somewhere between 6 months and 37 years is the average, but you really need to count the appeal time also...you are kidding yourself and setting yourself up for a fall if you dont count appeal time, as most claims are NOT awarded the first go around. To get benefits, the majority of us had to go through an appeal process, and the VA NEVER counts the appeal process in its numbers and is, therefore decieving the public because far less than half of claims are approved the first time, EVEN THO it was the VA that caused the VEteran to have to appeal anyway. If they would have just award the benefits (Do it right the first time), a lengthy appeal process would be unnecessary. I find it interesting that the VA's errors are ALMOST NEVER in the Veteran's favor..if they were true errors, it would appear that an equal number of errors would be resolved in the Veterans favor as those unfavorable to the Veteran.

It reminds me of stores "price scan" errors. Quite a few years ago, NBC news went around to dozens of stores, bought stuff and compared it with the prices quoted. Most of them were correct but of those that were wrong more than 90% of the wrong price were in favor of the store, and less than 10% were in favor of the customer. Since, statistically, there would be a 50/50 chance of an error being overpriced as underpriced, it leads one to beleive the "errors" were not just mistakes, but rather, overpricing on purpose. Same with the VA. If these were true errors, 50% of the time mistakes were made it would be in the Veterans favor. However, that does not happen.

That is the definition of real property valuations from time to time they really spike. They know statistically x% will never even open the envelope. Another x% will say $#% and pay it. Then there are the x% that will say whoa mule then they will have an automatic reduction fallback position just because you got up and went to their office.

I think the parallel is clear. They know a good percentage will just go away right from the start. Then there are people like me that went for years and actually never even heard of the VA.

[john999]

I had a simple DMII AO presumption claim. It took about a year to get a rating. However, I had secondary conditions. It has taken an extra three years to get decent ratings on these issues because they all had to be appealed. The appeals of low ball ratings and denials will kill you. There are no time frames on these appeals.