Is eBenefits supposed to update after HLR?

[ed33]

Hi everyone,

My Higher Level Review was completed last week. When my initial claim was completed ebenefits updated my "disabilities" section long before I got my decision letter. Does anyone know if the same is true for the HLR? Basically if the decision was reversed should it be already showing in eBenefits? Because it doesn't even show anything about my appeal anywhere on ebenefits.

Thanks

Edited August 20, 2019 by ed33

[paulstrgn]

If they did not grant you, the disability/increase requested then there is nothing to update. I hope the VA is just slow in your case. Remember you must login to VA.gov to see the status of pending cases.

Now in my case eBenefits shows an increase in hypertension but my HLR has not been closed. There is nothing perfect about how the system may or may not be updated.

[Shannon S]

I just found this site, trying to figure out the wait time between the phone call and the money. The person called me 8/25/2020 at 0751. I am not sure how these normally go, but she told me that she would normally ask me for my story, but to let her talk for a minute. She said she wasn't sure what happened. There is no reason I should have been given 70% and she was giving me the permenant and total 100%. She asked if I had any questions? She had woken me up, so I was floored by her response. I filed for the HLR is March and I thought COVID would have slowed it down a lot more. I didn't know what to ask her, and I wish I had asked about a timeline on when I'd get money. She told me that she would type up her decision that day, (the 25th which was Tuesday), and if I didn't get a letter in the mail in two weeks, to call back.

I have been checking the claims tracker several times a day and the ebenifits as well and the claim shows that it is being reviewed still, (no change) and my percentage total is still 80%, (which is the same as what it was before, 70% plus some other things). She is talking about backdating further than the year I asked for, back to the first time the VA missed this evidence which was 9 years ago. If the lump sum slows things down, then I could see this being a while.

Do most people not get told the decision of the phone call? This is the only HLR I have ever done.

I will come back here and update when either get updated and if you see that I didn't, email me cybernuts73 at g mail in case I lose my way back to the site.

Thanks for all of the post. It helped me and I hope I helped you.

[deedub75]

1 hour ago, Shannon S said:

I just found this site, trying to figure out the wait time between the phone call and the money. The person called me 8/25/2020 at 0751. I am not sure how these normally go, but she told me that she would normally ask me for my story, but to let her talk for a minute. She said she wasn't sure what happened. There is no reason I should have been given 70% and she was giving me the permenant and total 100%. She asked if I had any questions? She had woken me up, so I was floored by her response. I filed for the HLR is March and I thought COVID would have slowed it down a lot more. I didn't know what to ask her, and I wish I had asked about a timeline on when I'd get money. She told me that she would type up her decision that day, (the 25th which was Tuesday), and if I didn't get a letter in the mail in two weeks, to call back.

I have been checking the claims tracker several times a day and the ebenifits as well and the claim shows that it is being reviewed still, (no change) and my percentage total is still 80%, (which is the same as what it was before, 70% plus some other things). She is talking about backdating further than the year I asked for, back to the first time the VA missed this evidence which was 9 years ago. If the lump sum slows things down, then I could see this being a while.

Do most people not get told the decision of the phone call? This is the only HLR I have ever done.

I will come back here and update when either get updated and if you see that I didn't, email me cybernuts73 at g mail in case I lose my way back to the site.

Thanks for all of the post. It helped me and I hope I helped you.

I filed an HLR on March 27 for an earlier effective date. I received a call on August 11 from the DRO saying she agreed that my effective dates should be earlier and she was going to process the claim. It took about a week before it showed in eBenefits and I got my retro pay on August 21.  Just got the letter in the mail today.  

There's a process these ratings go through and 2-3 other employees have to process parts of it after it's rated by the DRO.   If it's a large retro, a manager may have to sign off on it as well.  

[Shannon S]

DeeDub75...

Thank You for posting that. We talked about dates on the phone call and there is a possibility that it may be back dated to October, but there is a small possibility that it might be backdated back to the first mistake which was in 2012. That would be awesome. For years, I got 10%, 2 years ago got it to 30, then in October to 70. If they went back to 2012, it would be worth waiting the extra time for. I am losing sleep at this point, waiting for the results...

[DLRogers]

Any update?

[deedub75]

On 8/28/2020 at 1:27 AM, Shannon S said:

DeeDub75...

Thank You for posting that. We talked about dates on the phone call and there is a possibility that it may be back dated to October, but there is a small possibility that it might be backdated back to the first mistake which was in 2012. That would be awesome. For years, I got 10%, 2 years ago got it to 30, then in October to 70. If they went back to 2012, it would be worth waiting the extra time for. I am losing sleep at this point, waiting for the results...

Definitely worth the wait! I had claims from 2010 that were denied on the initial claim and after a de novo review by the DRO. My other claims were granted which ultimately got me to 100% but I kept the denied claims going through the appeals process. It sat at BVA for about 3 years and was remanded back to the original C&P examiner because the judge was skeptical of the denials. I finally got those claims granted using a supplemental claim in February 2020 but the effective dates were wrong. I filed an HLR in March 2020 to have the effective dates corrected and they were corrected last month. I got backpay just short of $30K.