Chapter 35 Spouse Benefits Backpay Question

[crawsfire]

Since I only applied for Ch. 35 benefits for my spouse when I realized there was a chance she could be approved (Cypert v. peake), by the time I applied she had gone to school for three years already. Now she has been approved with an effective date that precedes all her schooling but I am reading different things as far as backpay.

She applied once in 2004 and then her eligibility ended in 2006 according to the VA. She never actually got paid benefits the first time i applied because she dropped out after a week due to medical problems.Then I find out about the Cypert Peake decision so I filed again in 2009 and they changed her eligibility dates that were originally 1996 through 2006 to 2001 through 2011.

Should she get paid for all her previous schooling (up to 45 month worth) that fall within her new effective dates despite when I filed?

I have read somewhere that they will only backpay a year?

Thanks.

[Pete53]

It depends on the School and the VA. The Post Office is really quite efficient if a check is put in the mail.

[Berta]

I can relate to what Hawkfire said.

There should be a better way to handle the Chap 35 payments.

Once I got 3 Chap 35 checks in a row.The VA had caught an enormous error in my DIC offset and had just sent me a five figure check for that.

And then days later I went into the bank with the 3 more checks from Chap 35.

I got some strange looks at the bank when that happened. Then I got direct deposit.

Oddly enough my school made an error in the 1999 form and once that got squared away they sent me my retro fairly fast.

[crawsfire]

I have looked all over for the VA form 21-1999 including the va.gov form site but cannot find it. Does anybody have a link to the pdf?My rep at the college seems to think she can just type up a list of the classes and send it to the VA and has no ideal what this form is. I'd like to print one out and give it to her so I know it is done correctly.

eta

OK, I figured out it is form 22-1999 not 21-1999.Can someone confirm this is the correct form to request backpay form 22-1999 Thanks

Edited April 23, 2011 by crawsfire

[Berta]

I am so sorry if I gave you wrong form number.

Yes that is the form that the school fills out and then sends to the VA.

Apparently the school can use the VA_ONCE email addy.

In any event I got email from VA-ONCE telling me not to reply to the mail but that the VA had received the form from my school.