Need Help With Appeal For Sick Father

[daughterneedshelp]

Greetings! I am looking for a Veterans Advocate group that can help me with my Father's service connected disability appeal. To make a very long story short, my dad has been working on this appeal for at least 5 years (if not longer). He was placed under hospice care recently and I was notified that he has been getting the runaround with this claim. Time is of the essence, so I'm trying to find groups that can help us get this claim handled before he passes. I have called Reps for Vets, however I have not received a return phone call, and now I'm looking for a similar group that can help me navigate what seems to be a very tricky process. If anyone has a group that they have worked with in the past that can help me, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks

[Berta]

Carlie is right:

This is the fast letter.

The fast letter makes this point:

“Receipt of a VA Form 21-534 will be accepted as both a claim for

accrued benefits and a substitution request. Therefore, the claim for accrued

benefits will be viewed as a continuation of the claim pending at the time of the

claimant’s death, and the individual substituting for the deceased claimant may

submit additional evidence in support of the claim. We will process substitution

requests that are not accompanied by or in the form of an accrued benefits claim.

Individuals may waive the opportunity to substitute/submit additional evidence in

support of the claim.”

If no formal DIC claim is filed on the 21-534,then the claimant needs to use the Substitution form available at the VA web site to continue the claim for any potential accrued benefits.

The DAV should be able to advise on preparing a letter that accounts for your dad's serious and declining condition.

Any evidence of his recent hospice care state should help.But it is difficult to know if the VA will act on a request for

expeditious resolve of his claim.

I assume the claim is at a Regional Office but I could be wrong-

if the claim has been transferred to the BVA you can file a Motion with the BVA ( DAV should help with this)for advancement on their docket due to serious declining health issues and send proof of his serious hospice status.

XNavynuke's idea as to Congressional input too might help.

Still - it appears this claim is lacking something by way of evidence as they have denied it-and if we knew exactly why they denied maybe we can help more.

[deltaj]

I will see what I can find. This is one of the issues with trying to handle this, and being brought in so late. My dad has demensia, so the days before he became incompacitated were hectic to say the least, it is hard to find what he has done and where. I have tried to work with the DAV and they have just said that we needed to wait on a response (not much help at all). Can you tell me what the other acronyms are - AL and VVA so I can find out about these groups?

I saw that Reps for Vets charged a fee, however I was wondering if there are paid representatives on his case that they might be able to get something done faster only because we are uncertain how much time my dad has left.

Thanks for the quick response.

I think VVA stands for Vietnam Veterans of America. You mentioned your dad has dementia. Have you checked with V.A. as to whether your dad has eligibility for V.A. nursing home care. Do you have a power of attorney on your dad? I am thinking that you should contact V.A. by phone to have them explain how to make a written request for copies of your father's C folder. This will provide the reasons for V.A. decisions and show you what appeals and evidence your father submitted in support of his claim.

[fanaticbooks]

Welcome, daughter.

I have a couple of questions....

1. Does anyone have power of attorney for your dad? both financial and health? If he has dementia, you could end up where no one can answer your questions because you are not authorized (or spouse, whoever).

2. Have you tried your state Veterans Affairs? most states offer free Veteran Service Officers.

Finally,

You should NOT have to pay to be represented. The American Legion (AL), Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), Disabled Veterans of America (DVA), Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) all offer their services free.

Others have good inside VA advice, but no one has mentioned the above, so thought I should.

I do wish you well.

By the way, look at my website (see signature). It, too, might be of use. It is totally free, just there to help.

fanaticbooks