Accrued Question?

[Berta]

Someone,somewhere here mentioned accrued benefits recently- I cant find the post.

The 2 year accrued regulation was altered by Bonny V Principi.

Successful accrued claims are now awarded as ALL accrued if the veteran's death was after December 2003.

Bonny however was not retroactive. (meaning for deaths occurring prior to Dec 2003)

Nehmer awards ALL accrued that accumulates under the disability that now is an SC AO disability by virtue of a Nehmer AO award under the new regs- if all the nuances of Nehmer come into play with those claims.

This however will become (in my opinion) a very convoluted situation for widows and widowers of AO veterans whose Nehmer claims involve accrued benefits.

I am preparing information on that for our AO forum.

Some widows and widowers will have a retro EED that includes accrued but also they need to consider what amount the vet got in his or her lifetime as other compensation-which will impact on the Nehmer rtro.

Also dependency issues could have been different since the veteran's last denied claim in their lifetime- another ramification involving Nehmer retro.

Also the posthumous SMC factor hinges on these awards in many cases.

I will be focusing solely on AO, DIC, and FTCA issues for a while here-

As NVLSP stated recently they have made multiple EED errors in the Nehmer claims already and

since VA has a Oct 31,2011 deadline for these claims, (I dont expect them to honor)

I bet there will be more Nehmer SNAFUs to come.

Accrued awards in general-non Nehmer------ I also will update the info in our DIC forum on that too.

[Philip Rogers]

Berta, that was me. Nice to hear "you correcting me!" I wasn't aware of Bonny v Principi, or if I was, don't remember. Again, thanks for the correction!! This news will help my ex, when she loses her current spouse, who is on borrowed time now.

pr

[Berta]

Sorry to hear of that vet Philip.

She can substitute herself as the claimant if he dies with a claim pending and that could generate potential accrued benefits.

She should also file for DIC if that has potential.

When a spouse substitutes themselves as the claimant for a deceased spouses pending claim- they still must go through the same rigamorale that veterans do, to prove the pending claim.

Under Nehmer the legal next of kin (as defined in the Nehmer regs) can step in and substitute themselves for the deceased Nehmer Survivor.

That is why NVLSP asks us for beneficiary info if we have contacted them via the AO email addy in our AO forum.

I gave them that info and also contact info for the lawyer here who prepared my will.

But the best thing I can do is to stay in good health-just for Spite!!!!!!

Edited October 28, 2011 by Berta

[Philip Rogers]

Thanks, Berta! She'll be eligible for the DIC, w/over 10 yrs, since he was 100% and they were married those 10 yrs. He has some pending stuff and my have some Nehmer issues, too. He doesn't have long and still smokes 3-4 packs a day. Of course at this point what's quitting gonna do for him, anyway. Sad, but were all gonna die. Best thing to do, now, is to try and live a long healthy life! jmo

pr