Application For Benefits, Letter Received

[Guest Jim S.]

B) I received a letter in the mail on Saturday, of course I didn't check my mail until Sunday and now it is quite early on Monday. The letter does nothing to boaster any trust with the VARO on my claim for CUE. The following is the first paragraph of the letter.

"We have received you application for benefits. (Makes no reference to it being a CUE claim) It is our sincere desire to decide your case promptly. (I would hope they would take a little time reading it first) However, as we have a great number of claims, action on yours may be delayed. (Covering the bases I will assume)We are now deciding whether additional evidence or information is needed. ( Care to wonder why they would need additional evidence or information in a claim for CUE?) If we need anything else from you, we will contact you, so their is no need to contact us in the meantime. ( Right Sherlock, I'm going to just sit and hold my breath till the cows come home) If you do write us, be sure to show YOUR file number and full name, or have it at hand if you call. " ( Yea, as if I am likely to forget my SS# and full name.)

What's that old saysing? Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you, but fool me three times, not on your life.I feel like I will have to go down their and spoon feed my claim to them sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page.

[wallyg]

B) Jim

Standard VA boiler plate, it goes out in response to anything that looks like a claim. I think in some VAROs they let the mail room respond.

[Guest Jim S.]

wallyg: The last one noted that they had received my new claim to Reopen with new and material evidence. Of course it was a claim for a De Novo Review and not what they said it was.

I withdrew the claim and then submitted my CUE claim. They took the CUE claim as new and material evidence I wanted added to the claim to reopen.

I would have hoped they would at least make note of the type of claim they think they had received. It would save me from having to check to make sure, for all I know, they trashed my CUE claim documents and have no clue as to what I am claiming as being in error.

I'm not even sure my SO has read my CUE Claim. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, that I won't give the VARO.

I have to be in town on Tuesday anyway, so it's only a few blocks out of the way to check things out. I think I might stop by the SS office and see it I can get a copy of my records for my files and check to see if the VARO has made a request for them.

Jim S. B)

p.s. getting dislexic with my typing, sorry

Edited September 19, 2005 by Jim S.

[wallyg]

The thing about VA letters is that so many of them are boiler plate responses that are just churned out through a Word Processor in the computer.

They are cobbled together out of stock terminology that oftentimes does NOT fit the particular circumstance. This happens because VA does not trust its employees tp respond individually, as they might reveal too much information, or even make erroneous statements.

You always think of your claim as unique, which to you of course it is. However, to the VA personnel, it is just another veteran whose paperwork they have to deal with. This results in completely different attitudes toward the claim.

Edited September 20, 2005 by wallyg

[Testvet]

Due to all my congressional letters and letters to the president they have the computer sending me two of those letters every month, does it mean they are doing anything, NO, but they can tell the congress critters they are keeping you informed and quote the date they sent the last letter, it's called CYA.

[Alex]

Letters to your Congressman.Senators and $2.75 will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks as far as expedition is concerned. Unless you wanthe6 RO to do something specific, like obtain deck loogs, such letters ae just a waste of time -- and, since they are taken out of the rating queue for an answr, there is no assurance thaz they will get back in the proper place.

When elected representatives and their go-fers bug me yo hurry up on a particular case. I just tell them that I take them in docket order; and if they say my senator would not be pleased to hear abut my pace, I tell them to go right ahead and tell him if they can find him, since DC hasn't had a Senator since 1776

Alex

[Arch]

Letters to your Congressman.Senators and $2.75 will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks as far as expedition is concerned. Unless you wanthe6 RO to do something specific, like obtain deck loogs, such letters ae just a waste of time -- and, since they are taken out of the rating queue for an answr, there is no assurance thaz they will get back in the proper place.

When elected representatives and their go-fers bug me yo hurry up on a particular case. I just tell them that I take them in docket order; and if they say my senator would not be pleased to hear abut my pace, I tell them to go right ahead and tell him if they can find him, since DC hasn't had a Senator since 1776

Alex

Alex. Im not sure I understand your post! :)

Do you work for the Veterans Administration?

There is an expected time for each case postcripted

usualy by the Local Exec at the RO to answer VAIG

Complaints B) They do look at each VARO with a

certain level of complaints/manning documents.

That is also how "contracting out occurs" :(

Arch