Claims Moving From One Office To Another

[nicknack]

Alright so I don't know where else to inquire as to the proper location for this question.

Background. I was given 20% for lower left lumbar strain upon my discharge in 2005. In May 2010 I had a L4-L5 Laminectomy. Guess where my hernia was, you guessed it L4-L5 left side. It was the second time I had an MRI done and the second time a hernia showed up in the exact same area. Well in late June I called the VA about upgrading my claim, they told me about Paragraph 30 because I had the surgery. So of course I applied. The VA didn't officially open my claim until late July 2010. Anyways, at that time I was living in Minneapolis MN, my records were kept in the Seattle regional office. I had been under Voc Rehab for awhile, from Seattle to San Diego and finally Minneapolis. And I have never had any issues recieving VA mail at each new place, because I made sure they had the addresses prior to my actual moved. And I always checked in when I moved.

Anyways in September I recieved a letter about ebenefits website, use it, it makes things a little easier. So I could of course stay up to date on where my claim was, also I had recieved a letter from the Seattle office apologizing for the delay in processing my claim. I called the 1-800 number and they at one point told me it would be decided in 16-28 days, this was back in September. According to ebenefits though it was still in the developmental phase so someone on the phone gave me wrong information. I moved back to San Diego November 4th, and didn't look at status for a couple of weeks. The week before Thanksgiving I see the status had changed to Decision Phase with an national average wait time of 16-28 days. Well December 6 I called to find out when it actually switched to the Decision phase, they told me November 2nd. Well on Dec 10th I sent an email through their iris system saying I want to talk to someone on the phone from the Seattle office to see what the delay was. I also started looking at the Monday morning reports online. Well I checked my ebenefits profile daily and yesterday on the 15th I see it had been changed to closed. The date said it was closed on the 14th. I couldn't get through to anyone on the phone that day, so today the 16th I was able to talk to someone. Apparently the Seattle office put a hold on my claim (it says closed on my profile) and forwarded it to the San Diego office. All my records and claims are in the process to be transfered to San Diego. Now in reality I don't mind that it will be coming here, what I am upset at is it made my claim process even longer.

My new Congressman is Bob Filner who currently is the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Comitte. He'll be the ranking minority come next congressional session. So I emailed him and my 2 Senators to complain and ask for their assistance to keep from my claim being placed back on the bottom. And also the Senators in WA state and the Congressman in Seattle district to let them know and to keep the Seattle office from screwing over other Veterans in the process.

Anyways...has something like that happened to anyone else? Moving of the records and the claim like that? Or any advice for me?

Thank you

Edit: My question is about being moved from one RO to another without informing the veteran while a claim is in middle of being decided. Not about time frames given or who I talked to. Thank you for your insight and experiences but please I wish to focus on my question not anything else.

Edited December 17, 2010 by nicknack

[Vync]

The ebenefits site is not always current. Others say it is current to the day. In my experience it did not always match what I got from the 1-800 number. The 800 number folks said the RO people are supposed to update it when the status changes, but sometimes they do not do it.

I have never contacted my Congressman or Senators regarding my claim, but somebody her should be able to tell you much more than I can on this.

[carlie]

I had recieved a letter from the Seattle office apologizing for the delay in processing my claim.

I called the 1-800 number and they at one point told me it would be decided in 16-28 days, this was back in September.

According to ebenefits though it was still in the developmental phase so someone on the phone gave me wrong information.

The week before Thanksgiving I see the status had changed to Decision Phase with an national average wait time of 16-28 days.

My new Congressman is Bob Filner who currently is the Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Comitte. He'll be the ranking minority come next congressional session. So I emailed him and my 2 Senators to complain and ask for their assistance to keep from my claim being placed back on the bottom. And also the Senators in WA state and the Congressman in Seattle district to let them know and to keep the Seattle office from screwing over other Veterans in the process.

Or any advice for me?

Thank you

nick,

The letter apologizing for the delay is computer generated boilerplate.

Trying to accurately track claims by using the 1-800 number is useless,

it's really not set up to do that with much accuracy at all.

I have seen lots of incorrect info from both 1-800 and ebenefits.

In regards to showing the "national average wait time of 16-28 days",

how is one to ever know or even be able to guess if they and their claim issues fall

into the "national average" criteria ?

Congressman Filner, in my book is a great supporter of veterans benefits issues.

He has been on the SVR broadcast that is sponsored by Hadit.com .

More likely than not - one of his underlings will respond to you.

Sometimes when you involve your congress critters it may be helpful

and other times it just adds another 6-18 months onto your wait time for

a decision.

JMHO

[nicknack]

I appreciate the responses so far. Thank you. But they don't actually answer my question. Just commenting on my background story. Which isn't the issue, I just wanted to provide it to bring us up todate

My question again is has anyone else had their original RO decide to transfer everything to another RO without the Veteran's knowledge and while a claim was pending.

Thank you

Nick

[broncovet]

I dont know why the VA tells you that your claim will be done in xxx days, but they did that to me in an IRIS as well. It took about 18months LONGER than what they promised in the IRIS email.

After that, I never again asked the VA how long it would take.

The VA tends to give Veterans, and the public "false hope" by indicating the "average" claim time is about six months. The Average time for a Veteran to recieve his benefits is closer to 4 years. The reason for this is because MOST Veterans do not get their claim fully approved upon the initial Regional Office decision. MOST Veteran receiving benefits have to go through one or more appeals to get their benefits...getting the whole enchilada on the first initial decision is truly rare. I know of only one Veteran to ever accomplish that, and she is no longer on this board. The rest of us have had to appeal, and many have appealed mulitple times. I really think that rating specialists DO NOT want the responsibility of approving a claim worth a quarter million dollars. So, they deny it and it is decided by a judge at the BVA or even CAVC. JMHO.

[nicknack]

Ok thank you for the responses so far. The issue and question is not the time frame.

My question has to do with moving a veterans file and records from one RO to another without informing the veteran, or not at the veteran's request. Has anyone experienced that? As for the time frames everything has been as I expected, I got what I applied for initially 5 years ago. And I can wait on the stuff I just recently applied for. With the exception of my paragraph 30 request.

[carlie]

I appreciate the responses so far. Thank you. But they don't actually answer my question. Just commenting on my background story. Which isn't the issue, I just wanted to provide it to bring us up todate

My question again is has anyone else had their original RO decide to transfer everything to another RO without the Veteran's knowledge and while a claim was pending.

Thank you

Nick

Nick,

They probably transferred your claim when they received the change of address,

sometime they just do it on their own accord.

I have always been with the same VARO.

Sorry you did not immediately get the exact information you requested.

Since you did post your "background story", it would be expected to have comments posted regarding it.

Everyone here is a volunteer and they answer to what and how they are inclined.

Although their answers may not have been just what you were looking for, hopefully

the information they posted will help another vet down the road.