Claim Is Done?

[COOL BREEZE]

The strangest thing happened today. I get a call from the 800# which my wife answered and said I need to call them. So I called and the rep said that phoenix called me however they didn't leave a message in the system what they were calling about.. She thought it was about an IRIS submitted the other day. Now we all know that doesn't happen for at least a week to a month.

1 hour later another call from the 800# and the rep said I got some good news for you. Your claim has been completed. I said -great, outstanding. He said some claims have been approved, others denied. However he can't open it up right now as it hasn't been scanned into the system. Also said the new site is a pilot, not sure if they are going to keep it.

So, according to this, e-benifits is totally worthless. Now I am in limbo with a possible heart attack wondering what the hell is going on.

Pehaps the cardio was approved as it was the cue from the VA which was raise my claim from 50-60, or 70%.

Why call if you can't give me the whole story. And the system letter generator is broken, it won't show none of this.

Also, I just received an old iris message from October the 4th in my e-mail today which states-

Dear Mr.

This is in response to your recent inquiry to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dated October 4, 2011.

We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry. We are currently experiencing a large volume of inquiries and are working as quickly as possible to respond to each in a timely manner.

Our system indicates that you may print a Veterans percentage letter on eBenefits. We apologize if there was an error when attempting to print this type of letter. If you have problems with eBenefits in the future, please contact our customer service line at 1-800-983-0937. Hours of operation: Monday-Friday, 8am to 8pm EST.

Thank you for contacting us. If you have questions or need additional help with the information in our reply, please respond to this message or see our other contact information below.

Great-where is this new letter % letter at as My new glasses certainly can't find it?

2 hours later the same VSO called back from Phoenix. He says they are now attempting to call the Veterans when there claim is approved. They are just waiting to sign off on my claim. I did get him to say they approved my cardio claim from 30-60 %. He said I will be pleasantly happy with my claim even if only a few claims are approved. If that is so, I would go from 50% to 70$ with retro from the date he gave me from Jan 2010. Now I will just wait for the authorization.

Another VSO will check to see that that are no errors, then approve it.

Edited October 20, 2011 by COOL BREEZE

[Chuck75]

From what I saw of the letter generator, (when it was working) there are a lot of problems.

Using my own information from the letter generator.

The VARO replaced accurate information with older outdated, and incomplete information ????

Date information was incomplete and confusing. This had to do with how the monthly compensation is shown on a verification of benefit and disability letter sometimes needed to apply for non VA benefits.

The financial information breakdown was correct as far as I could tell. (Different from the benefit verification letter.)

Since the last change date (due to a rate increase) was 2008, that was shown, and the actual starting date of the compensation at the current % was totally omitted.

Other incorrect information was that the letter generator information "topped out" at 100%, and did not show other SC'd conditions that can be added towards the 160% for A&A.

The VA does "spoof" with the 800 number showing up. There are ways around this, but they can involve such things as finding out the "general" number for the VARO, and knowing the specific extension.

I'm afraid that if I am too specific, the back doors might just get closed.

A bit of web searching can help disclose the general number in some cases.

One clue has to do with VSOs co-located at the VARO and their phone numbers.

Another is a "lawyer to lawyer" number that is a published number.

Not too long ago, using this number, (Never mind exactly why, and why they would even talk to a veteran) I did find out that that an internal VA lawyer can "lay hands"

on a veteran's physical file in very very short order, when it's where it should be. (And if it isn't, I'm reasonably sure that someone would catch some flack.)

Sometimes the VARO fax number uses the same prefix as the rest of the numbers at the VARO. This alone can get you to the point where all you need is the extension number.

Another clue has to do with what used to be called a DSN or autovon number. You might have to use a government agency "A" phone and have a access to

a government directory to make use of that information. The last time I had to do that, the full directory was available via computers connected to the .DOD and .GOV domains.

(However, this was before 9/11 changes were implemented, so I don't know if this still works.) A lot of government directory listings just vanished overnight!

Knowing the full DSN number, and the commercial area code and prefix usually solved the mystery if you put the information together properly.

True. However when I asked the person who called me twice in the space of 3 hours where he was calling from-he indicated from the Phoenix regional office. How can the call from the Phoenix office and the regular 800# show up on your phone Id. And the same person called my house this morning when I was at work wanting to speak to me also from the regional office.

I know there is phone technology-spoofing I believe is the term when your phone can show any phone number they want to show.

