Survivor Dies Before Or During The Appeals Process

[budda2015]

Iam writing this on behalf of my mom. My mom is terminally ill and the doctors tell us her prignoses is very poor. She is the widow of a Vietnam vet who died from a service related illness. After being denied DIC benefit we appealed and recieved a notice of disagreement. We have been told by the VA that there would be a determination made by april 15.MY fear is that there will not be a determenation made before my mom dies. my sister and i are in our 40s. My question is this.

1. Can we have these funds expidited

2. If Mom dies before a decision what happens with her appeal

3. If mom passes before a decision what recourse does my sister and i have

Edited April 29, 2015 by budda2015

[free_spirit_etc]

Here is the thread for the Office of Survivors Assistance:

Email - OfficeofSurvivors@va.gov

Looking over the thread,I see I had tried to obtain a copy of the medical opinion for TWO YEARS! I emailed them and they told me that they couldn't help, but if I gave them the RO I was working with and my claim number, they would forward the request to Consumer Affairs Liaison for assistance. I sent them the info January 19, 2010. The RO acted on my request two days later, January 21, 2010. I got another copy of the entire C-file on January 26, 2010.

[Berta]

You beat me to it, free spirit...I just found their email addy.

In some cases, they can assist but I am not sure what they can do for this vet , yet it is still worth a try!.

[free_spirit_etc]

We haven't heard back from the OP on this -- but since the title of the thread is "Survivor dies before during the appeals process" I am operating under the assumption that the issue is not what survivors can do if the vet dies before the appeal is complete. I think the issue is that the poster is a survivor, rather than the vet, and the issue is about whether the survivor's children will be able to get the benefits they are owed if they die before the appeal is complete.

If this is true, the faster the decision can be processed (correctly) the better, if the children are already older than 23, because adult children don't have many rights to benefits.

And actually, the survivor has enough to worry about already... without more VA BS.

So hopefully, if they could contact the Office of Survivors and / or Allison Hickey, and get some movement on the claim, that would be great. I hope if they let them know they are a survivor and they have a terminal illness, someone will get the ball rolling.

[Hardtimes]

Hi All, Let me shed some light on the problem, I am the brother in law to the Survivor who is Terminally Ill , she has 2 adult daughters, there has been a claim in for years which is due to be finish very soon I had made the suggestion to check Hadit for an answer as to weather the adult kids have any entitlements to the claim. From your conversation the answer appears to be no. But we will check it out. The mother was taken off life support 4/26/2015 so it's just a matter of time. I will conv this to Budda 2015 THANKS FOR YOUR TIME GOD BLESS

[free_spirit_etc]

Hardtimes,

I am so sorry to hear this. My heart goes out to your family.

The adult children may want to contact a veteran's attorney at some point. They may be entitled to something. If the children paid any expenses for their mother's last illness or funeral, they may be entitled to reimbursement for those costs out of any money due to their mother.

Again, I am so so sorry to hear this.

[budda2015]

Thank you all.for your responses.very helpful