Jim,
I promise not to take a lot of your time.I really like your website. I like how it gets directly to the problem. It addresses the issue of P&T in very clear terms. It has been a big help to me and a place to go and read and calm my concerns. I feel like somewhere out there, something makes sense.
I just today received a letter from the VA. They tell me I was denied a benefit and they tell me why...VA file evidence does not show that my dependents have been assigned Educational Benefits.
But they don't tell specifically why and they don't explain what part of the machine I need to look at.
Just that there is the big machine and it has not assigned Educational Benefits. I am sure you can relate to that analogy.
OK, it has been 16 years since I was given 100% with IU. I have never been to another review of my condition in all those 16 years. My condition is one of mental health. Although by now with my bad knees, heart condition, and other physical issues perhaps that 100% could become a non IU 100%.
Anyway, if I received paperwork 16 years ago, I have long ago lost that paperwork. So I have no paperwork to prove P&T was issued 16 years ago.
In 2010, we applied for CHAMPVA for my family. We were denied. I got my congressman involved. I don't know exactly what happened but soon thereafter we received a document stating that I was P&T. ChampVA benefits were given and today we have ChampVA benefits. I have two documents which state that I am P&T.
However, I noticed that in 2012 and 2013, my status letter did not show the P&T statement. Yet still, we have ChampVA.
So my wife filled out paperwork to attend school and receive Chapter35 benefits. She was denied. Letter states that my dependents were never assigned Educational Benefits.
So now I don't know....should I push for those benefits or let it go. I could stir up a hornets nest that threatens my current disability checks. Which we use down to the last penny to live on. If they cut me back, what would I do? On the other hand, we are trying to figure out how to fix our income problem and my wife thinks the answer is her returning to school to eventually increase income.
So Jim....any insight would be appreciated.
Thank you for your continued service to Vets.
Reply,
Hello Paul,
Welcome to the club. Everyone I know, myself included, is initially denied Chapter 35 DEA benefits. It's a sort of rite of passage mired in another weird VA ritual.
I've seen dozens and dozens of messages like yours and in every one, VA was wrong.
I'd guess that you were denied DEA because of the TDIU rather than the P & T issue. For some reason, any time the DEA people see TDIU they look at the underlying benefit.
The TDIU benefit is 100%...there is no question of that. It is equal in every way to a schedular 100%.
Why the DEA people don't recognize that without an appeal is as mysterious as anything in the universe but that's how it is.
A simple appeal should do the trick for you. Send them a letter telling them that you are 100% P & T and provide a copy of one or both documents you have that says that.
Be sure to send the letter via certified mail RRR. That should do the trick pretty quickly.
This is exactly what I had to do 10 years ago. I got the same foolishness that you're getting today.
UPDATE from a retired, senior VA employee...
Hey Jim,
When I started working at a VA Medical Center, TDIU P&T vets were routinely denied dental benefits.
The eligibility people were looking at the computer to see if there was a future exam scheduled. Unfortunately, nobody ever taught them the difference between a "future exam" and a "future employment questionnaire".
So if they saw any future date in the computer screen, they assumed the vet was not P&T.
/S/
Retired VA Rater
This is typical of how the VA makes even the easy processes so complex that their own employees can't grasp the details.
Rather than simply saying that a veteran is P & T, VA uses a complex coded language that nobody understands. Instead of P & T, we see "Future exams are scheduled" and "Eligibility to Chapter 35 DEA benefits is established" and a ton of similar odd phrasings.
We often wonder if this is intentional? Does VA really want you to misunderstand when they address you? It often seems that way.