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NOTE: The previous "HOW TO FILE A CLAIM" page has been
archived for your reference ...
you can find it here...
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knol = a unit
of knowledge
The following is from Jim
Strickland's knol, A MILITARY VETERAN'S GUIDE TO DISABILITY
COMPENSATION AND PENSION BENEFITS.
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Introduction
The American military veteran hungers
for knowledge.
I write regular question and answer columns for veterans who seek
information about how to best handle their benefits claim. These
articles, "Jim's Mailbag", are published at VA Watchdog and The
Veterans Voice. Editors Larry Scott at VA Watchdog and Clairice
Still at The Veterans Voice have worked for years to provide
veterans with an oasis of information on the often hostile and
barren Internet. Those sites provide facts about benefits as well as
other news of interest to the veteran community.
The veterans who write to us are active, intelligent citizens who
have accomplished tasks often thought impossible as they served
their country.
The veteran has earned certain benefits during the time of service.
Those benefits are available only after the veteran works through a
process that is often adversarial and sometimes incomprehensible.
The laws, rules and regulations that govern the award of benefits
that are associated with service connected disabilities are
particularly perverse and worrisome.
This knol will attempt to provide the reader with some of the tools
and the basic knowledge necessary to determine what benefits the
veteran is eligible for.
Veterans visit those pages to learn. This knol is provided as an
extension of the good work Larry and Clairice are doing.
The attorneys who have graciously agreed to co-author are each
experts in disability law and have busy practices that focus on the
needs of the veteran. Their contribution here isn't one that they're
required to do but is given freely out of their personal commitment
to America's warriors. In many ways, these lawyers are warriors
themselves, prepared to stand up and fight for your rights.
This knol is always a work in progress, always unfinished. If it
seems long and a bit unorganized at times, please use the provided
search engine to find the topic you're looking for. If we haven't
addressed it, leave a comment or email one of us directly. We have a
lot of ground to cover and your suggestions as to how to best do
that are appreciated.
Our Disclaimer
This Knol is provided to you to
describe general processes and procedures that occur during the
application for disability compensation and pension and other
benefits within the Department of Veterans Affairs System. Any
author you find here is not providing you with legal advice. Any
information provided by this Knol or any contributor to this Knol is
not intended as and should not be construed as legal advice. You
should always consult an attorney to help answer specific questions
regarding how VA laws apply to you and/or your situation. The
summaries provided here are incomplete, and the DVA laws and
regulations are subject to change. We do not guarantee and we are
not liable for the accuracy or completeness of any of the
information provided, or any results or outcome as a result of the
use of this information.
The VA
American military veterans who apply
for compensation and pension benefits often seem to be angry, dazed
and confused.
The Department of Veterans Affairs uses as its motto a phrase coined
from President Abraham Lincoln's March 4, 1865 2nd inaugural
address; "To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for
his widow, and his orphan."
As the Civil War ended, President Lincoln recognized that the
country had a responsibility to help those who were so badly damaged
by the fighting. From that concept grew what today is our DVA.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, formerly the Veterans
Administration, is the second largest Cabinet department reporting
to the executive branch of our government. Most of the DVA runs
better than one might expect given the size and complexity of the
organization.
Divided into 3 business units, the DVA is made up of the Veterans
Health Administration, the National Cemetery Administration and the
Veterans Benefits Administration. Veterans health care is often
lauded as the best available and the national cemeteries honor our
service men, women and families remarkably well.
To reach into either of those business units of the DVA first
requires that the veteran be validated by the Veterans Benefits
Administration. The VBA is the gatekeeper of all services for
veterans. At 57 Regional Offices VBA staff are charged with
determining if the applicant for any veterans benefit is who he or
she claims to be and then the level of benefit that they are
entitled to receive. This is often as simple as setting up a loan to
purchase a home or it may be as complex as a vague but disabling
injury received during the course of military service.
Compensation and Pension
Within the Veterans Benefits
Administration is found the Compensation and Pension services
section. When a veteran believes that an injury or illness (known as
a "condition" by the DVA) that was incurred during active duty
military service (or if preexisting was aggravated by the service)
has become disabling, the veteran may apply for a disability
compensation benefit. In some situations, the veteran may receive a
pension benefit instead.
Of those benefits, the disability compensation benefit is the one
that is most often applied for by veterans and subsequently
contested by the VBA. Most delays, disputes and appeals to higher
and then higher yet authorities are centered on the validity of a
claim for disability benefits.
While the process is said to be
largely administrative and the VBA is required to assist the veteran
to develop the claim, it quickly becomes apparent that the system is
adversarial and full of legalistic pitfalls. Rules of evidence can
be as strict as any courtroom setting, rigid time lines are enforced
upon the veteran and the much talked of "duty to assist" is usually
a far away afterthought and performed perfunctorily, if at all.
The Process
To apply for a disability
compensation is to begin a "claim" for a "condition". The veteran
may file an informal claim by merely writing a letter or otherwise
communicating the intent to the DVA or a formal claim may be
initiated by completing a VA Form 21-526. If an informal claim is
opened, the VBA will then usually ask that the 21-526 be completed
within one year to formalize the claim.
Along with the claim the veteran must provide evidence that
substantiates and proves that the veterans allegations are factual.
The process is explained by the VBA here. While this is an
oversimplification, it gives a good overview of what happens as you
seek the benefit you believe you deserve.
To fully appreciate what happens to a claim, one must dig a little
deeper into how the system works. The GAO report, VBA-Problems and
Challenges Facing Disability Claims Processing tells us that, "VBA’s
problems with large backlogs and long waits for decisions have not
yet improved, despite years of studying these problems." Please
click the above link "VBA Problems and Challenges..." and scroll to
page 12 of the report to view a series of graphics that illustrate
the complex path your claim must follow through VBA.
Many veterans enter the system believing that they will complete a
few forms and soon receive their earned benefits only to find
themselves years later in an appeals court in Washington D.C.
The Veterans Benefits Administration is more concerned with the
process than they are with any individual or an individual claim.
The process of adjudicating a claim is rooted in law. The law that
governs the VBA process has been enacted by Congress over decades
and the VBA claims that it has no other choice but to follow the
letter of that law...whether it makes sense or not.
If a veteran attempts to take a short-cut or to skip some details of
the process, they will soon discover that their attempts to speed
things up has slowed everything down.
While the VBA isn't always right in their decisions, they own the
process of making the decisions. The smart veteran will understand
that there is no way to avoid the process and that to play by the
rules from the very beginning will ensure that the claim will at
least move along, even if at a slow pace.
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For complete information on filing a
claim ... click below ...
A MILITARY VETERAN'S GUIDE TO DISABILITY COMPENSATION AND PENSION
BENEFITS is here...
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