ptsd Help Calculating Back Pay Amount To Verify Va's Payment

[mariorivera830]

We recently were given 100% for PTSD and my claim went back to gathering of evidence after spending a few days at pending notification. There are still a few contentions that have either been denied or not been adressed. I think that may be the reason for going back. The verbiage on the ebenefits site is: "Change of Status: We determined that your claim needed additional review. If additional evidence is needed from you, you will receive a letter from us explaining what is needed." and "Decision Notification Sent

Development Letter Sent"

Well we got a pleasant surprise this afternoon: we received a text from our bank stating that we had a pending deposit and the amount could only be our backpay. YAY!!!

the only problem is that someone's math seems to be a little off; theirs or mine and august's payment is still being paid at my 60% rate. Can anyone with knowledge of how the backpay is calculated help me out please. I don't want to leave a penny that my family won't be able to utilize. I hope I don't sound greedy, it's just that I am not sure if there is going to be a split payment or if this is the final amount. I just want to be sure before we budget for our lives.

Current rating and pay: 60% - $1347.39 married with 4 children

Increases:

PTSD: from 50% to 100% effective date: 9/2/2013

Erectile Dysfuntion: SMC? effective date: 5/16/2014

Migraines: from 10% to 30 % effective date: 8/28/2013

Thanks for this and for everything Hadit! Once I get my letter I will post it.

-Mario

[NavyWife]

I can't say for certain that this is true, but another poster on here stated that The monthly payment changes by the 1st, only If the decision was made prior to the 15th of the month. That makes sense because they need time to input it into the computer before the payment is processed.

So in your case it sounds like the decision was made after the 15th of July, therefore it wouldn't be in time to change for the August payment. So you should see the 100% monthly payment start in September...

To figure the backpay amounts it should just be the difference between the 60% and 100% Back to your effective date of 9/2013, plus SMC K Back to your effective date of 5/2014.

Keep in mind there is a small cost-of-living increase each year so most of your retro last year will be under the pay rate for 2013 not 2014. You can find last years amounts by doing a Google search.

VA is well-known for putting a wrong effective date so it's good you are doing the math here because they screw this up pretty often.

Edited July 28, 2014 by NavyWife

[mariorivera830]

Thanks. The 15th thing is good to know. And I completely forgot about the yearly Cola. But it's still way lower than my math calculates it at. Thanks!

[Vync]

Hi Mario,

There used to be a pretty cool retro calculator at vadisabilitycalculator.com, but now that page seems to be totally screwed up. NavyWife is correct about the first of the following month

Given your estimated percentage and date increases, the calculations below -include- the COLA adjustments. It took me a bit to do this. Being that this is the first time I tried to do this, I am not certain that I got the math right, but it is worth a shot to compare against. I wanted to spell out how I calculated each step so that it could benefit anyone else who wanted to do the same thing.

The ratings tables I am going to use are from the two links below:

2012 through Nov 2013 (http://benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/resources_comp0112.asp)
Dec 2013 and all of 2014 (http://benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/resources_comp01.asp)

Your current combined disability rate, effective 1/14/2014

50%+10% = 55%, rounded up to 60%

$1347.39
Because of the different rates from last year, your monthly amount prior to Dec 2013 would have likely been $1,351. We need to have both amounts to adjust for the COLA changes when the rates changed.

Part 1
Erectile Dysfuntion: SMC? effective date: 5/16/2014
- This is an SMC-K award, meaning you will get it on top of everything else
- June and July 2014 retro payments: $101.50 x 2 = $203.00

Now lets calculate from when your combined rating would have changed:

Part 2
2013-08-28 - Migraines: from 10% to 30%

* Retro effective 2013-09-01

* Recalculate the combined rating 50%+30% = 65%, rounded up to 70%

* Using "Veteran with Spouse and Child", the new base monthly amount is $1,483. Add +$54 for each of your three additional children (assumed to be under 18), which is $162.00, added to your monthly base amount = $1645.00
* $1645 - $1351 = $294 retro for just this month

Part 3
2013-09-02 - PTSD: from 50% to 100%

* Retro effective 2013-10-01
* The 100% rating by itself would automatically boost your combined rating to 100%

* Using "Veteran with Spouse and Child", the base monthly amount is $3,088. Add +$78 for each of your three additional children (assumed to be under 18), which is 234, added to your monthly base amount = $3322
* $3322 - $1351 = $1971 retro for Oct 2013 and Nov 2013 x 2 = $3,942

Part 4
* COLA rate changed effective Dec 2013. Using "Veteran with Spouse and Child", the base monthly amount is $3134.32. Add +$79.17 for each of your three additional children (assumed to be under 18), which is $237.51, added to your monthly base amount = $3371.83

* $3371.83 - $1347.39 = $2024.44 retro from Dec 2013 through Jul 2014, eight months total = $16,195.52

Add all retro amounts from all four parts:
$203.00 + $294 + $3,942 + $16,195.52 = $20,634.52

But wait! Don't go out and buy a new just car yet. You've been around long enough to realize that the only way to know for certain is when the award letter is in your hands and retro hits the bank. Sometimes it hits the bank before you get the letter in the mail. That's always exciting. I really hope you win!

Also, please let me know how close my calculations are.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Vync

[mariorivera830]

Wow. My math was way less complicated than that. But thanks more than a bunch! I was off by a mere 3-4 thousand. Hopefully one I get the decision letter I will have proof for everything.

[ejfrank]

Im impressed!

[mariorivera830]

Im impressed!

Absolutely! I know I am!