New Notice On Ebenefits

[Ascomdepot68]

First time I saw the following on eBenefits this morning. Opening a new can of worms!

"If a new claim is submitted while an existing claim is pending, any new information will be consolidated with the pending claim. The new claim will then be marked as Complete and moved to Historical Claims with no further action required."

Edited September 22, 2014 by Asomdepot68 (see edit history)

[NavyWife]

Yes I logged on and just saw this too!

Also on the regional office of jurisdiction, It now has a ? Instead of naming the office.

Is anyone else's like that too?

[Ascomdepot68]

I have 14 "claims" listed on eBenefits. As of 2 minutes ago they ALL have ? as office of jurisdiction.

[NavyWife]

Ebenefits is a sure fire way to start my day full of anxiety!

I wish I had more self control that I could NOT look at it and simply wait for a letter in the mail!

[silverdollar22]

Yea, I know what you mean by lack of self control!!! I find myself checking E-benifits at least three times a day, and for 15 months it has said the same thing (Gathering Evidence) or DUST as someone had put it. Who knows mabe one day it will change!!!

[georgiapapa]

When it does change you will have to pinch yourself to make sure you are not dreaming.

[kate7772]

So, what does this mean?

[georgiapapa]

It means the VA has found a way to discourage veterans with pending claims from filing new claims. This will help the VA by slowing down the rate of new claims received but it will penalize veterans with pending claims who want to file new claims and establish an earlier effective date. As a result, VA will save a lot on money by delaying the effective dates of new claims. JMO

[K_C]

I made the mistake of submitting two additional claims about four months after my initial claim. I was educated by my VSO that this essentially reset the timer on my claim in terms of estimated completion time. They ended up consolidating all three claims and giving me the earlier date of claim, which I imagine would carry over if I am successfully rated.

Lesson learned. I figured out in July that I would definitely be filing for a scar I have. However, I didn't want to delay my existing claim any more. Solution? I started a new claim--but didn't complete it. I just did the very first few pages where you verify your information and they email you a receipt. The result will be I have a locked in date of claim and won't delay my existing claim since I'm not putting any potential burden on the VA at this point to collect any evidence. When my current claim is adjudicated, I can complete the claim submission AND will have enough time in the interim to collect any and all evidence in support of the claim so that I can submit FDC.

The only unknown contingency would be if my current claim wasn't adjudicated by July of next year, the expiration of the claim. However, I don't suspect that will happen at this point.

Edited September 22, 2014 by whalenkcj (see edit history)

[NavyWife]

Lesson learned. I figured out in July that I would definitely be filing for a scar I have. However, I didn't want to delay my existing claim any more. Solution? I started a new claim--but didn't complete it. I just did the very first few pages where you verify your information and they email you a receipt. The result will be I have a locked in date of claim and won't delay my existing claim since I'm not putting any potential burden on the VA at this point to collect any evidence. When my current claim is adjudicated, I can complete the claim submission AND will have enough time in the interim to collect any and all evidence in support of the claim so that I can submit FDC.

The only unknown contingency would be if my current claim wasn't adjudicated by July of next year, the expiration of the claim. However, I don't suspect that will happen at this point.

Great idea!

I did this exact same thing, filed a FDC in Sept. 2013, then started a claim on E benefits but not submitted, with the date of Jan 2014 saved. We will see if the experiment works out...

[ejfrank]

There is no more regional offices.The way it is done is a claim is filed and it automatically is sent to the office with the lowest backlog.You also can only have one claim per veteran at a time. This is the way they think that the claims will get done quicker. All paperwork is sent to a designated place to be scanned in now too.

[Notorious Kelly]

I wonder if Congress is aware of this new date game.

Sounds like another move to mask actual claims processing time.

[stanval]

Congress may have initiated this process. Go figure!

[Fat]

Shameful tactic if this is the case.

[rootbeer22]

Folks:

Someone looking at the disability claims numbers probably said, "hey we can get a great bump in disability claims processing", If we just consolidate multiple claims into one primary claim for the Vet? VBA still gets credit for working the claims but under one instead of two/or more claims incidents? In about 6 months or so, you'll see the reprocussions of this in the reported numbers to congress? However, it just means that that one claim is going to take longer now anyway? Frankly, I'm worried now that it's been reported that appeals have gone up about 400%, and it just shows that the adjudcators are just moving the claims off of their desks to improve the numbers? Overall, they (the disability raters) are probably just tired and fatigued by all of the pressure on them to get the claims out the door as soon as possible? It's not a job I would want?

Edited September 23, 2014 by rootbeer22 (see edit history)

[K_C]

Agreed on the sympathy for the raters. I think all of us here have had government jobs and can put ourselves in their shoes without much effort. They aren't the ones making these operational changes. In fact, they're being subjected to them just as we are. In some ways, we're both on the receiving end of the bureaucratic failures caused by others.

As Mark Twain put it, "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." While I believe there is some legitimate rationale to combining claims and improving the queuing system by sending to the RO with the least backlog, I have little doubt it's in an effort to merely polish the stats as easily and quickly as possible in order to remove the spotlight so business as usual can resume and remove any threat of real change or accountability.

[ArNG11]

Business as usual. Isn't that the truth. What I can't figure is all this crap with talk, and talk, committee's, panels, and investigations. I can sum it up by pointing out the grave of the last comrade that fell because of the failures of freaking bureaucracy, politics, and of course don't forget the green monster$ G $ R $ E $ E $ D !!!! the downfall of all societies. It's just plain horse manure. They just need a complete overhaul or a shot to the face, then the temple. I don't know. Im just blowing off steam I guess. FCT has me hurting pretty bad and it got me thinking about all the unnecessary crap veterans and veterans' families have to go through to get fairly compensated and fairly treated. Up chuck.

[MarkInTexas]

My NOD is still singled out as an appeal, but yes, same here. I had three new claims opened as inferred conditions resulting from a diagnosis in my VA C&P, then a few days after FINALLY receiving my missing exit examination reports from the NPRC (The VA nor I had them during all this time), I opened another one.

A few days later, the new one was added to the three previous inferred, and are being handled in the same claim.......I hope......

Mark

Edited October 12, 2014 by MarkInTexas (see edit history)

[chuck57thSig]

Well, it kinda makes sense. With hypothetical numbers, let's say 400,000 vets. Some vets have 1 claim, some have 10, 12, even 15, claims. Average number of claims per vet 2.5. Total claims - 1,000,000. Deny as many as possible for grammar, maybe 10,000. Request documentation but don't send the notices, or send them to the wrong vet who'll throw it away, maybe another 90,000. "Hey, before we do all that, how about combining all claims for the same veteran into 1 claim? Let's see, that would be a max of 400,000 claims - (minus) 90,000 - 10,000 = 300,000//// That's 700,000 claims completed in 1 week. Wow, we're doing great now!"

[ArNG11]

Look at it this way, they can consolidate all they want, mix it up and give a new color give it a new name or process and what not, it's the same shannanagans and elephant turds, remember and document with a big red x on the effective date you put in your claim for each condition. It will be FUBARED, mark my words. That is one thing we can count on. Be ready ahead of time. Effective dates, dates of entitlement, date of increases, and schedule changes are going to be problem areas and will ensue a plethora of new appeals already in the system.