Need someone to check my logic

[Papa Weave]

Okay, I retired at the end of 2012 and was smart enough to have my disability paperwork submitted with my clearing. October of 2013 I received my first determination letter stating I qualified for 60%. Nice, but they completely 0'd me on three issues so I immediately filed an appeal with the findings at the end of November 2013. The VA claimed they received my appeal in March of 2014, according to the website. It took until Jul/Sept 2015 for my first appointments to occur to justify or dispute the findings.

I received an extra bump in my account this month (ending June 2016) which caused me to log in to eBenefits and see what it might have been. Good news is, I received my upgrade in disability from 60% to 80%. So, based on the 2016 VA Compensation tables with a spouse and two kids, I will increase to $1839.48 from $1275.09. (http://militarybenefits.info/va-disability-rates/), which is a difference of $564.39. Now I received a lump sum of $3477.92 which is approximately 6.16 months of the difference I should have recovered. By MY calculations, my backdated pay should be from my initial request. I say this because initially they rated my three issues as "Service Connected" but at 0%. Now that my appeal was accepted and those three items were given appropriate ratings, the backdate for my pay should be the initial date of submission. That initial date was 1 January 2013.

So January 2013 to July 2016 should be 41 months of backpay, am I right? With the 6 months I received at the end of June, I SHOULD still receive 35 months of backpay at $564.39 a month, yes? If I am missing something or not understanding something, please drop me a response. Also, how would I go about energizing the VA to make this backpay occur?

Thanks.

Papa Weave

[Berta]

"Now that my appeal was accepted and those three items were given appropriate ratings, the backdate for my pay should be the initial date of submission. That initial date was 1 January 2013 "

If the same ratings were warranted January 2013, based on the evidence they had, then  yes it seems like they snookered you out of some cash.

Once the letter comes we can help more, if you can scan and attach it here as to their Reasons and Basis and the evidence list.(Cover C file # etc prior to scanning it)

 

 

[Fat]

I agree if there were no disruptions in your claim, the retro amount should go back to when the claim was first filed.

However if you failed to file a NOD and reopened or asked for increase, then the retro goes back to the dates of those actions.

Good Luck, PAPA WEAVE........