Frustrated! Va 800# Giving Me The Run Around

[Cherie33]

Im so frustrated right now... Ok, a few weeks back, I received an award letter stating the exact following:

Dear Mrs. Worthen,

We made a decision regarding your entitlement to VA benefits.

This letter tells you what we decided. It gives the evidence used and reasons for our decision. We have also included information about what to do if you disagree with our decision and who to contact if you have questions or need assistance.

Your current benefit payment will continue unchanged.

What We Decided

We made the following decision(s) regarding your claimed issue(s):

Dependency of your parent " " is not established. The parental income exceeds the dependency income limits.

Aid and Attendance for Spouse Sept. 18, 2014 (Effective Date)

* Entitlement to additional benefits based on the need for aid and attendance is established.

* Entitlement to aid and attendance allowance for "Spouse Name" is established effective Sept. 18, 2014 - the date you filed your claim.

Ok, so I've called the 800# a couple times and each time I have received a different explanation as to what this all means. The last phone call I was told that I was receiving the MAX benefit amount and that I wont get anything additional. I told her that cant be true, it just doesn't make any sense. Anyway, I spoke to someone else about 2 weeks ago and he submitted and inquiry too iris, and told me it would take 7 business days to hear back, today she told me 10 days...someone else told me that, it appears that the VA has not addressed the addtl award amount however it has in my file that they are suppose to pay the addl for my aid and Attendance spouse, and that's why he sent the inquiry in the first place.

Has anyone ever dealt with this kind of situation? I'm not sure what to do. Its been 10 days and I haven't heard anything from the VA.

Thank you,

Cherie33

[Berta]

Yeah, I recently had similar problems with Buffalo RO.

They granted a CUE claim I had pending for a longer period of entitlement, but said there would be no payments to me because I already got paid accrued on the same issue.

If there was no monetary value to me, they would not even attempted to award the entitlement date favorably.

I got paid 6 months of accrued in 2012 ..they owe me about 16 to 22 more months.100% under 1151 plus SMC vet (deceased) spouse and one child.

They did not cite any regulation or rationale whatsoever for saying the payment I got in 2012 remained unchanged.

Then I got into a rigarmorale with the RO director but she sent my files to VACO. They can read at VA Central Office .

They buggered my other claim up too.

Email the Under Secretary

allison.hickey@va.gov

Maybe the new VA scam is to make awards ,that they cannot really deny, but then not pay the owed amount.

This is probably one more way the VA has claimed to have 'reduced' it's backlog, as the VA Press Release I post early today here indicates..

Getting an award, which is better then some bogus denial ,still makes no sense at all.,if they don't acknowledge retro is due.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Berta

[broncovet]

Welcome to "Peggy". We cant give you a reasonable answer right now, so if you call back later we will also keep you in the dark. Or, stay on the line, and we will have one of our employees try to confuse you some more, by giving you a completely different answer than last time. Our new "honesty" policy requires we tell you this. Wait..they repealed that one. Now stay tuned for the next employee BS session. We thank you for your service. Good Bye.

Seriously, based on what you posted, your spouse was granted A and A. You may be able to get your answer here:

http://www.veteransaidbenefit.org/aid_and_attendance_pension_benefit.htm

[Cherie33]

Berta,

Thank you so much for your input, I most certainly will email the under secretary.

It made absolutely no sense to me. Why say that the aid and attendance is established as well as the allowance with an effective date, and the say (as the person I spoke to on the 800# said) oh you are receiving the maximum benefit so it doesn't change. I said yes I am receiving the maximum 100% benefit for a disabled veteran plus a dependent. Aid and Attendance is an additional SMC and if you red the VA rate table, it has a figure that you add to your current award for a spouse that has A & A. She then says she wasn't lying and wasn't going to sit on the phone and argue I said argue, maybe you should get your facts straight before you try to converse with me.... Really ticked-me off. Especially after I've been told different things every time I have called about this issue.

Cherie33

[63SIERRA]

evidently the Buffalo RO has someone doing telephone surveys .Im in Tejas and they called me.

[saints13]

Mrs. Berta is right as well as a lot of members on this website!!! Mrs. Berta has been through alot and alot of fighting.

I have the same issues with 800#, IRIS, etc, that is why I sent an email to the secretary. Everyone at the 800# number gave me different answers and IRIS was about 15 to 20 days late in response times.

I had a bad experience though emailing the secretary. I just got home tonight from an additional C&P exam that they called me on Wednesday March 25th of last week to be scheduled in Florida for Monday March 30th, I live in Texas now. To top it off the address I was suppose to go did not have me in their system after almost getting there to verify the appointment. I called around, researched online and finally found out I was scheduled to be in Mississippi for the exam. My wife and mother in law are pissed after all that driving. The C&P went exactly as I thought, the same as the others, hurry up, not listen, etc, etc, etc. Wanted me to take a 370 question test and interview me in less than an hours time.

I wonder what the procedure is to drop my claims and have my case brought to Texas. My original case back in 1998 was in Texas anyways. I did move to Mississippi for 3 years and did submit a claim and it ended up in Mississippi cause I was informed to mail it to Mississippi but I returned to Texas in last few months, due to issues out of my control and being closer to family again.

I have given up but now do not know what to do. I have 3 or 4 brown envelopes in my mail box when I return home just tonight all Demanding information from me that I already sent in and Demanding all sorts of other stuff. Each envelope had a date of February on it but marked out by hand, then hand written with March 25th date. and it says mail room received it on March 19th to send out. So what is what? The VA is messing with me very very bad and now I'm afraid. I should have kept my mouth shut and in my own opinion and just waited the 5 to 20 years for them to process it.

[Pete53]

The 800 number is worthless. It was better when you at least talked to your VARO