Veterans Claims Help

Member Darryl emailed me with his tale of woe. He’s been denied for HCV via jetguns and/or tattoos. It seems he had some artwork done in Texas before heading to Germany in the 80’s. When he was discharged, no one annotated on Item #39 (SF88) that he had one. He does have a picture of himself and his friend sporting their brand new tats in the parking lot of what is unarguably a barracks at Ft. Hood. What he doesn’t have is medical proof or a buddy letter that could win it. I gave him the briefing on how to get there and suggested, as I always do, that he should research this site rather than ask me to do the whole thing for him. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind helping Vets get there but there is a wealth of info that we’ve assembled here and it is filed under different categories which are fairly easy to peruse.

That’s not the reason I write this. As we discussed the denial, Darryl asked why so many lose. He was appalled to find that 85% of claims end up in the trash. Let’s look at that. Are 85% of you Veterans out there conniving, lazy welfare cheats looking for a handout? It appears so. Statistics are often touted to show trends or the proclivities of people to do things. Statistics can also be manipulated. We are well into a new electoral cycle and politicians are bandying about all manner of statistics and polls about our desires and voting habits. Armed with these, we can prove up is down given enough time and resources.

This is often what VA does. Using an 85% denial figure (which they are loathe to admit), they can imply that most claims are not legitimate. They purposefully ignore that most are imperfectly developed by untrained Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs). Remember that the 85% represents requests for grave markers, DIC , and a host of other claims above and beyond the garden variety compensation/pension claims. When you throw that in the mix, you begin to discern a disturbing pattern. vA is organized and set up with the premise that you will walk in and get a fair hearing based on the merits of the claim. When they install the doorknob seven feet off the floor, this causes problems getting in. Their attitude at that point is “What? You neglected to bring a foot stool?”

We have written much on the fact that the higher you appeal, the better the quality of the justice you receive. We have also pointed out that the Supreme Court Chief Justice put the vA’s solicitor on the spot by asking him if the vA is substantially unjustified in 60% of its actions denying Veterans. His answer was yes which pokes a large hole in the 85% theory.

Most Veterans I have talked with experience a disconnect when they use a VSO and discover that the representative assigned to them is hopelessly inadequate or so overwhelmed with his workload as to be ineffectual. Either way, it spells disaster for the endeavor. Muddling through a claim and making elementary errors means many years of litigation spent on a simple claim. Nevertheless, that is what we face with the present system.

What was Congress thinking when it limited our choices to representing ourselves or using a VSO? Quite simply, they envisaged what we are told every day-that we inhabit a Veteran friendly environment to present our claims that is non-adversarial and  gives us the benefit of the doubt. Taking the page from the AVIS® commercial I say “Well, not exactly...” I call this the paper view which is a play on the phrase “Pay per View” as in  Blockbuster. Assuredly we are promised many things. So were the Indians when they traded away Manhattan. The dichotomy begins when we dig deeper.

I don’t know how many times during one-on-one, face to face encounters with vA personnel where they have smiled, did the old head bob and nodded sagely in agreement with everything I laid out. If you were a betting man, you’d think you had this in the bag. If you were a person who is astute at reading faces and demeanor, you would open a new bank account and buy a shiny new wheelbarrow to haul your future riches to the bank.

This is where Darryl was bushwhacked. The sign on the wall says Veterans Administration.  That implies so much in the mind of a naive Veteran. It certainly did to me in 1989. Add in a VSO who brings up the compensation schedule on his computer and turns the screen towards you to show you how large a wheelbarrow you’ll be needing is another. Conveniently forgotten in all this rush to add up your new-found wealth is that little 85% hurtle no one bothers to mention. The obverse of the 85% is the 15% granted. That’s slightly better than a scratch off lotto ticket (10%). And much like the scratch off lotto ticket, the return ($1)  is often less than you put into it over 10 tickets ($10).

vA  insists their claims success rate on all claims is 84%. Right. So 84% of the time they get it right? This is impossible unless they managed to turn it around in less than a year or so. Statistics don’t show that they can have a 100% success rate on giving you your headstone and the burial gratuity yet have an error rate on compensation claims in excess of 60% of the time. I think its called the Bell Curve. The compensation errors drag the headstone thing down a bit. Que Sera Sera, right?

This is why there is no confidence in numbers and why Undersecretary Hickey got the stinging rebuke from Rep. Filner that she did. Granted, she’s only been there 14 months and Uncle Eric’s been minding the candy store since 2009, but it comes with the territory. Ideally, the dapper General himself should have been seated where she was that day.

In order to have confidence in a system (and parity), everyone has to agree on how to measure things. This begins in the weighing of evidence at the RO. It also encompasses truthfully reporting what is happening, not what the RO hierarchy wishes was happening. Putting a happy face on a disaster is reserved for FEMA and the vA has no business going there. Completing a claim for disability should not be a fast track through a computer algorithm that is programmed to pay out 15 of each thousand entered. This is what we are dealt presently and it passes muster for legitimacy. That the error rate is so high is immaterial. You had your day in court-that is what they count. The fact that you will be back again and again for the next decade is not a statistic that is examined. Each claim is a transaction. Take a number and sit down.

No one will ever know what the true numbers are as long as the government uses chicanery and ruses to hide the numbers. When you and all your engineer and construction buddies are unemployed, it doesn’t compute with 8.2% unemployment. This is generally known as massaging the nmbers to obtain what you want to present to the major media. As long as we are victims of this, Representative Filner’s job isn’t finished.