Va Disability Earlier Effective Date

Disability benefits will be due to you from the first day of the month following the month of the effective date.

Va disability earlier effective date. However there are many situations in which this general rule does not apply entitling you to an earlier effective date. But determining whether the effective date is correct cannot be done without a thorough review of the veterans Claims file aka C-file. This is where Congress has given the VA Secretary authority to award equitable relief legal mumbo jumbo for making a wrong right even if the law doesnt allow it to happen. For example if a claim has an effective date of May 1 st 2015 that isnt granted until May 1 st 2016 the Veteran is entitled to compensation for the year that passed since the effective date.

Even though the VA has a duty to assist that does not mean you can challenge effective dates based upon the VAs inaction. An effective date is used by VA as a start date for the payment of disability benefits for a claim in other words it is the date that a benefit became effective. Often this date is the date that the veteran filed his or her most recent claim for disability compensation or increased compensation. The effective date is when you will start receiving your VA disability compensation.

Determining the Filing Date Prior to March 2015 veterans were able to send in nearly anything requesting a determination of entitlement to service connection. What if I am able to re-open a claim years later. The general rule is that the effective date will be the date the claim was filed or the date entitlement to the benefit arose whichever is later. If more than one year has elapsed since the change in law or regulation an effective date of one year prior to either VAs own review or one year prior to the claimants request for review may be assigned as the effective date.

The effective date for a reopened claim is the date we get the claim to reopen or the date you first got your illness or injury whichever is later. For example if a veteran applied for benefits on October 12 2014 and was finally awarded benefits in January 2016 benefits would be due to the veteran from November 1 2014 forward. Earlier Effective Date Argument 8 There is a relatively unused section of the US Code found at 38 USC 503. There are many exceptions that allow a veteran to go back furthersometimes decades.

The rule in general for effective dates is that the effective date of a claim is the date the claim was filed. 2 Show that the VA should have granted an earlier claim date based on the implicit denial doctrine. Some veterans are able to re-open claims from decades ago. In fact they commonly overlook this basis for an earlier effective date when Veterans find new military service records or military treatment service records.

The general rule for effective dates is the date the VA received the claim or the date that entitlement arose whichever is later. This unfortunately is not a reason to obtain an earlier VA Disability effective date. A Veteran seeking an Earlier Effective date for entitlement to VA benefits that is earlier than the one decided by the VA Regional Office really has just 2 options to get an Earlier Effective Date. The VA hates 3156 c.

Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. If you are able to re-open a claim you may be able to take the original VA Disability effective date. Because we got the claim more than 1 year after Susan separated from active service the effective date was October 2 2014the date we got the claim. Which option you choose largely depends on the status of the decision that first assigned the effective date.

As part of an award of benefits VA establishes an effective date of the award. Earlier Effective Date for VA Claim.