VBMS COURSE KNOWLWDGE

[FormerMember]

Here's a good start on claims 101 for all of you beginning your journey. VBMS is going to be an exciting new tool some day and you can be in front of it or chasing it. Good Luck to you all.

https://asknod.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/vbms-the-new-electronic-frontier-part-i/

[Berta]

Superb work Alex!

VA 101 sure has changed since the days I first started to read regulations.

These days I feel it is imperative for just about any VA claimant to know the regulations that will determine their claims.

I have been concerned about a wiodw who posted here about 2 weeks ago or more.

I linked her to the specific regs she seemed to need....but I did ask her many questions...and like a few other widows here over the past 17 years, she has not come back here yet.

One day at VBN years ago someone directed a widow to our DIC forum at hadit.

(I got kicked off VBN years ago because I gave out our site address in my VBN  profile, but since then  others have put it there on the VBN board)

The widow someone told to go to our DIC forum here ,replied she had already done that and some woman here (probably me) asked her too many questions so she didnt come back to hadit.

Heck, how can we possibly give appropriate advise here without asking the poster questions?

And for every claimant, as Tbird says "Knowledge is Power" yet I must admit sometimes ignorance is bliss...

.but in the claims process Knowledge is Mandatory.

 

[USMC_VET]

i think some folks thing they can just ask "the va denied me for my back" and we will just say "call up steve and say 'red unicorn' and he will approve your claim no problems".  What they dont know and someday find out (if they continue to try and get what they are entitled to), is that a lot of questions are needed to be answered and a lot of running around between M21 this and 38 cfr to get the VA to do the right thing

[FormerMember]

Yuku's VBN is an odd duck for a Veterans site. The Moderators' animosity there is palpable in virtually every post. They seem to have innumerable 'former staff' past their prime who feel compelled to keep on advising Vets . True advice should be something useful, not a litany of negativity. I will never forget my Kindergarten teacher's 'success in life briefing' -"Be a do bee, not a don't bee." It served me well. Advice here on Hadit is always conditionally given with the best intentions. VBN's helplines seem to eventually segue into a negative vein and  requires the thread to be halted to prevent verbal bloodshed.

I have seen Theresa take a more lenient tack in recent years to allow everyone to have their say. Fortunately, the members of Hadit are more civilized and here to learn rather than flame their fellow Veterans. I cannot begin to say how much I admire her for what she created. In retrospect, I'm sure the Veterans Administration wishes they had suppressed this site in its infancy. The number of Veterans with positive outcomes here ( as well as mine) is phenomenal -probably far more so than VBN.

When I began asknod, one of my primary concerns was that everyone would be heard in their entirety. Censorship to enforce a philosophy serves no purpose other than to promote one philosophy to the exclusion of all others. That would be fine if it were universal and applicable to all. Veterans do not fit into the same category. There are millions of permutations of any claim so advice must be narrowly structured to fit. VBN's wet blanket approach (our way or the highway) turned me off early on. The quality of the advice, for the most part, was marginal from the moderators. I, like you, found myself persona non grata in a short time and was shown the door. It seems Murphy's First Law of Advice is alive and well over there. 

Grandma always said "If you can't say anything nice about someone, come on over here and sit beside me." I do not subscribe to that. We are the equivalent of an endangered species with few protections. The last thing we need is infighting and backbiting amongst ourselves. In Veterans claims, the best policy is to offer good advice or get out of the way and allow someone knowledgeable to do so. Bad advice is worse than no advice at all. Grandma also gave me the Veteran's Miranda warning that has served me well- "Buckwheat, you have the right to remain stupid. Try not to."

[Chuck75]

Superb work Alex!

VA 101 sure has changed since the days I first started to read regulations.

These days I feel it is imperative for just about any VA claimant to know the regulations that will determine their claims.

I have been concerned about a wiodw who posted here about 2 weeks ago or more.

I linked her to the specific regs she seemed to need....but I did ask her many questions...and like a few other widows here over the past 17 years, she has not come back here yet.

One day at VBN years ago someone directed a widow to our DIC forum at hadit.

(I got kicked off VBN years ago because I gave out our site address in my VBN  profile, but since then  others have put it there on the VBN board)

The widow someone told to go to our DIC forum here ,replied she had already done that and some woman here (probably me) asked her too many questions so she didnt come back to hadit.

Heck, how can we possibly give appropriate advise here without asking the poster questions?

And for every claimant, as Tbird says "Knowledge is Power" yet I must admit sometimes ignorance is bliss...

.but in the claims process Knowledge is Mandatory.

 

"Knowledge is Mandatory"

This is the mantra! Beyond that, many veterans still seem to believe that the VA "assistance" with a claim should include far more than it actually does. In theory, as the VA was described to those leaving active duty, the VA was to provide serious help. It's rather obvious that the opposite is often true.  I believe that VSO's often have had a pragmatic approach that involved submitting a rather straight forward and simple claim initially, then when approved, submit the more involved ones. Undoubtedly this had several reasons behind it.

First, a simple claim had a better chance of being completed in a shorter time. Second, after all, the VA supposedly is required to look at records and add any obvious other claims.

Many veteran's experiences showed that this did not happen in any reasonable fashion, so claims for specific problems had to be individually made.  

Edited September 1, 2015 by Chuck75

[USMC_VET]

"Knowledge is Mandatory"

This is the mantra! Beyond that, many veterans still seem to believe that the VA "assistance" with a claim should include far more than it actually does. In theory, as the VA was described to those leaving active duty, the VA was to provide serious help. It's rather obvious that the opposite is often true.  I believe that VSO's often have had a pragmatic approach that involved submitting a rather straight forward and simple claim initially, then when approved, submit the more involved ones. Undoubtedly this had several reasons behind it.

First, a simple claim had a better chance of being completed in a shorter time. Second, after all, the VA supposedly is required to look at records and add any obvious other claims.

Many veteran's experiences showed that this did not happen in any reasonable fashion, so claims for specific problems had to be individually made.  

now i know it is mandatory and the "duty to assist' is obviously false.

However i just remember back in 06 during my first claim (all denied) and then 2011 (granted but was swaggled on %, did not receive my associates in VA learning until the last year or so) and how naive i was, i thought the VA was there to help and that i could just go and  file for a claim and they would do their best to give it to me unless i didnt deserve it.  pretty dumb? but most vets are like that, even though the military as a whole wasnt all that great at taking care of us our units were, so we transfer that trust to a agency dedicated (supposedly) to assisting vets.

My 50% for PTSD is solely due to the examiner, he was QTC.  i was reserved aout it and he got really deep into me regarind things knowing i was holding back.  I was resentful at first, but then i realized he was actually trying to help me and that i wasnt going to get the rating i should based on how i was answering in short answers, so he was digging on my behalf.

Every once in awhile you get someone with truly good intentions.  If not for him i would be playing catch up now.  However that IS NOT PAR for the course and vets have to help vets.

Edited September 1, 2015 by USMC_VET

[Fat]

This is great AskNod.........

I agree with every word especially showing up to speak with the person whom "screwed" the claim up.

Evidence is key so veterans prepare a well documented argument. 

Get face to face with someone and have them explain with evidence is looking them in the face.