SergeantQ Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Well good luck! I pray for you as well as myself! I need this to come through asap! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigSarge Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Well good luck! I pray for you as well as myself! I need this to come through asap! Let us know if anything happens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Founder Tbird Posted January 22, 2015 Founder Share Posted January 22, 2015 Wonderful news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdvet33 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I cosign this post. I too was advised to contact Allison Hickey i emailed her on wednesday last week. By friday i was on a conference call with the Director of the V.A Regional office and his assistants. Within hours my appeal went from step 1 pending to step 6 completed. I was shocked for 3 years my records were being shuffled aroind and lost at 4 different R.O's and my C and P exam was lost for a year. One email to this lady solved everything. By the way does anybody know where she works and what her job title is. I'm interested in kowing who this Allison Hickey woman is and what gives her so much pull. She is awesome and does an awesome job in helping veterans. Pete53 and Jim MAC 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rootbeer22 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 (edited) Folks: I'm so glad that Vets are finally getting help on some of their long-term claims. I'm just as frustrated as every one else with the timeline of my claim recently being doubled? But, I wonder how sustainable it is to send emails directly to Secretary McDonald and Mrs. Hickey? By now, since the word is out, they must be getting thousands of emails each day right now? As a result, this could have a long term affect on the claims system and may slow it down at some point for the wider group of Vets? I've worked on Senior Staffs before and when the "big" boss wants something just about everything that the action officer is doing...will stop to get an answer for the boss. Also, although it's nice to have direct communications with the Secretary of the VA, it's highly unusual and it will be interesting to see how long it will last? It is a shame that the current system is not working to resolve Vets issues in a timely manner and that the disability system has come to this current state? Maybe one outcome is that Sec McDonald will get a sense of some of the challenges that the VBA is having and maybe that will translate into more people being hired to work on claims and clear the the backlog? My own experience has not been very good so far with my own (first) disability claim but I'm into it about a year where some folks have been waiting years and years for any kind of movement or resolution? I'm just concerned that every action away from the current disability process has a cost so we'll see long term what effect this is having....on the larger group of effected vets at some point? Edited January 22, 2015 by rootbeer22 FormerMember and 63SIERRA 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgiapapa Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 sdvet33, Allison Hickey is the Undersecretary for Benefits at the Department of Veterans Affairs. A few months ago, some veteran's groups were calling for her resignation due to the lack of progress with the pending claims backlog. However, it appears Secretary McDonald has given Ms. Hickey the "my way or the highway" speech. It appears she chose Secretary McDonald's way which has saved her job and seems to have transformed her into a "get it done" veteran's advocate and a good example for her subordinates to follow. I am impressed with Ms. Hickey and Secretary McDonald at this point and I hope they keep up the good work. JMO Georgiapapa Watsonsl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts