Voc Rehab Subsistance

[stanner]

How did your counselor add your dependants to your Voc Rehab?? I have currently been paid for my husband but not my 3 other dependants for voc rehab subsistance, but they are on my comp. At first my new counselor told me that my old and worthless counselor should have added them and that she could look at my comp to add them to my subsistance. She said I was going to get a large sum of money for the retro from when the dependants were added on originally, but this was a month ago. I was supposed to get the retro around May 7th and that has come and gone and nothing. So I tried to call her and got no response, I emailed her and got no response. I tried to call the office to talk to someone else and then she calls and leaves me a message the next morning mad that I have been trying to get a hold of her and saying she is going above and beyond her duties to try to fix this. In the mean time I sent up an IRIS to see what was going on and was told that the forms were incomplete and I needed to fix them. I never filled out any forms and they make it sound like it is my fault. So I email her and tell her that the forms were filled out incomplete and she emails me a 21-686c to fill out and a 21-4138 to write up a statement saying when I was married, when the dependants became my dependants, etc and told me to send them to the RO. Isn't it her job to fill out the paperwork? I can't get any answers and I was told by my local VA office that I should not have to fill out that paperwork for voc rehab. I'm so confused. I was counting on this money to pay some bills and get my life back in order. Don't know what to do.

[carlie]

stanner,

Welcome to Hadit.

Other's will chime in.

carlie

[halos2]

"Large sum of money" doubtful. Dependent shares do not equate any large sums. You can see it when you look at allowances on pay charts. Now I was on this for a few months, it took about 2 mths to get my first check. The program was not suitable for me/disabilities/already have degrees/ so I was placed in the IL program.

They change counselors at my VARO, like one changes their underware, so likely this may have occurred to you too.

Anyway, the best way or more of contact is via email...no dispute here who called who/when/who missed call. etc. Black and white I wrote to you/you did/not respond on date/time/info! Or you responded this date, when was it turned into the pay section?

My original VocRehab/Ed counselor set up an appointment initially for me to meet him at the VARO and sign all the forms as my acceptance into the program. So the problem I had with them was sending me "ALL" copies I requested information/forms/grants regarding me in the programs... Requested first with a few phone calls then with emails to 3 different changes of counselors...Took almost 2 yrs and 15 months of requests after they had FOIA forms previously sent for them to finally respond.(BVA sent info of requests too by me)

Email your counselor, make sure you send/mail/fax your request for all papers in file, notify per email dependents were not added to awardance...and don't be afraid to resend the email if no response within a few days sent.

All else fails, contact the supervisor, and notify them of lack of response to requests. Not good to badger counselor, be diplomatic, and say perhaps there must have been a misunderstanding but I wish to know when I may receive my dependent allowance?

Don't they alread have copies off marriage license, birth certificates to prove dependents? If not as they may not be looking in your c-file as you receive it via your comp benefit for thhem, then send/fax to them...keep copies of fax sent and if mailed keep copy of certified/registerd mail receipt too. Good luck. :D

[Pete53]

I don't think Voc Rehab pays for dependents just a flat rate based on the load that you are carrying

[navydoc2]

They actually do pay for dependents its like 20 dollars or so I think. I was in vocrehab and received 842 w/o dependents and 872 with.

[tagandbag]

Stanner, I think going through iris is probably the best way to put a fire under your counsler arce. I have been dealing with voc-rehab going on two years, under the independent living plan and I have yet to see anything from them. I sort of forgot about the whole program for about a year. Reason being is I could never get hold of my counsler, every once in a while I would get a call or e-mail from him. Now all of a sudden I am dealing with an outside contractor, ( in the past month ) and he seems to be very proactive. Supposedly going to pay me for computer repair around 400 bucks, they made a appointment for a va dental evaluation, as I had some expensive peridontal work done in the past year and I wil try and get reimbursed for that, they might also spring for a greenhouse in my backyard among other things that I have showed intrest in. I do not get a monthly stipend from them, so my situation is slightly different from yours. All in all, I believe Voc_rehab is just under manned and very slow. I can tell you Iris does not like to hear about no results from your voc-rehab counsler. hope this helps and good luck.

T&B