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COMMUNICATING WITH THE VA: "THINK BEFORE YOU

WRITE ANYTHING." -- Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland

with great advice on dealing with the VA.

Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.

If you would like to contact Jim about his columns, you can email him here...

The archive of Jim's articles is here...

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Clear, concise and effective communication with others is a necessary tool to achieve success in many aspects of our lives. Whether you're making a point to your spouse, your auto mechanic, your boss or the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), you must make the other person understand your goal.

While your spouse may understand and forgive you when you aren't perfectly on point, it's a sure bet that the VBA isn't going to allow you any slack. Your thinking must be logical and precise. The first time you communicate with the VBA is the most important of all and to make a misstep then is a recipe for spending the next couple of years trying to tell them what you meant to say.

The day you decide to file for a disability benefit, you make some important choices. You may use a VA Form 21-526, you can write a letter or you could do both. The 21-526 covers so much ground and is so complex, I often advise readers to simply write a letter. Writing a comprehensive letter to your Veterans Administration Regional Office (VARO) is referred to as an “informal claim”.

You can file a informal claim yourself or a friend or a spouse may help you with writing it. If you work with a Veterans Service Officer (VSO) or an attorney, they must first have Power of Attorney (POA) from you or your claim won't stand.

A part of the regulation that applies reads:


CFR Title 38: Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief

PART 3—ADJUDICATION

Subpart A—Pension, Compensation, and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Claims

§ 3.155 Informal claims.

(a) Any communication or action, indicating an intent to apply for one or more benefits under the laws administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, from a claimant, his or her duly authorized representative, a Member of Congress, or some person acting as next friend of a claimant who is not sui juris may be considered an informal claim. Such informal claim must identify the benefit sought. Upon receipt of an informal claim, if a formal claim has not been filed, an application form will be forwarded to the claimant for execution. If received within 1 year from the date it was sent to the claimant, it will be considered filed as of the date of receipt of the informal claim.

(b) A communication received from a service organization, an attorney, or agent may not be accepted as an informal claim if a power of attorney was not executed at the time the communication was written.

100.

When a claim has been filed which meets the requirements of §3.151 or §3.152, an informal request for increase or reopening will be accepted as a claim.

In plain English, § 3.155 tells you that you may write a letter to make your claim and that it must clearly say what you want; “identify the benefit sought”. If you don't tell VBA what you want, you haven't established a claim.

Like most organizations and businesses, VBA has it's own style of communications. Similar to the military way of writing, a VBA letter is usually full of reference letters, acronyms and abbreviations that are unique to VBA. Formalities like dates, salutations, font size and style are basic and somewhat blunt or stilted.

When you write to VBA, you should study a VBA written communication first. Then try to mimic what you see as you write to them.

No matter why you're writing, every communication with VBA should be sent via the United States Post Office (USPS) using registered mail, return receipt requested. While using a fax machine may seem the perfect solution because of the verification message that most machines print out, that message only guarantees you that your machine did its job and shook hands with the machine on the other end. It tells you nothing of the quality of the print on the other end or even if it was sent to the correct number.

The next time you're at a VA facility, look at some of the antique fax machines that you'll see. Along with the VA telephone system, these devices aren't exactly reliable. Do you really want to trust your disability claim to an 8 year old fax machine that may be out of toner? Stick with registered mail.

Use only plain white paper, black ink and a reasonably sized and styled font. The person who has to open and read your mail won't be impressed that you're able to call up and insert smiley faces, brightly colored fonts or use an antique script. Never use all capital letters, that's considered SHOUTING, it's rude and it won't help you to drive home a point. If you word your claim correctly, there's no reason to bold or underline passages for emphasis.

Address your letter carefully. Letters are lost and delayed every day because someone gets sloppy at the beginning of it all. Include your full name, your complete address, telephone numbers and an email address. If you had a service number that was different from your Social Security number, include it along with the SS number. Don't forget to date it. If It's more than 2 pages, put a page number in the format “Page 2 of 4” on each page.

You should always be formal, respectful and polite as you address the reader. This letter isn't to your cousin Bubba or Aunt Pearl back home, it's a business communication and should read just as if you were writing to an executive of a big company...because, in fact, that's just what you're doing.

The greeting or salutation should be inclusive. You don't have any idea if a man or woman will open your letter so begin with, “Dear Sir/Madame:”. That covers those bases for you and sets a tone of respect for what you will write from that point on.

Get right to the heart of why you're writing in the first sentence. Your reader doesn't have time to waste and all they need to know is why you wrote to them. In those first few words, you must tell that reader exactly what your purpose is and do it in as few words as you can. You don't need the details here, that can come later.

For example, you might open with; “I believe that I was injured while on active duty during my service in 1998. Please accept this document as my application to file for VA disability benefits.”

