AB3 COMMISARY LETTER

[Irv]

A commissary letter link showed up on my e-benefits yesterday. I am only 60% waiting for a NOD. My AB8 letter still shows a 60%.

Is this normal. or maybe a sign of a 100% rating?

I clicked on the commissary letter link but I only get this:

How You Can Contact Us

 

• If you need general information about benefits and eligibility, please visit us at https://www.ebenefits.va.gov or http://www.va.gov.
• Call us at 1-800-827-1000. If you use a Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD), the number is 1-800-829-4833.
• Ask a question on the Internet at https://iris.va.gov.    

[broncovet]

VA wants to make more homeless Veterans.  YOu see, homeless Vets are at a very big disadvantage:

1.  They dont have an address to receive their denials, so often they wont even know to appeal.  VA strictly enforces the one year time limit on appeals, even if the Veteran is homeless and has no address to send the decision to.  

2.  Homeless Vets do not have a computer, with internet access, so they can not have hadit knowledge (except for a few who go to the library, where you can only use the computer for 30 minutes in my town).  So the homeless Vets are easy for VA to take advantage of.  

3.  Homeless Vets dont have a place to store documents, so VA can shred them, at will, and then deny they ever got them, and deny the homeless Vet benefits.  

4.  Homeless Vets can often not get a ride to VAMC...VA "reimburses them"  IF they have a checking account.  Yea right.  

There are many, many, many other obstacles to homeless Vets getting benefits, and VA wants to make sure that VEts stay homeless, or they even make more of em, by delaying benefits for years and years forcing VEts into homelessness.  This is not a "theory", but, instead, my home was foreclosed upon WHILE WAITING ON VA TO APPROVE BENEFITS.  I got some benefits, but it was too late.  I applied in 2002, and got zero benefits until the 2005 lowball.  It was too late and I lost my home.  

Edited September 22, 2015 by broncovet

[FormerMember]

<<<<<<<My SC on two conditions was granted Aug 14, 2015 by BVA,>>>>>. This is priceless. I got a JMPR back from the CAVC to the BVA on 4/13. It took six months to go 6 blocks from Indiana down to Vermont Ave NW (11/13). It took another three months to be rated and funded at the RO in Seattle (2/14). And it was handled "expeditiously". And they only gave me 3/4 of it. I had to file all over again to get the rest. Sometimes you guys are pretty funny about expecting the VA to "gitterdone" in a timely manner. 

As for advancement on the docket, once it commences, it's just over four months to a decision currently. 

[flores97]

Asknod, I probably would have fainted dead away had the RO taken only a month to rate my conditions, by all means I fully expect it to take at least another couple of months, I was simply giving an example of the weirdness that has been happening on ebenefits(I.e. the non sc pension on my ebenefits showing as being received).  I have noticed however, when you are rated at RO level it is significantly faster than being rated after an appeal. My neighbor had a c&p exam last month and his new ratings and retro in his account two weeks later. I am also a single mother that was terminated from my only means of income due to the sc disabilities as of Sep 18(this past Friday), I have also waited six years on these same two claims, so I'm hoping it won't take another six months, as I don't have that much in savings.  I didn't mean to give the impression I feel entitled, I know there are vets on hadit, such as you, Asknod, and Broncovet, whose stories make mine look like a picnic with all the trimmings.  I am deeply grateful to every vet here that offers advice, just wanted to clarify. 

[FormerMember]

I mean no arrogance. I know waiting. I know going so far into debt that the twelve years of retro can't even fix it. Lost vacations. Lost college opportunities. I could go on. You are are getting creamed. You've won so that's half the battle. Getting inside the wire is 80 % of the war. Mopping up VA resistance is the rest of it. If you are experiencing extreme financial issues or risk foreclosure, you can get VA to do it in 90 days. Likewise, any medical issues of offspring or if you are over 30% rated provokes the same codicil of 20.900(c). Mitigating circumstances that merit advancement to get the benefit funded are most easily addressed by visiting the RO in person. Be prepared to wait. Bring some good pink bubble gum. We find this far more rewarding. Never bring the VSO unless you want to muddy up the water.

I just had a Vet friend do this at an RO yesterday. He ended up meeting with the VA Service Center manager. He was able to talk directly to the rater afterwards who screwed up. He was able to tell the rater the correct SMC interpretation. The rater has agreed to contact the C&P physician and  ask him if being paralyzed from the waist down with no bowel control is the same as having anatomical amputations such that it would be infeasible for any protheses  to attach to the trunk of the torso for either leg. I don't make this stuff up.  

Best of luck. I'm glad you are beginning early. We leave none behind... everyone gets a shot. I just found it an amusing anecdote about expecting VA to do anything "expeditiously". I certainly mean you no disrespect. You are a Veteran with a capital V. You volunteered when few others would. America owes you one. Or Two. Or however many it requires to get it right. The good Lord forbid it takes as long as mine did. I'm done litigating.

[flores97]

Thanks, Asknod, I value your opinion, you are one of the most knowledgeable vets on this site and have helped every veteran who asks.  I took no offense whatsoever, and agree that going to the RO in person can often help, thats how i got my videoteleconference scheduled.  I am, as of today, flagged as hardship, and i will wait as long as i can, at least a month or two, to give them time to work on it, and hope for the best.  Still puzzled over ebenefits stating i am receiving a non sc pension.

[FormerMember]

If you believe anything eBennies says, I'm gonna go out on the skinny branches and say you belong to the Flat Earth Society. Say you're funning me. I'm the poster child for expeditious. Twenty one years, six months and four days. I actually believed three VSOs.