I have never had anyone call me from the regional office with a status of a claim.

I was told it was in the final stage awaiting a review by a senior VSO for errors(notification stage?), that I do have an increase, and the cardio was increased. I requested a reconsideration on that claim showing the missed medical evidence would have given me a 60% instead of the 30% for the cardio.

And I will be surprised by the final decision. Since the e-benefits won't show the % on the letter generator which I had posted a while back, I will have to wait for a letter now. However he stated he will call back.

I wonder what got the fire going all of a sudden. Quite a few Vets are suddenly seeing movement. Either as the claim is over 1 year, or a new directive came out.

[COOL BREEZE]

The letter generator used to be something that we could steer Veterans to so they could check the outcome of the decided claim. Unfortunately that is no longer an option. Perhaps the VA caught on and took that option away since if the 80# is not allowed to tell us until we have the actual letter in front of us, why should we have access on the e-benefits as a back door. What a shame.

[COOL BREEZE]

Interesting how my claim has been in the notification stage for 1 week and until now there is still no change in e-benefits. That supports the feed back that they don't update the site. Perhaps the VA is more interested in reducing the back log and assigning staff to make calls stating that your claim is now approved.

[Colt]

Mine has been slow but it's been updated every time within a couple days. I found out last Wed (19th) it went back into notification and it changed yesterday on ebenefits (3 business days).

[Bigred122]

Interesting how my claim has been in the notification stage for 1 week and until now there is still no change in e-benefits. That supports the feed back that they don't update the site. Perhaps the VA is more interested in reducing the back log and assigning staff to make calls stating that your claim is now approved.

Well CB,The system must be working the same nationwide.My claim was opened on 08/09/10 and finally went into notification stage today. If I remember correctly, yours was opened around that time period. So claims are taking approxiamately 14 months to process.No letters/ no deposits to report. I was hoping that they wouldn't make a decision until January so that my retro would be at the higher rate.I was hoping to move before winter, so I too was in a hurry to get processed.But once I saw that increases would be coming in January, I figured I could wait till then for the extra cash. Just like the VA to screw up a good plan!!! Now due to our Back Pay being so much,we have to have Congress/Senate pass the extra proportions and then wait the president to sign the Bill!! Since this is my first claim, it will be easy to figure out my percentages. Just divide amount deposited by 14 months= monthly amount= Percentage of disability. (Before someone climbs up my backside, this is just a rookie way to guess.Must receive notification letter to be accurate) As soon as I get the OFFICIAL news, I will report back results and make my official Thank Yous!!

Newbies, my claim was complex and large so do not use the length of time from start to finish as a guide. Even tho it seems to be in the Ball Park with the single disability time periods. I believe my claim took so long due to making all the wrong mistakes. Even tho 800# says it was ok to add items to claim (not good),Contacting Congress Critters (not good), reporting frauds committed to OIG (not good),and questioning motives of all involved in processing of claims (not good). All of these caused my claim to be placed into the TIMEOUT pile a few times. Best advice " A watched Pot never boils"!! Start claim, get rid of all calendars, time pieces,ignore 800# and Ebenefits,find hobby or be placed into a coma for about 1 year. Bake at 300 degrees for 525,600 minutes!! Chill and cover with chocolate!! Mike

[Colt]

Newbies, my claim was complex and large so do not use the length of time from start to finish as a guide. Even tho it seems to be in the Ball Park with the single disability time periods. I believe my claim took so long due to making all the wrong mistakes. Even tho 800# says it was ok to add items to claim (not good),Contacting Congress Critters (not good), reporting frauds committed to OIG (not good),and questioning motives of all involved in processing of claims (not good). All of these caused my claim to be placed into the TIMEOUT pile a few times. Best advice " A watched Pot never boils"!! Start claim, get rid of all calendars, time pieces,ignore 800# and Ebenefits,find hobby or be placed into a coma for about 1 year. Bake at 300 degrees for 525,600 minutes!! Chill and cover with chocolate!! Mike

I don't think it matters. Mine went in 8/28/2010 and I didn't do anything you did. ;) But I did have a lot of contentions. I've been off and on in the notification stage since 10/12. Quoting the elders I can see why they always say, "It depends" because you never really know.

Glad to see you got movement buddy. I've been checking the mail everyday just to walk away dejected. Lol.

Edited October 25, 2011 by Colt