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JIM STRICKLAND: VA DISABILITY SECRETS REVEALED -

BACK TO THE BASICS -- "I believe filing your own

claim is the best method of all because nobody

cares about your claim as much as you."

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...

-------------------------

by Jim Strickland

VA Disability Secrets Revealed - Back To The Basics

Filing a disability claim with the Veterans Benefits Administration is a simple process. It's so easy, anyone can do it. Winning that claim is a little more challenging. Today, I'm going to reveal 3 little known facts that will give you a much better chance of gaining your deserved benefits.

Fact:

The Department of Veterans Affairs is a well oiled machine and the vast majority of employees are dedicated, intelligent, hard working people just like you.

Overall, the DVA works very well for us. Most benefits are awarded with only some minor inconvenience and a little paperwork. Home loans are usually smooth as silk and the amount that you may finance is higher than ever. Educational benefits are generous and many of us have used a “GI Bill” of one sort or another to gain college credit without going head over heels in debt. Even though the health care system is strained, it is most often far superior to any civilian equivalent and veterans are treated with respect by people who are honored to serve them.

Like many giant corporations, the DVA is made up of separate business units. Today, the Veterans Benefits Administration is a badly broken piece of the machine. More specifically, the Compensation and Pension piece of the puzzle is so damaged it seems that it's impossible to repair.

Having said that, it's important to recognize and always remember that the people who work there are dedicated, intelligent and they're just like you. Many are veterans. Most of the people working there are as frustrated by the current state of their world as you are.

The VBA, more than any other division of the DVA, is strictly directed by complex law. The law doesn't allow an employee to cut corners to speed up a process. Each claim must be given the same attention as any other claim and each claim is addressed in the order it's received.

Over the years, the administration of the laws that direct the VBA has become more complex. Laws are never as direct and simple as we would like them to be. All laws are open to interpretation. This is usually done over time by court decisions that become precedent. The more time that passes, the more interpretations are applied and the more the detail that has to be considered stacks up.

As we all know, America's military and the DVA were downsized in our recent past. America's leaders had decided, wrongly, that a large and powerful military wouldn't be necessary and with that came the idea that a smaller DVA would suffice. It was observed that WWII veterans wouldn't be around for long and that Vietnam era veterans had just about finished entering the VA system so less manpower would be able to handle what was left.

The Vietnam era veteran surprised everyone by entering the system a bit late but with a lot of energy, filing multiple claims and demanding benefits. Those WWII vets were older and dying off but used more VA resources than anyone had anticipated. Then, of course, we went to war and created another wave of veterans.

In 2008 the DVA, specifically the VBA, is in a losing struggle to keep up with demand. Each week they get further behind. The efforts to hire and train new people aren't going very well. Flawed decisions are made in adjudications by inexperienced raters and those are being appealed at every turn. Appeals are rework. Rework requires more resources. Now there are lawyers at the party and the rework of the rework begins.

The quota system has increased the workload of raters and they're now required to put out 4 and 5 decisions in the same time that they would have worked on 1 or 2 just a short time ago. Less experience with less supervision and an impossible workload leads to a higher error rate and more appeals and then even more rework.

This is not the fault of the front line employee at the VBA.

I hear from a lot of “VA Insiders”. The guy (or gal) that's handling your claim wants to do a good job for you and wants your claim to be decided fairly and as quickly as possible. That rater would like to feel good about the quality of the work that's being turned out.

Today's VBA employee is burdened with a system that depends on paper files. The computer system that's in use should have been a museum piece long ago. In a recent conversation with a Congressional Military and Veterans Liaison, I heard the amazement in his voice as he told me of a recent tour of the VARO he works with.

An entire floor of the tall VARO building was jam packed with cardboard containers spilling over with files. Each rater's desk was stacked with incomprehensible jumbles of paper files. The floors around the desks were in a similar state of disarray with hundreds of aging paper binders and folders containing summaries of veterans lives. Your files are shuffled from station to station in old grocery carts, not unlike those you see the homeless carrying their worldly possessions in.

When I hear from a veteran reader who unleashes a flurry of expletives at VBA employees, I know I'm listening to a frustrated person who doesn't understand how the system works.

The bottom line is this: The VBA employee has little, if any, control over what's happening that delays your case. The law and the rules that guide the VBA employee originate in Congress. Just like your job, if the VBA staffer doesn't follow the guidelines of their work they soon won't have a job at all.

When you communicate with VBA, whether on the telephone, by letter or by email, you will get the same amount of respect that you show them. If your claim is held up, if you are in danger of bankruptcy, if your family is falling apart...it isn't the fault of that individual you're addressing.

Any communication with VBA must be respectful, courteous and factual. Any name calling, questioning of their family lineage, comments about their abilities and so on won't help you accomplish your goals.

If you want to complain, vote. Then be sure to let all your elected representatives know that you expect them to fix the system. The employees at VBA can't repair their own world, action that originates from the Congress is the only way it will get better.

If you're one of those who constantly bitch to me about the VBA and if your Congressman doesn't know who you are, you're a part of the problem.

Fact:

Your first communication with the VBA sets the course for the future.

As I said earlier, filing is easy. About all you're required to do is write a letter and state that you want a disability rating. It helps to fill out a VA Form 21-526 http://www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/VBA-21-526-ARE.pdf  but VA will allow you to file an informal claim without the form.

That first communication should give the VBA a wealth of information that is specific to what you are expecting.

