My First Payment Is Way Larger Than What It Should Be

[schmitty918]

I got my first payment for VA disability a few days ago. I little over 14,000. While that is great an all, I searched around and I found my approval letter on ebennifits and I was approved for 50%(around $850 a month) starting December 1st, 2014. The math doesn't make any sense. Can someone please explain this to me? At first I was thinking it was the last installment of my enlistment bonus, but I'm pretty sure that money comes from a the Army, not the VA and I was discharged early so I wasn't expecting that anyway.

[saints13]

Seems pretty high to me as well unless you have dependents which gives you extra for spouse and per each child. It also depends when you first started your claim. I got extra money as well cause I assumed. The treasury department did come back and wanted to take all my compensation until it was all paid back. I would stick to your math and put rest into some kind of savings acct to at least make interest on it and when va wants it back you have it to give it back immediately. I would not have a clue on who to ask if payments are correct or not. At least you got more than anyone on here that is fighting for years for more that they deserved. And yes Army pay and VA pay it totally different!

[Pete53]

You might ask VA to give an accounting as to how they calculated your back pay.

[ketchup56]

You never stated when you filed your claim .Dec.1 2014 date you describe is not your but represents the last date of cost of living adjustment. Date you filed claim and date claim is awarded. That's what you're being paid.

[schmitty918]

Thanks for your replies. Yeah, that's my biggest problem is that there isn't an itemized breakdown of their payments anywhere. I probably will throw the extra in my savings account. When I did the math that amount would come out to be about 1 year and 4 months backpay instead of 4 like it should be. Don't know if that means it could be a typing error on their part. @Pete53 can you direct me exactly where to go to get that accounting?

My VA social workers come visit me at home every Monday so they might be able to help me.

Also is severance pay maybe something to take into account? I got out and recieved the disability about the same time.

[georgiapapa]

schmitty918,

When were you discharged?

When did you file your claim?

The reason I ask is if you filed a claim within 12 months of your discharge date, the effective date of your claim would be the date of your discharge. It is common for the VA to put the date of the last COLA (Cost if Living Increase) on the award notice and December 1, 2014 would be the date of our last COLA and not the effective date of your award. If this was the case and you were discharged about 16 or 17 months ago, your retro could be around $14,000.

Good luck and thank you for your service.

GP

[broncovet]

You should just chill out until you get the benefit letter. Ebenefits is notoriously unreliable. In the mean time, put the money in savings, like you suggested, and keep the interest if you have to give it back. You should know when you get the letter.

Edited March 22, 2015 by broncovet