Got The Dreaded Vcaa Letter And

[Guest Jim S.]

Read through the VCAA letter and form and just as I suspected, For a claim for reconsideration, it reads more like a new claim to reopen with new and material evidence.

Weather permitting, I am going into see my DVA Rep and give him an ear full and I may well pull his POA if I don't hear what I want to.

I plan to ask for a personal hearing with the Rating Officer to get one question answered and their too, if I don't get the answer I am looking for, I am withdrawing my claim for reconsideration and having my CUE claim reinstated. If they won't fix their mistakes, I will certainly try my best, to do it for them.

I think they just want to play around with me and hope I will go away, and that is not going to be the case, this time.

Any advise and/or suggestions at this stage would be helpfull, I think.

Jim S. :)

[Moe]

What is a VCAA letter? Sounds like I want one. Been doing battle with the VA for close to 24 years. Don't recall ever getting something called a VCAA letter..

[Guest Jim S.]

VCAA stands for Veteran Claims Assistance Act. It is the VA's answere to helping you prove your claim without actually helping you. The government said they had to help us prove our claims, by telling us what we needed to win our claims. Only they do it in such a way, that they actually don't help you, all that much. It's still up to you to prove your claim and as far as the VA is concerned, no one is intitled to their benefits even after proving their claim. The VARO would rather the BVA did their work for them, it's like one of those jobs you give a star footbal player, he just watches the grass grow and doesn't have to do anything like water, airating, fertilizing or even cutting the grass. A do nothing job that you draw a paycheck for with no accountability that you are even checking to see if they are even watching the grass grow.

Anyway, if you do not get this letter telling you what you need to submit to prove your claim and what the VARO will attempt to get, then they have viloated you due process for adjudicating your claim and have certain recources open to you to reopen or to reconsider the decision.

Jim S. :)

[bubba]

got my first letter from the vcaa and it says on the back. Has two boxes one that says do you have any further info check this box. The other box says if you don't have any more info check this box. Ok the va never helps me with the nexus statment. I went to the va asking for mri cat scan and they said no. I had to go to a civilian doctor. What is the point of this letter othe than covering there butt.

[Berta]

Boy- I have 6 claims- 3 are 3 years old - 1 seems to have been decided ,one is in rating board and one I sent to the OGC-the VA screwed up on it-it is in OGCs jurisdiction-

I have never gotten a VCAA letter at all.

When I filled out an I-9 in Jan. I specifically stated that regs had been broken and I never received any VCAA letters.I put this on page one of the appeal.

They immediately started working on my claims in a serious way and decided one in late Jan , but putting that with the one they are doing now-

I knew they would NOT want the BVA to see that statement-

Not only do I advise putting the statement that NVLSP mentions-(posted here previously maybe a month ago- on page one of the 1-9 but hit them hard on the first appeals page at the bottom with any regs they broke and any evidence they refused to consider. All on the first appeal I-9 page.

If you do this- then I think- like my appeal- which was very strong in its first paragraph-

they do not want that to be read at the BVA because it would trigger a remand right from the git go-and make them look like complete idiots.

[john999]

Bubba

One thing is that if you let the VA know that you have no further evidence then they can go ahead and rate your claim without waiting a year for all other evidence to get to them. I remember telling them this recently in a claim I had because they had all the evidence and I did not want them to wait on rating my AO claim. Yes, and it is a CYA letter to an extent. This is so they cannot rate claims without making an attempt to gather all the evidence in a claim. It is boilerplate for most of us.

[SLEDGE]

The VCAA was designed as another excuse to send out another stupid letter that accomplishes nothing more than to cause another DELAY.

Does it work?

The government gets to keep your money a little longer becasuse the claims process is now a little longer.

As long as the VA can do anything they want to they don't really need the help but, congress gets to do the chest-thumping routine whenever they pass something.

It's kinds like,

How do you keep Aliens from working in the US?

You don't.

Without proper enforcement, nothing congress does amounts to anything more than words on paper.

Another opinion from sledge.

sledge