.
Click Here
For A Photo of the New VA Filing System
Unfortunately, there is no answer.
The time it takes to complete your claim is entirely unpredictable.
Read: The Backlog
You will usually receive your decision between 12 to 24 months after you file it.
How To Track Your Claim
You can't. Forget about it. Seriously.
There is no system in place that allows you to view the status of your claim or any progress it may be making.
All of the places VA provides like IRIS, the toll free number, that Ebenefits site and so on don't work. Those things do not go to your Regional Office where your claims folder (C-File) is located, they go to "call centers".
Those are provided as distractions to keep you occupied while VA operates in nearly total chaos. They don't know where your folder is on a given day. They aren't going to take time to find it for you and tell you anything that's happening.
Time taken to reassure you is time taken away from working on your claim.
If you have to know the status of your claim because you are in financial trouble, you have already made your first mistake.
VA is not responsible for your financial woes. VA does not approve benefits because you need the money. VA approves benefits only because you have a service connected condition that meets the criteria to be awarded a benefit.
There is nothing at all in VA disability law that tells the VA that they must consider that you haven't been able to pay for the new plasma screen TV so they should move your claim ahead of others.
The system is really very simple.
You
file a claim. If you did it the smart way, you sent your claim in
yourself and provided all the data VA needed. You mailed it using
Certified Mail and Return Receipt Requested.
You got that little green postcard back so you know that your VA Regional Office got your claim. It made it into the mail room!
From the mail room the claim is triaged to the appropriate stations. It may go to compensation, education, home loans and so on.
It gets in line. The line is huge. There
are 57 VA Regional Offices and there are over one million claims in the
backlog. The VA receives more claims each day than it resolves. The
backlog grows every day.
Your claim is in the line in the order it was received. You get no
priority because you need the money...everybody needs the money.
Your claim may be headed to a section where 10 people are working. As
each one closes a claims folder and sends out the award letter, he or
she makes room for the next folder in that long line.
That's it. There's no mystery to it. Your claim is not tracked daily or
weekly or even monthly. It's just sitting there in line waiting its turn
on the desk of a rater.
I tell vets who ask me directly that from the day they file a claim to
the day they get the award letter will be at least one year, more likely
two.
I advise that the veteran plan to get a denial, not an award. It's my
guess that 70% of all initial claims are denied. You will have to appeal
and that will add two more years.
That means you should plan your living expenses accordingly. Don't rely
on VA money coming to you next month so you can make the mortgage
payment. Plan and spend as if you will never get any VA money...you may
not.
But...you're one of those who decide that you can't wait. You're mad as hell and you're going to do something about it.
You call your Congressional Representative demanding action.
In that office is a person designated to
help you. They get these calls each and every day. They know the drill.
The Military and Veterans Liaison in your Congressperson or Senators
office will take your info and then initiate a Congressional Inquiry.
The Congressional Inquiry is a routine form that asks the Regional
Office what the deal is with your case? VA has a designated staff that
will have a look and reply. They have about 45 days to do that.
The VA Regional Office people will pull your folder for review. This is
not a review of the decision, it's only a look at the history of your
file to see why it's taking so long.
The answer is written up and sent back to that Congressional Representative.
The great majority of these inquiries are answered with, "It's all good.
The veterans folder is in line for processing. We're sorry for the
delay."
Unless your case is weird and has something unusual happening, it gets back in line.
However...it has now been even more delayed. It may not get back in line
where it was...it could go right back to start. You've just contributed
to the delay.
If you filed your claim less than one year ago, don't try to discover
where it is. You should have received the little green receipt. Then you
should receive some arcane paperwork from VA that acknowledges the
claim is in process.
Around 3 to 12 months after filing you should get notice of a C & P
exam. Once you have your C & P exam, you'll wait another 3 to 12
months.
Plan on 2 years start to finish before you get a denial and then go into an appeal.
If you really must track your claim, every week check out the Monday Morning Workload Reports and find your VARO.
The MMWR isn't accurate. They fudge the numbers in an attempt to look
good. But overall you can get a pretty good idea of how backed up your
VARO is.
However...that isn't always a good
indicator because of "brokering" claims to other Regional Offices. If
your claim is way behind and your VARO is at max output, your claim may
be at another VARO for processing there. Nobody will tell you about that
or just how it works.
Be patient. Take a hobby like reading War and Peace in the original language.
Your claim will be done when it's done and no sooner.
Dear VAWatchdog; How long will it take???
