VA Fraud Against Veterans?

[Guest ScareCrow]

Unfortunately have been seeing a disturbing trend lately from the lying, cheating VA, here is how it works.....

 Lets say the VA finally awards a disabled veteran an award that they had been fighting for and erroneously awards 10% back several years(VA regs state that the veteran deserves a higher award so they will have to NOD).

 The payment hits the veterans bank account first and is relatively a small amount compared to what it should be, but the veteran already knows that it should be several thousand dollars from simple math, 10% x ?months equals X.

 The veteran gets the VA packet which as usual does a terrible job of explaining what the VA actually did and is ambiguous at best.....You were only awarded 10% because blah blah blah blah blah thank you for your service we care about veterans(then the tirade), yeah save it, the VA cares sooo much about veterans that they award themselves hundreds of millions of dollars of veterans money?!

The bs VA explanation document starts by listing a few hundred dollars with a month and year next to it and then a note stating 'cost of living adjustment' next to that and keeps doing this down the page with varying amounts of money, not showing the actual award per month though, only COLA.

 However doing simple math the 10% rating dating back to the actual service connected initial year up until now and the amount of the VA award does not add up correctly and equal what it should, as a matter of fact its not even close.

Example

$390.00 12/2006 cost of living adjustment

$450.00 05/2007 cost of living adjustment

$719.00 10/2007 cost of living adjustment

etc.....

 For example, lets say its $101.00 per month at 10% at 10 years back, so thats 120 months which is 120 x $101.00 = $12120.00; but for whatever bs reason the VA only awards $1212.00(no garnishments or anything like that either), has anyone ever ran into anything like this, as it looks like some sort of fraud and cant possibly be correct?

Can you say 'lynch-mob' with pitchforks and torches. ;)

Thank you

Edited May 14, 2016 by ScareCrow

[Guest ScareCrow]

Can anyone please explain why this would happen and does it make any sense as it certainly does not to me, or is this just yet another VA bs scam that they are using?

 10% should be 10% regardless as should any VA SC percentage awarded be and if your owed a percentage by the VA over several years retro and have never collected for that particular VA SC condition then the VA has the obligation to pay you what is owed.

The VA cannot just pay you COLA payments without the actual 10% award each month included if you were never paid for the VA SC condition, am I right here or what?

Edited May 16, 2016 by ScareCrow

[Meddac]

Is the 10% condition packed in with several other conditions?

example: Was the Veteran already 30% overall in 12/2006, 40% overall in 5/2007, and 60% in 10/2007 when this new 10% condition was connected?

The way that a 10% condition plays into an overall rating evaluation varies with what the overall evaluation is at that time. The disability calculator doesn't use simple addition math, and 10% won't impact the monetary part of an overall the same way every year. There are times when 10% conditions are literally invisible in the overall evaluation numbers. Heck, there are many people who are rated over 100% by simple math, but their VA rating is 90% overall.

 

[Guest ScareCrow]

Yeah I think your right, geez no wonder we are all so f'd up, got nothing, have nothing, amount to nothing, sorry but I am really p*ssed here is all.

Although I still thinks its bs the way the VA short changes us on our ratings and everything else and then gives themselves hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses of veteran funds too.

Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me.

Regards

Edited May 16, 2016 by ScareCrow

[Tbird]

when paid retroactively you receive the amount it was paying for each separate year for example 10% paid less in 1997 than it did in 2007

See this chart https://www.hadit.com/va-disability-compensation-rates-historic-for-retro-calculation/

[broncovet]

Guest Scare Crow:

     Unfortunately, you can NOT multiply 120 months times the current rate to get your retro.  It does not work that way.  While I agree this is fraud to Vets (borrowing money from the Veteran at 0 percent interest), the laws permit VA to do this again and again.  You have to do the amount EACH year, and add them up, because last year was less, the year before,  back to 2006.  You dont get one cent more than if you were awarded 10 percent in 2006.   You get paid at the "old" rate in 2017, not at the 2017 rate.  

     Its a built in "profit" for VA to delay your claim as long as possible.   Thus, this is the reason so many claims are delayed so long, there is incentive for VA to delay as long as possible.  

     For you and I, if we owed money, interest would be added each month we were delinquent, so we would be better off to pay up as soon as possible.    The VA can actually collect interest from Veterans (in the form of VA "direct" loans) and borrow it from Vets who are due benefits, through delays at zero percent, so Vets do get shafted.    The IRS, too, charges Vets interest AND penalties if they can not pay their taxes, even if the Vets claim is sitting in a pile somewhere gathering dust for years.  

      Yes, its a travesty of justice, but social security is actually worse, for the claimant.  .  If you are due "back" social security payments, you dont get paid interest.and you not only forfeit 5 months waiting period, you can not collect over a years retro:  Source: 

http://www.disability-benefits-help.org/glossary/retroactive-payments

[Buck52]

I had thought they pay by the year...what ever it was in that year is what the vet gets? as Ms T points out   10% was paid less than in 2007  ect,,ect,,,

Now if the veteran is paid 10% and wins an appeal for EED back to 1997  then they make the 10% Adjustment for all those years he was paid the 10% and up until 2013 when no COLA was granted   then they will make the Adjustment for the 10% and minus it for that particular year...when it gets complicated is if the Veteran has several S.C. disability's and is paid different % on each disability with different EED ...that is very hard to figure out. how they do that?