In the next paragraph or two, tell them how you were injured, some of the reasons you think that your injury or illness is service connected and what you think they should do about it. In VA terminology, injury or illness is referred to as a “condition”.

As an example, “I was on guard duty at about midnight on October 10th 1998 at Fort Dog's Breath, Georgia. As I was making my routine rounds of the compound I was assigned to guard, a stray cat jumped out of the dark and startled me. In my rush to escape my attacker, I quickly retreated about 10 feet and fell into a trench I had been assigned to dig the day before. As I fell into that hole, I broke my ankle on my right leg. Realizing I was seriously injured, I tried to rescue myself by climbing up the steep walls of that ditch and I then accidentally discharged my weapon. As the round exited the weapon, it found its way into my left arm at just below my elbow. That gunshot was heard by others who came to my aid.”

In that paragraph you've explained to your reader the details of what happened and what your injuries are. The reader now knows that you were on active duty, when and where you were and that you are focused on your conditions of a broken ankle and a gunshot wound to your arm.

It's time to explain to the VBA reader just what evidence you have or that you will need and expect their help in obtaining records, “I am enclosing some partial medical records I have of my military hospitalization and treatment of my injuries. I am also enclosing copies of all civilian treatment records that I have available. I do not have the company commander's reports of the subsequent investigation that occurred due to my firearm being discharged. I will attempt to find and provide these other records for you but I expect that you will perform your duty to assist me and provide me copies of any and all records you may be able to retrieve.”

You've established circumstances and dates about your claim. You've informed VBA of your conditions of the time. You've started to provide necessary evidence.

It's time to get to what is probably the most important part of this document; now you tell VBA what your disabilities are...

“Since the events of October 10th 1998 I have suffered increasing disability from my conditions. The injury to my ankle required corrective surgery while on active duty and I've had 3 other surgeries since then. I require crutches to walk 70% of the time and I must use a cane 30% of the time. I have constant and chronic pain in that ankle and I must take high doses of pain medications. I have an infection that is being treated with antibiotics and anti inflammatory medicines. (A complete list of my current medication use is attached.) Many of these medications leave me with serious and debilitating side effects. A majority of times, I experience dry mouth, nausea, dizziness, frequent urination, urgency to urinate, incontinence, constipation, daytime sleepiness, frequent dizziness and an inability to concentrate. I am unable to wear a standard shoe on that foot and I must purchase an orthopedic appliance shoe to protect it.

My left elbow gunshot injury has left me with only partial use of my left upper arm, lower arm, wrist and hand. My range of motion in my left arm is approximately 20% of what would be normal. My fingers and thumb of that hand are weak and I'm unable to grip, lift, push or pull objects greater than about 2 pounds with my left arm and hand. The thumb and two adjacent fingers are numb and partially paralyzed. I have a serious infection on that thumb that I believe is secondary to an unnoticed burn injury because of the numbness. As above, I'm being treated with numerous medications to relieve pain and treat infection and as above, I suffer from significant side effects.”

As you describe your disabilities, you can't provide too much detail.

If you don't tell your VBA reader exactly how you're suffering, that person won't know. This is your best chance to get it all in. You can and should provide details of how your disability affects your home life (Activities of Daily Living or ADL's) as well as how you're impacted at work. Don't hesitate to address your emotions; are you angry, depressed, can't get along with others? Are you missing work for treatments? These are frequent symptoms of a chronic pain sufferer and must be recorded. Be complete but be brief and right to the point.

You'll now want to tell VBA what you think should be done for you. Telling them what you expect won't necessarily get it for you but it will leave your reader with an impression that you've done your homework well.

You might say, “I believe that the combined rating for my conditions should equal at a minimum to a total of 70% disabled and service connected.” You aren't required to tell them why, just give them a goal that you think is reasonable. In this case, a combined rating of 70% would enable the Veteran to apply for a 100% Individual Unemployability (IU) rating down the road.

The VBA will rate a condition or conditions as “Permanent” or “Temporary”. The language is subtle and confusing but at the 100% level this detail becomes extraordinarily important. In an award letter, a condition that is reasonably (by the VBA use of that word) expected to show improvement will be noted by the phrase, “...a future examination will be scheduled...” Thus, the condition is temporary and VBA has said that in 6 months to 2 years, you will be subjected to another C & P exam to see if your rating may be lowered.

If the award letter says, “...no future examinations...” the condition is expected to be lasting and permanent with little chance of substantial improvement.

If you don't tell VBA your expectations, it is often the case your award letter will assign a temporary rating to your condition and you will lose important benefits. This is all too often the case with cancer. Because of the improvements of modern medicine in the treatment of cancers across the board, almost all cancer rated as service connected is assigned a rating that indicates “future examinations”.

