Open Claim

[Berta]

http://www.va.gov/vetapp06/files2/0609885.txt

By decision dated April, 2006 :

"As noted previously, the veteran filed a claim for pension

that was received on August 25, 1969 citing hearing loss as a

disability. A claim for compensation may be considered to be

a claim for pension and a claim for pension may be considered

to be a claim for compensation. 38 U.S.C.A. § 5101(a); 38

C.F.R. § 3.151(a) (2005). Therefore, for the purposes of

this appeal, it may be found that a claim to reopen service

connection for hearing loss was first received after the 1967

Board decision on August 25, 1969.

The Board thus finds that the award of service connection for

hearing loss is warranted from August 25, 1969, based on the

date that the claim to reopen was received"

I believe they are saying that-the pension claim date- which included the hearing loss-(the pension was granted)

was also the earliest effective date of the claim for SC hearing loss.

A very interesting decision.

[Guest jangrin]

Berta,

This is a very interesting case. If I understand this correctly, there could be thousands of veterans cases that are in the OPEN status and they wouldn't even know.

Any veteran that has filed a claim and been denied, and then either wrote a letter in response to the denied claim asking to be reconsidered, or any veteran who has had financial need and requested a pension and listed his disabilities on the pension form, has in effect opened or reopened a claim for benefits.

Is this correct? Or am I getting it wrong?

[Berta]

Jangrin-this is how I am interpreting this too----

I am surprised at this decision-

We see so much direct service claims that I too wonder how many veterans receive NSC pension,then finally succeed in direct SC claim for the same condition-so their EED should be date of the pension award ????

But then again- the SC comp would have to be greater amount than the pension to really affect the vet in a monetary way- and I believe that the VA would deduct the full amount of pension this vet received from the retro compensation due to the SC award.

Edited November 11, 2006 by Berta

[Guest jangrin]

Jangrin-this is how I am interpreting this too----

I am surprised at this decision-

We see so much direct service claims that I too wonder how many veterans receive NSC pension,then finally succeed in direct SC claim for the same condition-so their EED should be date of the pension award ????

But then again- the SC comp would have to be greater amount than the pension to really affect the vet in a monetary way- and I believe that the VA would deduct the full amount of pension this vet received from the retro compensation due to the SC award.

Berta,

No, I don't think so.??? The effective claim for benefits date (EED), would be the date they FILED for PENSION. A veteran getting pension still has to go through all the rig-a-ma-roll the VA requires. Our SO told us sometimes it takes a year or more for a vet to get a pension based on need and income. And then if the vet was denied the pension, I think he still has an open claim for benefits

I wonder how many WW11, and Korean, vietnam vets who have needed help financially, but made more than poverty level so were denied pension. But, thier CLAIMS ARE STILL OPEN. Sounds like lots of retro to me. ????

jangrin

ALso, I don't think the VA would be able to deduct the money paid to the veteran for a pension. The pension is NOT BASED ON COMPENSATION FOR SC ILLNESS OR INJURY. The pension is based solely on military service participation and financial need. I think any award would offset the future financial need but not past need. Tricky subject though. B) B)

Edited November 11, 2006 by jangrin

[free_spirit_etc]

Yes. I don't know if they could deduct the past pension from you. But there are ways they probably could. It would depend on how they view pending $$. If they say that the SC was pending when they gave you the need based income - then they could probably take the money they gave you back out of the amount they pay you for retro.

Actually, even if the money is not pending - they can sometimes take it back. When my husband quit teaching last fall - he drew unemployment. He had no intention of applying for SSD --as we still didn't consider him disabled. Then this summer, we realized that he could get SSD. He got approved for SSD in a few weeks. The ink was not even dry on his chek before unemployment wanted to be repaid for a portion of what he drew from them.

He didn't have to pay it back because they figured he drew it dishonestly. It was because he was paid SSD (as back pay) for the same time period - and that was counted as a "pension" he recieved. Since SSD was about twice as much - he had to pay about half of his retro SSD check back to Unemployment.

So the Vetereans could probably do that too. If you recieve RETRO - they might recalculate the pension you were due during those years -- adding the retro in. Of course, if it was only a 10 or 20 percent disability --if the SC would still have made you eligible for the pension -- then they couldn't take any back. But if -- say - you would have recieved an amount that would have put you over the pension - they might be able to withhold THAT amount.

Free

Free

Berta,

No, I don't think so.??? The effective claim for benefits date (EED), would be the date they FILED for PENSION. A veteran getting pension still has to go through all the rig-a-ma-roll the VA requires. Our SO told us sometimes it takes a year or more for a vet to get a pension based on need and income. And then if the vet was denied the pension, I think he still has an open claim for benefits

I wonder how many WW11, and Korean, vietnam vets who have needed help financially, but made more than poverty level so were denied pension. But, thier CLAIMS ARE STILL OPEN. Sounds like lots of retro to me. ????

jangrin

ALso, I don't think the VA would be able to deduct the money paid to the veteran for a pension. The pension is NOT BASED ON COMPENSATION FOR SC ILLNESS OR INJURY. The pension is based solely on military service participation and financial need. I think any award would offset the future financial need but not past need. Tricky subject though. B) B)