Informal Claim

[Zechs]

To set my effective date through an informal claim, I know I need to state what condition I'm filing for on a form 21-4138, but do I need to state the symptoms or go into any greater detail?

I'm still gathering evidence, so I don't want to trigger a full claim at the moment, just stake an effective date and my intentions on formally filing within a year.

[broncovet]

My "BS" meter is RED HOT, and screaming uncontrollably. 400 claims in 2012 and ALL of them completed in less than 90 days? Zero "lost evidence"? Zero delayed C and P's? Zero delays? Zero bad addresses? Nope. Not in the real world. You should have tried to tell me that 10% of that 400 were completed in 90 days, I could have stretched it to that. I am not buying it one bit. I have been around too long. Babe Ruth did not hit 400 home runs in a row and you didnt bat 1000 on FDC's either. There are too many things that can/do go wrong at the VA to get all 400 no matter what.

In 10 years of talking to other Vets, I have had exactly ONE Veteran tell me their claim was completed in 90 days or less. And you had 400 of them in a row?

I might believe you if you said you tossed a coin and got heads 400 times in a row. But HOW in the world did you even find 400 Veterans filing claims, in 2012, ALL OF WHICH HAD THEIR ENTIRE SMR's, DD214's and everything they needed ready to file?

Edited January 5, 2013 by broncovet

[cham1968]

So what I should do after almost 2years is refile my claim as an FDC or do I have that opportunity to do so since it's not 1yr after discharge? Then my claim will be done in 90 days or less. Why do they just implement this program for those who have been waiting in line. Since they've already started on the claims simply state to the Veteran what he/she needs to supply to get their claim moving, Oh wait the veteran has already submitted all the information they have and are waiting on other government sources for confirmation WTH MEGHP0405 it's the same old story, forget those who have been waiting let's take care of the NOW. How does that make since I'm betting that 50-60% of claims have all that a veteran can provide with the exception of C&P or other Gov agency information, So the fix is to just skip over those claims. Why can't you Apply the FDC to them Oh because they don't have the information needed from those "other" agencies what a CRock. LMAO Thanks for nothing VA!

Oooh Rahh

[broncovet]

Cham

I recommend:

Do not "refile" as an FDC. You have already filed, and cant reset the clock. Filing again will only confuse VA. However do this instead, in this order:

1. Send an Iris email inquiring the claim status. They could have lost the whole thing, then you will have to refile. It happens, FDC or no FDC.

Keep a record of their email response.

2. Call the 800 number and ALSO inquire the status. Also note what was said, along with time and date, and keep those records.

3. Since 2 years is too long for an initial claim, your address may be incorrect, and you may have a decision but it was not recieved by you for whatever reason. Check to see if your address is correct on ebenefits.

4. Send a 21-4138 documenting that you filed two years ago for xxx benefit. Ask AGAIN for your claim to be adjuticated, referencing your original 2 year old claim.

5. Wait a couple months for responses to the above.

6. If still no answers, file an "intent to file a writ of mandamus".

7. Finally, still no answer file a writ of mandamus.

[meghp0405]

My "BS" meter is RED HOT, and screaming uncontrollably. 400 claims in 2012 and ALL of them completed in less than 90 days? Zero "lost evidence"? Zero delayed C and P's? Zero delays? Zero bad addresses? Nope. Not in the real world. You should have tried to tell me that 10% of that 400 were completed in 90 days, I could have stretched it to that. I am not buying it one bit. I have been around too long. Babe Ruth did not hit 400 home runs in a row and you didnt bat 1000 on FDC's either. There are too many things that can/do go wrong at the VA to get all 400 no matter what.

In 10 years of talking to other Vets, I have had exactly ONE Veteran tell me their claim was completed in 90 days or less. And you had 400 of them in a row?

I might believe you if you said you tossed a coin and got heads 400 times in a row. But HOW in the world did you even find 400 Veterans filing claims, in 2012, ALL OF WHICH HAD THEIR ENTIRE SMR's, DD214's and everything they needed ready to file?

i'm glad your BS meter is RED HOT! maybe it will make you and others like you, take your blinders off, come down off your pedestals and look what's going on. I would think if you moved your negativity to doing something positive, you to can make a difference. I became a veteran service offiicer after I was medically retired after 21 years of service. The process stunk and it still does! I am not a fan of shiniski, never have been nor will I ever be! He needs to go! An office party of 4 million dollars spent and he knew nothing of it? why didn't he report to congress? Why did he send his deputy? he and his black berets need to not just go away, but go the HELL away!