You'll want to advise the VBA that your condition should be rated as “permanent” and indicate that your award letter should state “no future examinations” are required. They may not agree but once again, you've said to them that you've done your homework and you understand what you've earned by your service.

Close your letter as “Respectfully Submitted” over your signature and address. This maintains the formal tone of your strictly business letter.

You now know what to do when applying for a disability benefit. The same rules are in effect for any other communications you may have with VBA...formality, courtesy and a professional looking package of documents will go a long way with winning a claim.

Now that you have all that down, what shouldn't you do? These are the errors I see daily in no particular order.

Don't ever cite any other reason for applying for a disability benefit other than the fact that you are disabled. It isn't the task of the VBA to supply you with additional income because you need it. Don't whine. You won't find “sympathy” in any of the regulations. Never tell them that you need the benefits so that you have some money to pay off debts. Don't let them know you're filing for an increase to get money to pay for the kid's college. Never tell them how your buddy at the local VFW hall has the same conditions you have and you know for a fact he's faking it...but you aren't so you deserve the money.

Don't reach for the stars. It is my opinion that you only file for a single benefit...a maximum of 2 if clearly justified...at a time. Others will tell you that if you don't file for it all now, you will potentially lose money in the long run. In a few instances, that may be true. However, in our example earlier of a Veteran with a condition of one arm and one leg, he has clear evidence and a winnable claim. He'll likely get his 70%, retroactive to his date of filing. He won't go through endless appeals and he won't have years of waiting. If he had also filed for his cataracts, ED, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, dandruff and ingrown toenails, his file may have languished forever in that pile where they stack the obviously overreaching and greedy Vet's papers.

Go for the gold, that solid and irrefutable claim, and then later come back for anything else that you honestly believe may be service connected.

Don't write them unless they write you. If you've written your first communication to VBA and you mailed it as registered mail, you'll have a little green card back in a couple of weeks with a signature on it. That's proof positive that VBA has received your communication and it's entering the stream with the others. Be patient. If you don't hear anything in a month, don't start writing a barrage of letters asking where your claim stands. I use the analogy to a tennis game...you lob to them and then you wait for them to hit it back.

Don't get angry and write your Congressman, your Senator, the POTUS or the OIG. It's fine to write them all as a constituent and remind them what a mess VBA is and how you'll be voting for the politicians who will clean it up. Don't write asking for help with your routine case...and no matter how important you think your case is, it's no more important than 100,000 others in the same line.

I heard from a Veteran last week who proudly told me of almost 20 different conditions he had filed for and how he had informed most of the leadership of the federal government of his plight. He was going to teach that VBA a lesson sure enough, oh boy. They were messing with the wrong guy when they denied his claims. He hadn't won anything in years of trying and he didn't want to listen to me when I tried to explain that the OIG and VP Cheney don't settle claims, that's done at your VARO.

Write your first communication to VBA as if your life depended on it...and wait. Get a hobby, read War & Peace, learn to speak Russian, go for a walk; just don't shotgun letters out telling everyone how horrid you've been treated. They've heard it all before.

Think before you write anything. Then sit on it for a day or two before you mail it. Check it for spelling and grammar. Have a friend read it to be sure it makes sense. Proof and then proof again before you mail it.

The written word is powerful. Your phrasing is taken by the reader just as it is written. I recently heard from a reader who had been appealing, filing, appealing and filing for years all while winning nothing. He had sent his case off to the appeals board in Washington, D.C. And weeks or months later, had a change of heart and wanted to keep his claim local to his VARO. He wrote a long and somewhat rambling letter about his reasoning to that VARO and in the body of his letter, amongst many other things, he told them, “I do not want to pursue my appeal in Washington. I want to settle my claims here at the local level.”

When he didn't hear from them for a few months, he called the VBA toll free number and asked about the status of his claim. The Veterans Service Representative looked it all up and then reminded him that he had withdrawn his claim and appeal voluntarily. The file was closed. When he wrote, “I do not want to pursue my appeal in Washington.”, that was all that was needed to shut down the process. That wasn't what he wanted to do, it wasn't what he meant to communicate but it was what he wrote and it was what VBA heard.

The great majority of work I do to help Veterans with a claim is because the first communication was unclear, poorly written, bloated with unnecessary alleged claims or just plain sloppy. I've seen a few claims that were delayed because the Veteran forgot to sign them. Some Vets don't pay attention to timeliness...if VBA tells you you have 30 days to respond and you wait until day 29 to put it in your mailbox, you're one of the losers.

Showing respect to the guy (or gal) who must read your claim earns respect for you. If you make his job easy with a well written, well organized claim that is supported by good evidence, it will be adjudicated favorably.

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Larry Scott  --

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