Service Disabled Veterans Insurance

[paulstrgn]

I am 100% P&T. I have called the toll free number for the VA life insurance and have been given conflicting information. The first person I spoke to said I am not eligible to apply for the waiver of premiums on a $10,000 life policy because I am working, the second person said I need to apply for the waiver and see what they say. He said I may or may not be given the waiver, he said you won't know until you apply.

Does anyone have the SDVI for $10,000 and is employed get the premiums waived? I only want to apply if the premiums will be waived. I am also under 65 and it has been less than 2 years since my last new disability.

Thanks

 

[paulstrgn]

I was looking up 38 CFR 1912 and found a Federal Register for it (it is unrelated to this topic) at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/08/23/2017-17587/eligibility-for-supplemental-service-disabled-veterans-insurance. Towards the middle there was a name and contact number listed.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul Weaver, Department of Veterans Affairs Insurance Center (310/290B), 5000 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, (215) 842-2000, ext. 4263 (this is not a toll-free number).

I will call this number on Monday and see what they say, I still think we should be eligible for waiver of premiums, after all it is only $10,000. Now I am not sure if anyone will be there because of the holidays but I will keep calling until I do. 

As you state Vync I may be right or wrong but I will keep asking until I get an answer that makes sense. 

[Vync]

25 minutes ago, paulstrgn said:

I was looking up 38 CFR 1912 and found a Federal Register for it (it is unrelated to this topic) at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/08/23/2017-17587/eligibility-for-supplemental-service-disabled-veterans-insurance. Towards the middle there was a name and contact number listed.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Paul Weaver, Department of Veterans Affairs Insurance Center (310/290B), 5000 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19144, (215) 842-2000, ext. 4263 (this is not a toll-free number).

I will call this number on Monday and see what they say, I still think we should be eligible for waiver of premiums, after all it is only $10,000. Now I am not sure if anyone will be there because of the holidays but I will keep calling until I do. 

As you state Vync I may be right or wrong but I will keep asking until I get an answer that makes sense. 

Those are the same people I talked with. I have a feeling they will tell you the same thing they told me. The people there are very friendly, but were unable to tell me exactly where in 38 CFR that total disability excludes schedular. So, they have been doing it that way so long that they will continue doing it the same way.

Yeah, it's only $10,000. Back when the law was written, that was probably like $100,000 or more in today's laws. At least it is enough to cover some of the costs for enbalming, casket, transportation, flowers, a dozen buckets of KFC, and a cheap DJ for the funeral.

[Vync]

11 hours ago, GBArmy said:

Vync  Submit appeal to BVA and get a hobby.

I thought about sending it to supplemental, but they would probably just bounce the claim off the insurance center again with the same results. HLR might do the same thing. Once my two CUE's get finished, I'll know if they are any better at correctly reading the laws as written.

I looked up a couple of BVA claims and saw them doing the same thing to other veterans. One actually contained this link to the internal VA insurance operations manual

https://www.va.gov/vetapp19/files8/19167275.txt

Quote

The Board also points out that although there does not exist a statutory or regulatory exception to the standard set for in the 38 U.S.C. § 1912, the Veterans Benefits Manual M29-1, Part I, Insurance Operations Underwriting Procedures (M29-1) provides that a waiver of premiums “may not be denied on the ground that the service-connected disability became total prior to the effective date of the insurance.”  See https://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/M29_1.asp.  VA has interpreted this as providing an exception for cases in which the total disability began prior to the effective date on an RH insurance policy, if such total disability is due to a service-connected disability; in such cases, a waiver of premiums may be made.  See https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/4759.

 

So I went over to the insurance page and might have found the answer.

https://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/M29_1.asp

I read through a bunch of the documents listed on the page.

Chapter 16 - Total Disability Income Provision (NSLI & USGLI) - 5/16/19

Quote

16.01 GENERAL 

a.       Total disability, as referred to in connection with an NSLI total disability income provision, is any impairment of mind or body which continuously renders it impossible for the insured to follow any substantially gainful occupation. An insured who became totally disabled receives a monthly income, and payment of premiums is waived on the TDIP as well as on the insurance policy to which it is attached. The TDIP rider contains no occupational restrictions or travel limitations.

It is ironic that the VA insurance center could not point me to this definition which is found in their very own internal operating procedures.

 

This leads to the big question: 

If 38 U.S. Code § 1912 - Total disability waiver defines the waiver to veterans who are totally disabled, is it legal for the VA to redefine the definition of totally disabled to limit it to only a subset of totally disabled veterans?

 

I was under the understanding that departmental policies do not take precedent over plain language laws/statutes/regulations which they fall under.

[paulstrgn]

1 hour ago, Vync said:

Those are the same people I talked with.

Well maybe it won't do any good to call them. 

I was looking through the BVA decisions as well and all of them tied being unemployed to be eligible for the waiver. 

So, if I retire at the end of next year and then apply for the waiver would it then be approved, it is still under the two years since I was awarded my last disability. I have till 7/2021 before I hit the two-year mark. 

Yeah, I figured it will help my wife a few of the costs. I know it won't go that far unfortunately.

[Vync]

Just now, paulstrgn said:

Well maybe it won't do any good to call them. 

I was looking through the BVA decisions as well and all of them tied being unemployed to be eligible for the waiver. 

So, if I retire at the end of next year and then apply for the waiver would it then be approved, it is still under the two years since I was awarded my last disability. I have till 7/2021 before I hit the two-year mark. 

Yeah, I figured it will help my wife a few of the costs. I know it won't go that far unfortunately.

I found the policy the BVA refers to and noted it in this linked post. What are your thoughts about it? 

 

[paulstrgn]

If the BVA had not already weighed in (several times) I think an argument could be made for the waiver. HLR will probably deny and I know the BVA will also uphold that decision. Unfortenetly I think we may be spinning our wheels on this, unless congress re-writes to remove the porition about gainful employment. 

Vync I think we may need to conside that the VA wins on this one, not that I want to admit that.