Agent Orange & Prostate Cancer - How is back pay calculated?

[Jeffrey Smith]

Hi all,

I have two questions:

A) I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in early February 2016, filed a claim with the VA on February 16, 2016 and received the VA's 5/17/2016 notice of Original Award of 100% disability rating due to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam (1968-1969). I've done quite a bit of research (including here on hadit.com) trying to understand the VA's back pay provisions to make sure I'm being properly compensated but most of what I've found seems to be a lot more complicated than what I think is my pretty simple issue. The VA's letter itself is a little confusing to me - excerpts follow:

 

• "Effective Date: 2/16/2016"

• "Payment Start Date: 3/1/2016"

• "Generally, payments begin the first day of the month following the effective date. When applicable, a retroactive payment, minus any withholdings, will be issued. Thereafter, payment will be made at the beginning of each month for the prior month. For example, benefits due for May are paid on or about June 1." 

 

I received payment for 2 months retroactive around 5/17/2016 and payment on June 1 (for May 2016). But it seems to me that if my "Payment Start Date" was 3/1/2016 (presumably for February), I should have had 3 months of retroactive pay (not 2), for 3/1, 4/1 & 5/1 before normal monthly payments began on June 1.  Am I correct here or am I misunderstanding something?

B) Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I came across the following information from the " §3.114  Change of law or Department of Veterans Affairs issue", (a) Effective date of award that provides: " (3) If a claim is reviewed at the request of the claimant more than 1 year after the effective date of the law or VA issue, benefits may be authorized for a period of 1 year prior to the date of receipt of such request.  (Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1805, 1815, 1821, 1832, 5110(g))" (this info was found at http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/docs/regs/38cfr/bookb/part3/s3_114.doc which I was referred to from this link: http://www.veteranprograms.com/id1757.html ("Section 4. Other Claims").  Since I filed the claim more than a year after the effective date that the law recognizes prostate cancer as presumptive under the VA's Disability rules, should my retroactive pay be for 1 year prior to the 2/16/2016 date of my claim?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide - you all are providing a great service!

Jeff Smith

[Tbird]

On 6/18/2016 at 11:09 PM, Judy said:

Tbird, I see the link here for the Historical Compensation Rates (of) 1974-2004. Can you tell me where to find the rates from 1970 - 1974?

 ( Dr. Bash and I firmly believe we have won my CUE; waiting for decision of course) and I would like to find those old compensation rates. Thanks, Judy

Judy I could not find them either. Sorry.

[FormerMember]

The  Agent Orange law is explained like this. Say you filed for prostate cancer under any theory (direct or presumptive) back in 1999 and were denied, the date is still preserved for you. I got a guy SC for DM2 after a prolonged fight in 2010. He'd filed for it in 2002 and was denied because he couldn't prove boots on the ground. Once he won on the presumptive, they granted it back a YEAR before he filed for it-i.e. 2001. If you just filed for it in 2016, that is the effective date but if you'd filed for it earlier, you would get that date even if it was before the disease was added to the list. 

This creates a problem. Should we all shotgun file for Parkinson's and lose but wait to come down with it? Or all the other diseases for that matter. It would guarantee an EED for any you develop afterwards.