The Invisible Rating

[Stu Pidasso]

I started my claim 14-Sep-1010 I was completed and rated 17-Jan-2012. I have been rated at 100% and recieving compensation. That is good I am happy about it. When I got my rating my dependents had not been included so I filled the paperwork out and sent it in. During the last 7-8 months I have waited and not heard anything from VA until last month. I talked to a lady on the phone, and she said that the claim I filed 14-Sep-2010 was still pending and that I just needed to be patient. I told her that was not correct and explained to here that I already had been rated and that I had recieved my confirmation letter. She looked in the computer again and said oh ok, so what is the problem? I explained to her that I was trying to ad my dependents and that I had sent in birth certificates and my marriage license. She told me that she would call me back. That was a month ago. Well this morning she called and left a message telling me that my claim that I filed 14-Sep-2010 had been completed as of today. She also said in the message that my claim for dependents would be processed at this time. She then after that said that she did not have an answer for me as to when I would be recieving my compensation because it had to go the approval department/office. I was blown away by all of this. I logged in to E-benefits and sure enough right there plain as day that my claim is pending. I look in my payment history and you can see where I got my back pay and where I get my compensation every month. So what I am now worried about is that they are going to kick my rating back or worse yet my compensation may be interuppted until someone can figure this out. I have been trying to call the lady back so I can find out what the deal is, but the number she called on only offers me a directory I cannot access. If anyone knows what is going on that would be great. All I was trying to do was add my dependents and get them some health care.

[broncovet]

One explanation to this is that you have the "wrong" address, and your decision was sent to your old address. You could remedey this by changing your address and asking for a copy of the decision.

Of course, mail gets lost or stolen too, even if they do have the right addy, so you can also request a new copy of the decision on a 21-4138 form, which is available online for download.

Finally, there is a chance your VSO has a copy of this decision, and you could ask him first or also.

In any case, I would get my hands on the decision, and read it over to make sure you agree with everything. Reason:

I made a similar mistake, spent the money and did not read the decision for about 3 years. By then its way too late to appeal.

Big Mistake.

[Stu Pidasso]

No I got the descion letter way back in January of this year. I agree with everything said. For what ever reason they still show my claim as open and that is wrong because all I was doing was adding dependents.

[Reddit]

When you add dependents,they list this as a open claim.

[ComputerGeek46]

Stu

I had to add an dependent likewise or simply show a divorce certificate back in 1991 they show this as a pending claim hopefully they will get you processed as adding dependents should not take as long as it is taking them for you I agree with broncovet make sure you have given them the proper addresses and double check them that they have the right address. Hope this helps

Thank you for your service

[ComputerGeek46]

Sorry Stu wanted to add make sure they have all birth certificate copies as well as marriage certs

[Stu Pidasso]

Thanks for the replies. I got a call last Thursday from someone at the Winston Salem Regional Office. I was asked to varify a couple of things. The lady on the phone told me that my stuff was all done and that I should be getting paid sometime this week. She could not say on the phone what the dollar ammount was so my guess is as good as yours. I am 100% and they owe me backpay for 24 months for a spouse and 4 children. So I suppose that is a pretty good bit. Now I just wish that the letter would get here. I am very excited about being able to enroll my spouse and my children in the ChampasVA. Having health coverage for them will be a real relief. All in all I did pretty good in this proccess. I wrote my own statement of claim and gathered all my own paperwork. I kept it simple and stuck with things that I had been diagnosed with when I was in the Army and I did not fabricate anything at all. I almost fell in a bear trap when I had a C&P exam done by a civillian and he tried to add a bunch of other conditions to the claim. That would have been a real pitfall for me because I did not have a bunch of paperwork for those things.