This is the #1 question I receive from across America. "How long will it take before my claim is processed?" This is related, of course, to questions about tracking claims and how long it takes after certain points like the C & P exam.
Many vets write to tell us that they are about to lose their house or car or that the electricity is being turned off. They want to know how to expedite their claim.
The fact is that each claim is unpredictable in how long it may take for complete adjudication to occur. The VA processes claims in the order they are received. Even then, that isn't an exact science. Some claims are delayed just because. Your claim may have been submitted at the same moment as your next door neighbor's claim and the claims may be similar. She will receive her benefit award in 16 months while you're still waiting for your C & P exam.
There is no logical way to explain why one claim is ahead of the next claim. We know that the best way to have your claim make progress through the system is to submit it properly from the very start. Do it right the first time! There's no question that claims that aren't perfected by the veteran before they are sent into the system are usually delayed.
Other than properly preparing the claim and submitting it as recommended by VAWatchdog, there is no way to expedite or hurry your claim through the system. You may try to contact your Congressional Representative to start an inquiry on your behalf but we usually don't recommend that. If your claim is simply caught up in the backlog, a Congressional inquiry won't produce anything other than a form letter and may actually delay your claim even more.
There's also no way to track your claim. You waste your time calling toll free numbers. If you get an answer, they're only telling you what you want to hear. They really don't know where your claim is.
Why Not IRIS?
This means that even the VA agrees that your IRIS inquiry will be answered correctly less than 1/2 the time.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is not a financial institution. The adjudication of your claim for disability benefits will not consider your financial circumstances. You may be very wealthy or very poor and that will not enter into the decision. Your claim will be decided on the merit of the claim itself and nothing else.
Most claims are denied. It is common that even well grounded and perfected claims are routinely denied and must be appealed. Many advocates believe that 70% or more of initial decisions at Regional Offices are denied without proper cause. They must then be appealed.
Veterans must plan their finances as if they will never receive any VA disability benefit money.
Having said that, this veterans frustration and anger is understandable. The system is failing us. The backlog is growing daily. Erroneously denied claims that require appeal and are ultimately awarded also are increasing.
How to correct this? Do it right the first time and do it swiftly. This requires that the veteran and the veterans representative present a legitimate claim that is properly perfected to the VBA. Once that's done, there is no excuse for the VBA to fumble that ball for more than 90 calendar days.
If the claim is to be denied, get on with it. If not, make the award and allow the veteran to receive what he or she earned through their honorable service.
It isn't that difficult a concept. Although I don't know anything about the claim presented below, I see claims every day that are easy to understand and award. They never are awarded as they should be and thus, we have a backlog.
It's time to implement the promised change in the number one problem at our VA. 2012 should be the year that there is no backlog of stalled and wrongly decided claims.
And...don't bother with IRIS. It's not there to help you.
Jim Strickland
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: Dept of Veterans Affairs
To: **************@**************.net
Sent: Wednesday, October xx, 2011 1:00 PM
Subject: [Inquiry: ********************]
Recently you requested assistance from VA. Below is a summary of your request and our response.
If you wish to reopen this issue, you may do so within the next 21 days.
Please do not re-enter your name, file number, social security number or other personal information you have already provided to us in this Inquiry. Please just enter your question or comments.
Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.
To update this inquiry, please perform the following steps:
1. Click the Reply button, just as you would click Reply to respond to a regular email.
2. Go down to the brackets on this message. There is a space (a blank line) BETWEEN those brackets.Please type your update in that space/blank line. The space will expand as you type.
3. When you have added your update in between those brackets, click the Send button to transmit the updated message to VA.
[===> Please enter your reply below this line <===]
I got long hair because I cant afford a haircut nor shave regularly, no more car or anything. I have used EVERY avenue to survive to this point, every dept, agency, etc. - THIS IS IT! I have no other resources or options and I am 80% likely to be homeless with nothing in a few more weeks.
H E L P!
Response via Email Via Email (Department of Veterans Affairs) 10/xx/2011 05:38 PM
Dear Mr. ***************:
This is in response to your inquiry to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dated September xx, 2011.
The Decision Phase is completed on most claims on average in 37 days.
There is one additional phase: Notification Phase.
Sincerely yours,
xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
************************
IRIS Response Center
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Divorce In Military Families – How
It’s Different & What You Need To Know
TRICARE - Health Care for Service Members and Others
What Do I Need to Know about the Federal Electronic Benefits Rules?
A Servicemembers Guide to Student Loan Interest Rates
Interactive Form and Letter Generators
