Veterans Blog

My Life Is Still On Hold

Back in December of 2006 the BVA decided to increase the disability rating on my back from 10% to 20%. The effective date for this is September 2003. Normally, whenever I get an increase in my disability rating it only takes a month or two to get my back pay and the new increased amount. For some reason that I do not know and have yet to get anybody to explain to me, it had taken over 8.5 months for them to process my paperwork and I still haven't been paid yet! This is ridiculous and inexcusable! There is no valid reason for this! I was told back in February that partial grants take priority over remands and that I should be paid within two month. Well, that just hasn't happened yet and I want to know why!

I desperately need this money to get on with my life and the longer that they make me wait for it the longer I will have my life on hold! I need the back pay to get my own car and I need the car to get a decent paying job. Also, I need an new suit to were to job interviews because I gained too much weight to fit into my old one. Again, I need that back pay that I am owed to buy a new suit.

What sucks is that if it were the other way around and I owed the VA money they would charge me all kinds of interest and penalties for taking over 8.5 months to pay them! It simply is unfair that I can't charge the VA interest and penalties for taking this long to pay me!

When all is said and done my overall disability rating should be at least 70%. However, I am quite sure that I will get cheated out of some of the back pay that I will be due. It has happened several times already.

Labels: VA Benefits

posted by Unknown @ 3:03 PM