This backlog of claims is serious business! As I stated earlier, ANYBODY can do an FDC! Not just the new guys as you stated. I have done claims for Korean war vets all the way up through these guys that are now getting out of service. And now you want to tell me what I did and what I didn't do? Just who in the sam hell do you think you are? I can show results for each of those 412 FDC claims that were submitted and approved by VA. I can also show you the status of some of the 186 claims that I did, because the veterans didn't want to wait to get all the required documentation. They wanted to hurry up and get their "informal claim" in to set an effective date. Almost everyone of those claims are still being adjudicated. Each time a veteran sends in medical documentation, in more cases than not the claim goes back to the development phase, thus creating and adding additional time to his/her claim. Yes, each of those FDC claims that I and other service officers around here (it's just not me) have had no lost documentation. The claim is sent in as a FULLY DEVELOPED CLAIM. Once VA receives it, the claim goes strait to the development folks who order the C/P exam(s). After the C/P exams are done, the claims go right into rating, decision and notification phases. And here you want to tell me only 40 of my claims were ok? You do not need a full medical jacket to send with each claim. All you need is all supporting documents to the disability that you are claiming. Do you know what DBQ's are? Using them will only increase the speed of these claims. I have seen a total of 936 veterans/widows/widowers for 2012, of those 936, a total of 598 claims were submitted, 412 were FDC and 186 were a VA FM 21-4138 requesting an evaluation for what ever disaability the vet wants to claim. The service officer about two miles down the road seen about 1200 vets. At least that's what he reported at the last DAV meeting. Don't know what his stats were, he didn't report and I didn't ask. Many of the deficiencies you point out in your post would be totally rectified if you had a service officer that knew what he/she was doing. It's our responsibility to inform the vet with the best information we have. There are too many so called street lawyers out there that think they know everything, in fact I and some of my peers have on a continous basis, have to fix many of the errors that were completed by them. Many talk a good game, Babe Ruth had a good game as you so described above, but one thing I don't do is compare veterans. Each veteran is there own person, the paperwork may be the same but the veterans stories, experiences are far from being the same. I have a great volunteer job that I love! And I do well at it. For that I am extremely grateful to the GAOTU for providing me the knowledge and paitence to work with our veterans. Seeing these vets come back and thank me is the greatest gift I could ever receive. of all the vets that I have seen over the past years, I still remember this widow of a WWII veteran, it took almost 4 years to obtain the DIC benefits that she was entitled to when her husband passed years ago. She showed me her bank statement where the VA had paid her just over 183,000.00. She asked me what I wanted or needed. I told her nothing, she then asked me if she could give me a hug. I got up from behind my desk, gave her a hug and that was the greatest feeling any service officer could experience!

[meghp0405]

Cham

I recommend:

Do not "refile" as an FDC. You have already filed, and cant reset the clock. Filing again will only confuse VA. However do this instead, in this order:

1. Send an Iris email inquiring the claim status. They could have lost the whole thing, then you will have to refile. It happens, FDC or no FDC.

Keep a record of their email response.

2. Call the 800 number and ALSO inquire the status. Also note what was said, along with time and date, and keep those records.

3. Since 2 years is too long for an initial claim, your address may be incorrect, and you may have a decision but it was not recieved by you for whatever reason. Check to see if your address is correct on ebenefits.

4. Send a 21-4138 documenting that you filed two years ago for xxx benefit. Ask AGAIN for your claim to be adjuticated, referencing your original 2 year old claim.

5. Wait a couple months for responses to the above.

6. If still no answers, file an "intent to file a writ of mandamus".

7. Finally, still no answer file a writ of mandamus.

Cham; if you retired and submitted a BDD claim, those claims are sent to the Winston-Salem VARO and they are taking awhile. I seen a veteran in my office just before Christmas, his claim to 29 months. It's wrong just plain wrong for any veteran having to wait that long!

Edited January 8, 2013 by meghp0405

[meghp0405]

My normal initial claim took over 2 years. But remember Meg is talking about the Fully Developed Claim (FDC) program which I have one in I submitted Dec 26th 2012 with all the paperwork and there is already movement on it. The VSO's here say they usually complete the FDC's here in Phoenix in 90 days or less, even shorter if you submit the DBQ and IMO with it. Regular claims or NOD's forget it join the crowd and wait for years.

My normal initial claim took over 2 years. But remember Meg is talking about the Fully Developed Claim (FDC) program which I have one in I submitted Dec 26th 2012 with all the paperwork and there is already movement on it. The VSO's here say they usually complete the FDC's here in Phoenix in 90 days or less, even shorter if you submit the DBQ and IMO with it. Regular claims or NOD's forget it join the crowd and wait for years.

if you would, place a note on here when you receive your rating decision. On your statement above, regular claims can be submitted on VA FM 21-526ez as a FDC. That's what it is! Once you receive an NOD, that being the initial stage of an appeal, your on VA's schedule.

Edited January 8, 2013 by meghp0405