Va Timeline Policy....

[veteran7796]

Good Morning,

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a long term (13 year employee) VA rater on a personal level who is outside of my RO in another state. The rater seemed to be appalled at how my RO in Waco has handled both my claim and many other claims in this region.

The rater informed me it is written verbatim in VA policy that once a rating decision has been made and granted, the VA has exactly 5 working days to "promulgate" the claim, finalize it and pay the veteran.

Has anyone else heard this?

I ask because both my VSO and this rater looked at my info and said my claim is already rated, it just needs to finalize. The thing is, they rated my claim and granted it over a month ago...and it's just sitting there. The rater said it could be done "today" if they wanted and there is no excuse after a decision has been made and approved for it to sit for another month...let alone another week.

However, my VSO who works at the RO in Waco just told me although my claim is rated, I should expect another 60 days before they can process it.

I told the rater what my VSO said and the rater said that was absolutely absurd and that the VSO should have already reviewed it in (VBMS?), sent it back and have it processed right away. No excuse.

Any thoughts?

[Vync]

I can tell you that after my last claim was approved, postprocessing was so fast that it would make your head spin.

[Veldrina]

there is a backlog that Sec. SHinseki had been fighting & now the new guy AND Allison Hickey are battling. Claims are "supposed" to have a turnaround time of a business week but it doesnt always happen. VSOs may not have gotten the hang of reviewing things in VBMS but that's no reason for a hang-up...at least in NY our instructions were they get a week to review & if not, onwards.

[TiredCoastie]

Exactly where does your claim stand within the VARO? Has the decision been signed as approved by however many decision makers are required to sign it? If a rating decision has been crafted but not finally approved, that might be your hold up. Sounds like it's stuck in someone's inbox waiting for approval from what you've been told.

Don't be too surprised if your claim's decision bouncing back and forth several times between the rater and whatever approving official(s) is/are involved before they come to a final conclusion and decision.

If the claim has been approved, signed, and is waiting for distribution, that can occassionally take a while. Sometimes it's really fast. My last couple of claims, though, required some amount of time to make it's way through the mailing system inside the VARO -- Christmas holidays really slowed things down -- or somehow just plain hung up -- an IRIS inquiry email freed up the large white envelope with a later date stamp on the letter than eBenefits showed the claim closed. But if your VSO says 60 days until a formal decision, then it's probably not stuck in the mail room waiting for Labor Day to pass.

[rootbeer22]

Veteran7796:

The good news is that either way, you are getting closer which is good. I wish you all the best of luck and hope that you get eveything that you deserve soon. Frankly, I'm not a very patient person myself and the whole disability application process requires a lot of patience so I'm learning to adjust. I'd like to hear more directly from rating officials like you have to learn what they are going thru as well and what their challenges are to finish our applications and ratings. I'm sure that they are very good folks working hard to take care of us but with a tremendous workload? I did hear that VBA is working to make it a smoother transition from the rating to actual payment so at least they are trying. I try to think about the other side of the equation and it can't be easy for them as well? But, very soon, you are probably going to see a singificant sum in your bank account and you'll be able to celebrate..good luck..

[veteran7796]

According to my VSO and the rater I spoke to, the database shows the increase from 0-10% and the effective date back to 5-31-2011 is already "rated" and "granted" as they put it. The rater seems to think my VSO is the one not doing their job in getting it pushed through. I have to agree considering that the rater I spoke to is under the firm impression that if my claim were at thier RO, based on what they see in the database, it could and would be completed by the end of the day. I guess it is waiting on a single signature to get it all done since it was a CUE. But, again, from what the rater told me, it could be done today.

So, Im perplexed. All in all, it just upsets me more that they deliberately put it into a false status on e-bennies to justify putting it off. Why am I in Prep For Decision when a decision has already been made a month ago? I mean the claim made it all the way to Prep for Notification then got pushed back to ROE and now is Prep for Decision. Based on the raters mindset I should be in Prep for Notification...if not COMPLETE.

[veteran7796]

rootbeer22,

I get what you are saying and I understand the red tape that has to be sifted through. However, this is a claim for an increase on a single contention I KNEW they messed up on. My initial claim fell into the group last year where they tried to eradicate the backlog. It took them well over 2 years to do my initial claim!! In the process, they made a lot of mistakes. All said and done, because I had to pay back my separation pay, I didnt start receiving a check until last month...LOL!! So, IF the VA hadnt made the CUE, I would have actually started getting paid $683.00 a month over a year ago which really would have helped my financial situation.

The other things to consider are that this increase was a Fully Developed Claim AND a financial hardship AND it was a CUE made by the VA. In addition, they left me with no ammunition to start an appeal because they STILL have never responded to my FOIA/Privacy Act Request from a year ago which would have helped me in my appeal process. Instead, my FOIA Request still sits in CLAIM RECEIVED well over a year past my 1 year appeal deadline.

It's just frustration that they screwed it up bad from day one and when I tried to appeal, they left me in the dark and now drag their feet on the increase too.