When you first communicate to VBA that you believe you are deserving of a disability benefit you must tell them what and why. If you injured your back while on active duty you should be able to provide the dates of the injury, the geographic location where the injury occurred, the circumstances of the occurrence, any treatment you received and any other information that you believe relevant. If you have records you should provide neat copies of what you have in a format that makes the records easy for the rater to scan through.

In a letter that accompanies your 21-526, tell them in plain language how your disability affects you. If you take medicines, note any side effects. If your condition causes you to miss work, tell the VBA what happens and how often. Don't forget to talk about pain or depression that may be caused by your condition. Don't miss anything and don't exaggerate.

You should not simply fill out the VA Form 21-526 with a few hastily scribbled notes and drop it in the mail and then sit back and wait for VBA to fulfill their “duty to assist”. The more legwork you do for yourself upon that initial contact, the better your chance of a swift and sure favorable adjudication becomes. Your VARO will make some efforts to get your medical records from that civilian doctor you've been seeing but they aren't going to try that hard. Going to get the records yourself is the best way to know that the VBA will have them.

When you communicate that first time, stay focused. The VBA won't pay any attention to how your wife feels about all this or how bad your kids need to go to college. The decision to award you a benefit, or not, is made by evidence that relates only to the condition you have stated and nothing more.

Recently, a veteran asked my comments concerning his letter to VBA about his condition. His letter was maybe 40 pages long. I've read numerous reports of complex open heart surgery that were condensed to 1 ˝ pages. To send that much detail to the VBA is to ensure that it won't be read completely or comprehended well. Hit the important stuff and no more.

Finally, focus on what you want. While the temptation may be there to file for everything you possibly can, I don't recommend it. If it's your back that troubles you the most, don't include all the complaints from your dandruff to your ED down to your ingrown toenails. Once you've established a service connected disability rating, you'll have ample time to return and consider filing for the other stuff. Yes, I know...you may lose some time or benefits if you don't file right now. It's a risk/benefit calculation though and I see it as more productive to file for the real winner and get that done rather than offering VBA a confused mash-up of everything at once.
 

Fact;

How you communicate to VBA will have a significant impact on your case.

You have a number of options when you communicate with the VBA. You can communicate through a Veterans Service Officer and let that individual worry about it all. There's a toll free telephone number that connects you to an agent at your VARO. You may use the email system provided to you at the VA web site. You can use a fax machine.

The method I advise is always the same. You write letters to them directly. This often means you do it yourself, otherwise called the DIY method.

If you are reading this today, it's likely you're in your home at your own computer. You must have a connection to the Internet to find www.VAWatchdog.org .

You probably have a printer and a word processor that comes complete with a spell checker. If that's correct, you already have the majority of the tools available to you to file all your own claims actions. A scanner/copier will be very handy too.

There is a single, distinct and unarguable reason that I believe filing your own claim is the best method of all: Nobody cares about your claim as much as you do.

When you make a statement in writing, it's coming from the one who has the most to lose...or win. When you mail in your evidence, you'll know it's neatly arranged and done right.

There are many great Veterans Service Officers out there...dedicated, smart and they'll work hard for you. It's unfortunate that the great ones are way outnumbered by the not-so-great and worse. As there are no national standards, you don't know which one you're handing your life over to. If you do choose a VSO, your best bet is to ask help from a state or county VSO. My experience is that most CVSO's are cracker-jack sharp and about as gung-ho as it gets.

If you choose to DIY, I recommend that every communication with your VARO be sent by registered mail, return receipt requested. Yes, it's more expensive but it's the only way you know that your documents were delivered. If you fax, you may get a cute little printout that tells you it was sent. What it won't tell you is if on the other end your copy was jammed in the machine or unreadable because the toner was dry. If you call, there's no real record and if you email, your reply is often just plain wrong.

Your letters to VBA should mimic theirs in format. Don't use that cute tinted paper, use a standard business white copy paper. Don't type in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS FOR EMPHASIS because it's annoying and doesn't help.

No colors in your fonts and no fancy script fonts either. Your message is in your words, not in any smiley faces or funny expressions you can throw in.

Be courteous and respectful to an extreme. Ultimately a human being will open and read what you've written. You really don't want to offend that individual at this stage.

When VBA writes to you you'll receive a letter that is formal and courteous. You should do the same in return. If you're angry and want to express your feelings, go ahead and write that letter. Then wait 24 hours, read it to yourself and throw it away. You aren't going to tell that reader anything he hasn't heard before and you'll waste time that could have been given to your case.

Remember to sign everything appropriately and provide your case number on every page. Simple errors here have lost plenty of cases.

Get in tune with the way it works today. I often compare communicating with VBA to a tennis match. You hit one over the net to them and you wait for them to hit it back. If you get impatient and decide to lob a few more in that direction, the game will get confused and nobody will know just where the correct ball is. I've seen this often and this can be a point where an extended time period begins.

If you've mailed documents or statements and you've used a registered return receipt mailing, you can be assured that your stuff is in the process somewhere. Be patient and wait. You aren't going to speed it up by yelling at them and your claim is in line with the other 400,000 or so that VBA is far behind on.

Submitting and winning your claim isn't rocket science. It does require some thoughtful work on your part though. If you've done a good job of submitting it from the start, provided meaningful evidence in an easy to read format and delivered it all as it should be, you're miles ahead of many others and much more likely to see positive results without messy appeals.

-------------------------

posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org

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