Chapter 35 Benefits.

[rpowell01]

I kept getting these applications from the St Pete RO on applying my daughter who will graduate high school May 2016. They kept sending them but I know that you cannot get Chapt 35 unless the criteria has been met, one being a living veteran is P&T. So after about the 3rd application I finally filled it out and sent it in. About 2 months later my daughter received the Certificate of Eligibility award letter qualifying her for Chapter 35. HUH? I've talked with JBasser and John Dorle about this and they also are kinda lost and Jbasser told me to file a IRIS question to find out if I am actually P&T and the RO hid this from me. Well I get the IRIS questioned answered and they said they don't see anything in them systems showing me P&T. So now I am kinda lost on this. Why would the St Pete RO send me these applications. I was kinda pissed at first wondering if I can file a TORT suit against the VA for this because now my daughter is stressed out over this. I wasn't about to allow her to use that letter then the VA comes back after 1 year or years later and say "Well you owe us money"..I am seriously thinking of file the TORT claim but has it no harm has been done like they have done on my medical treatment which is another title by itself. Yes I could sue the crap out of the VA for disregarding an MRI that was VERIFIED twice showing Cervical Discs herniations, one at C2-3 and the other one at C5-6. I still live with that pain today in my left arm...Okay getting off tracks.

 

My question is this, is it possible they approved my daughter Chapt 35 knowing in the future or near future, because I have requested a DRO hearing before certifying my case to the BVA, I will be approved P&T at the RO Level? See I never requested P&T because I did not know it was a claim. But after I received my Statement of Case, I submitted EVIDENCE the VA didn't even utilize during the process. You cannot deny 2 EMGs and the second one showing my issues are getting worse. So I requested a hearing as I did NOT waive RO Jurisdiction and submitted both EMGs that was not even talked about on the SOC. I also submitted addendum from Dr. Bash that he made in technical error because the EMG backed him up so he has to update the report. I also asked/requested that the RO approve me for P&T since its not a regular claim and to add my other leg to the SOC since BOTH legs are secondary to my back and it could affect the over all outcome to the case at BVA. Hopefully I will have this hearing in Spring 2016, fingers crossed.

 

So has this ever happened before or to anybody on hadit? Why would they approve Chapt 35 if I am not P&T. Yes I am on IU but I guess I am in their so called Stabilization period but that is only suppose to happen right after you get out of the military, per the VA regulations. Good thing is the RO overturned a denied claim of upper radiculopathy in my arms and gave me 10% but that wasn't enough to bump me up to 100% scheduler. So is it possible the VA/RO already knows if I am going to be P&T?

[Berta]

I suggest that you contact the VA Educational Department that issued the Certificate of Eligibility:

Here is the map that shows which Edu Dept handles claims in their jurisdiction:

http://www.benefits.va.gov/gibill/regional_processing.asp

VA Edu is sometimes an oxymoron.They only awarded my daughter one month of Chap 35 years ago but fixed it within 3 weeks due to a strong NOD and CUE I sent to my daughter to sign and send to them. Although the application clearly states that a veteran must check off the area involving any  military service and enclose a copy of their DD 214, they somehow could not read the application or her  DD 214,but reversed right away with Chapter 35 Eligibility for 7 years - which was the full period of her military service.Military service extends the eligibility period for Chapter 35 beneficiaries.

The error might have been made by them and not the RO.

Or maybe there is something they based the Certificate on, that neither the RO or IRIS picked up on.

My daughter also had to send to VA Edu a copy of the Chapter 35 SC 100% P & T award letter along with her DD 214,with her formal Chap 35 application,  so I am surprised that this error was even made,in your daughter's case ....or was it an error?

A Tort claim is only for VA negligence/malpractice and has a 2 year Statute of Limits.

If we claimants could FTCA the VA for causing us stress, we would all be rich and the VA would be broke.

If she does attend college prior to any official P & T award you get, the entitlement  date for the P & T might well cover any tuition she needs to pay in the meantime.

My Chapter 35 ran out under my first entitlement  decision, so I had to pay for  the rest of my degree myself .

But I also had another claim in process ,when I was in college, that was awarded 6 years later, , giving me a better Chap 35 entitlement date and by proving my tuition had been paid, within that new entitlement time line, VA refunded  to me...about 6 or 8 thousand bucks that I had paid to finish my degree.

