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Help with Effective Date of Disability Appeal-related Back Pay

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prophetmom

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Hi to All, 

In full disclosure, let me begin by saying that I am not the veteran in question...I am the 22-year wife of a veteran with Schizoeffective disorder. He served his country with distinction in both he Army and the Air Force. To make a long story short (I hope), he was so traumatized when he left the military (they gave him a psych discharge; he served in Desert Storm and had a breakdown over there) until he did not want to deal with anything military or veteran related for a long time. I bring this up because he waited until 2008 (when his condition had gotten unbearable, we were in financial dire straights, etc.) to even begin to look at getting benefits again. As luck would have it, at that time, the VA had just finished deducting from the benefits they WOULD HAVE given him had he been receiving a month check to pay them back for a large lump sum ($20,000 or so, I think) when he separated from the military (My apologies; I am a civilian; I do not know all the formal terms, etc.). Prior to 2008,they awarded him only 10%. In May 2008, that was increased to 30%. Ladies and gentlemen, this is where it gets all fuzzy for me...I had cancer during this time, we had a son with autism, my husband had highs and lows...I really do not remember all of what transpired because it took so long for anything to happen. The bottom line is we got a thick court case-looking document in the mail last month saying in the Conclusion of Law section the following: "For the entire period on appeal, the criteria for a disability rating of 70 percent, but no higher, for schizoaffective disorder are met." My question (finally) is...What is "the entire period on appeal"? I see a line in here that says, "In the June 2010 substantive appeal..." Is this the appeal on which this ruling is based? Then there were 2014 dates, too. It is all so confusing. Any help  you can give will be greatly appreciated.

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4 minutes ago, Berta said:

My whole reply just  went out in hyperspace........it involved this I think ...They owe comp that includes all of your husband';s dependents- the children and you----and it looks to me like 2008 is the retro date for the 70% and dependents allowance. The pay charts on here at hadit.

They should send you an audit statement but it has to be carefully assessed. They made errors of 40 thousand bucks in one audit I got and then forgot an entire year of DIC in another audit I got.

VA very seldom overpays- they usually figure out how to under pay and make it look kosher.

My husband's gaf was 26 to 34 and I know you sure deal with a lot.

If your husband ever becomes unemployed he should file forTDIU (paid at 100% rate) and also apply for SSDI.

Paul is right. VA has made countless errors on vet claims and ,like my daughter said when she got a ridiculous award from VA EDU under Chapter 35 (which  they fixed  right away due to the scathing NOD/CUE I wrote for her) that it looked so "official" she thought maybe the VA letter was correct.But after reading the regu8lations right on her Chap 35 application, she said "How could they be so stupid to ignore my 7 years USAF on my DD 214 they also had with my Chap 35 app?"

I just said ":Welcome to my World!~" It was really the first time my daughter, as a veteran had any contact with them and they couldn't even handle a simple Chap 35 Educational app correctly.

VA Educational dept is sometimes an oxymoron.

Thanks, again, Wonderful @Berta! Whenever (I hope it doesn't take too much longer; our DAV person said it could be six months [November], but I hope not) we get the audit letter, I will scan and post it right here for the experts to review and advise us on :D .

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i totally agree with Berta as well. Congrats on this Award!!! looks as if its more than 10 years retro... also note to yourself,,, now that you have a 70% award you should talk to your husband about getting temporaly Total Disability from VA. i think its TDIU and state that your husband has been in this state since this appeal. 

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2 minutes ago, broncovet said:

Remember, the VA will deduct any/all monies you have already received.  Its actually quite complicated to figure out how much retro you will get EVEN WHEN you have a disability percentage and effective date.  

You can not just multiply the 70 percent rate times the number of months.   You see, the pay was lower earlier, and we did get raises, in all years except 3, I think, during the Obama administration when we got zero raises.  So, you have to figure it out each year, using the "old" 70 percent pay scale, adding your dependents.  Then you subtract monies you received from VA that year.  

If you were receiveing 30 percent prior to the decision, married, with no children at home, then you probably got or get around $456.97 and your new pay at 70 percent will be $1451.71.  If you subtract these, you get  about 994 per month.  So, since this is the 7th month, you should get almost 7000 additional retro for 2017.   For 2016, our raise was so small it was almost pennies, so you should get about 993 times 12 or about 11,916 for year 2016.  

You can repeat this every year back to your effective date, if you want to get a precise amount of retro.  Or, you could "guestimate" 11,000 per year times 7 years, if that is how long ago your actual effective date is, which would be "about" 77,000 in retro.  This assumes you dont owe VA any money, however and I do not know that!  Do not hold me to that number, I used as a guess your suggestion of about 7 years ago.  Your VARO decision will have the actual effective date, and that will be the number they use, not my guestimate.  

Better is to figure out your own, using these tables:

http://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/resources_comp01.asp

Hey, @broncovet! I don't know if you saw it or not, but I posted the entire packet for you to read. I was in error about the date;  Berta and Paul (and the DAV office, actually) said that it looks like 2008 was the better date (again, I don't know what I am looking at :D ). 

Yes, based on what you told me before, I estimated @$994 per month. 

If you want, please look at the attachment. Thanks for all of your help!

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2 minutes ago, paulcolrain said:

i totally agree with Berta as well. Congrats on this Award!!! looks as if its more than 10 years retro... also note to yourself,,, now that you have a 70% award you should talk to your husband about getting temporaly Total Disability from VA. i think its TDIU and state that your husband has been in this state since this appeal. 

I will definitely do this...you definitely have a point! 

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For calculating retro pay 1974 - 2004 I have those numbers here https://www.hadit.com/va-disability-compensation-rates-historic-for-retro-calculation/

Also these are available on Veterans Affairs 

VA Disability Compensation Rates 2012 | 2011 | 2010-2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999

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