Still Haven't Received Anything To Sign

[eg1970]

We got a letter today that says that his claim for bilateral vision loss is inextricably intertwined with his appeal for stroke secondary to ischemic heart disease. It goes on to say that since these two issues are intertwined his claim for bilateral vision loss will be addressed with his appeal.

He put in the appeal back in September 2013 and we were told in January that we would be getting something for him to sign and send back.

This thing is just so frustrating. My father called his VSO in March and was told that it takes several months to get the forms to sign. It's now been 7 months since he filed his NOD.

He's going to talk to his VSO on Tuesday to see if he has any information.

[71M10]

Appeal wait times have gotten worse since the implementation of the FDC and Provisional Claims Schemes. Since the Initial decision backlog was a nice tidy soundbite that kept bitting the VA in the backside, they decided to put the majority of resources towards that problem allowing the appeals backlog to grow. I think they feel that if attention is called to the appeals backlog, they will indicate that the people waiting in the appeals line already "received a fair decision on their claim" and they will just have to be patient. Since news bites are only 3-5 minutes long there will never be enough of a description of the problem to get people worked up about it. They know they can BS their way out of the appeals subject much more easily than the initial claims backlog.

If it is any consolation, a lot of the suspense dates used to be set at 9 months, so he is probably only 2 months away from getting his form.

[john999]

Is he a Vietnam vet?

[eg1970]

Is he a Vietnam vet?

Yeah he served there all of 1968.