Did Dr. Bash make any statement in his IMO that your SC disabilities are Permanent and Total, with a full medical rationale?

"so he has to update the report." If you contact him he might be willing to support a P & T statement.

 

 

 

 

 

[rpowell01]

1. Yes Dr. Bash wrote TWICE to the VA stating my conditions was permanent and total and said my condition would not improve but get worse. I am now dealing with SSDI reviewing my case on my 3 year benefit and they are saying "You can go back to work"...blah, blah, blah...The original SSDI decision was based on Dr. Bash's report because the AOJ/ALJ didn't believe the VA. You believe that? WHOA...SSA doesn't know what they are talking about, heck I am worse off now than I was whenever they approved it just Feb 2014. So now Dr. Bash did another exam on me just last week for SSA IMO and he stated again that I am permanent and total and that there is no sedentary work I could do. I cannot even stand at the door of wally word and say "Hello welcome to Walmart."...Unless they got a bed I can lay down after 5 minutes of standing or sitting there is noway I can do much. I knew my conditions would sooner or later stabilize but geez luiz I didn't expect to be this worse. I'm 47 and this is the reason they are saying "You can go back to work" because if I was 50 years old it would be different. Shame on our government for allow SSA to discriminate based on age which appears to be the only ORGANIZATION in the USA that can discriminate based on age!!!!  Its just progressing and progressing and I was just told last week by the ER MD I seen for my 2nd fall in two weeks that if I don't find anybody to decompress my spine I will be in a wheelchair in the near future. 2 years or NOT I will file a TORT claim against the VA for not wanting to pay an outside agency to go into my back and decompress it. Yes that decision was in 2012 and I am getting worse. This was the 2nd MD who told me this and Dr. Bash was the first.

My claim process would be a whole 500 page book and trust me they messed me up so badly they didn't even mention or bother to mention the EMG I had in 2013 nor include that as evidence. Yes that is a CUE but I have to wait until my appeals are exhausted before I can file the CUE. They need to change this policy because it would fix a lot of junk stuff the ROs write or do for the BVA in their SOCs.

 

[broncovet]

Va is often very vague, and even sneaky about P and T.  They use terms like, "no future exams are scheduled", and someone who has no VA experience is supposed to "know" that this is "code" for P and T.   Does the VA employee you spoke with know this?  Maybe or maybe not.  But you have it IN WRITING that you are eligible for Ch. 35, so I would not worry about it.  

The fact that VA cent a "certificate of eligibility" should suffice as, well, VA determination that your kids are eligible for Chapter 35.  

I recommend you NOT waste time worrying about them "taking back" the Ch. 35 Education benefits for several reasons:

1.  Its their mistake if it is even, indeed, a mistake at all.  Should it result in an overpayment they want you to pay back, you can apply for a waiver.  I sent VA a letter informing them I got married, and that my wife's income meant I was no longer eligible for pension.  VA keeps sending me pension for about 18 months.

I kept the money and spent it.  Then, finally I got a letter stating there was an overpayment.  I applied for a waiver, explaining it was the VA s fault for delaying this 18 months, and, it would cause a hardship to have to pay it back.  The waiver was approved.  

The VA calls it a "presumption of regularity".  You go to the doc in an entrance physical.  This doc is "presumed" to have done a good job examining you.  So if he missed something, then you can be compensated for it.  Notice the word "can" and not "will" be compensated. 

In a similar way, you have gotten notice of eligiblity for Ch. 35.  I have seen VA decisions that do not state "permanent and total", but Ch. 35 eligibility means P and T.  

My advice:  Help your daughter fill out the paperwork, and she should go to school, concentrating of finishing school and not worrying about problems that will likely never surface.  With most projects, if you had to have every potential problem solved before you began, then most projects wound simply never get started.    You can "presume" VA did their job, when they sent you a Ch. 35 Certificate of Eligibility, just like we "presume" VA did a good job when they awareded us benefits.  

Is it possible to get "reversed"?  Sure it is.  Its also possible to be sleeping and have your bed swallowed up by a sink hole.  

I think there are enough very real threats to worry about without worrying about those that are most likely not gonna be a problem.  

Edited December 25, 2015 by broncovet