The A - Z Guide: Veterans VA Disability Benefits
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The VCAA Letter
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VCAA Letter
Your VA is an organization of extremes. In this instance, your Regional Office will either ignore you as if you didn't exist or they'll send you an endless stream of cryptic computer generated communication that nobody understands.
Most of the letters you receive will ask for evidence. Most of what the letter asks for will be stuff you already provided.
Many of you will be angry and frustrated but to err on the side of safety, you'll send the requested evidence again and again.
When you do that VA will then complain about veterans who send them all that repetitive evidence that just isn't necessary. And then another letter will go out to you to request more evidence that they already have.
If we read Senate Report 110-449 -
VETERANS' BENEFITS IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008 we learn;
TITLE I--COMPENSATION AND PENSION MATTERS; Sec. 101. Regulations on contents of notice to be provided claimants with the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding substantiation of claims. Section 101 of the Committee bill, which is derived from S. 3023 as introduced, would require VA to promulgate regulations relating to the notice provided to claimants seeking VA benefits.
Background. VA's system for adjudicating claims for service-connected disability benefits is intended to be a claimant-friendly and non-adversarial process. Under chapter 51 of title 38, VA has a duty to assist claimants in gathering the necessary information and evidence to fully develop their claims.
A series of CAVC rulings in the 1990s narrowly interpreted the duty to assist concept, culminating in Morton v. West, 12 Vet. App. 477 (1999), which held that VA had no authority to assist. claimants absent verification that the claim was well-grounded. The CVAC found that VA was precluded from assisting a claimant `in any way unless that claimant had first established that his or her claim was well-grounded.' PVA v. Secretary, 345 F.3d 1334, 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2003). As a result of the Morton decision, VA ceased providing any assistance to claimants who did not have a `well-grounded claim' except for the verification of military service and obtaining service medical records.
Congress disagreed with the Court's interpretation of VA's duty to assist and, in 2000, in Public Law 106-475, the Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000 (VCAA), clarified and expanded VA's duty to assist claimants. The VCAA reinstated VA's traditional practice of assisting veterans at the beginning of the claims process.
Prior to the enactment of the VCAA, section 5103 of title 38 provided that, if a claimant's application for benefits was incomplete, VA was required to notify the claimant of the evidence necessary to complete the application. Under the changes made by the VCAA, VA is required to inform the claimant of what information and medical or lay evidence is needed to substantiate the claim. The notice must also stipulate what evidence and information is to be obtained by the claimant and what evidence is VA's responsibility. VA is also required to notify the claimant when it is unable to obtain the relevant records.
Since the enactment of the VCAA, various actions, including decisions of the Court and VA's responses to some of those decisions, have led to notices that are not meeting the goal of providing claimants with sufficient, clear information on which they can then act. Instead of simple, straightforward notices that can be easily read and understood by claimants, VA is now routinely providing long, frequently convoluted, overly legalistic notices that do not meet the objective of the VCAA. It is clear to the Committee that there is abundant evidence supporting the need to change the current situation and strong support for doing so.
The VCAA letter is fairly new in that endless stream of junk mail that appears to be intentionally designed to obfuscate and confuse. This one, the VCAA, happens to have some significance.
The bottom line: Complete it, make a copy for your records and return it via certified mail.
Your VA is an organization of extremes. In this instance, your Regional Office will either ignore you as if you didn't exist or they'll send you an endless stream of cryptic computer generated communication that nobody understands.
Most of the letters you receive will ask for evidence. Most of what the letter asks for will be stuff you already provided.
Many of you will be angry and frustrated but to err on the side of safety, you'll send the requested evidence again and again.
When you do that VA will then complain about veterans who send them all that repetitive evidence that just isn't necessary. And then another letter will go out to you to request more evidence that they already have.
If we read Senate Report 110-449 -
VETERANS' BENEFITS IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2008 we learn;
TITLE I--COMPENSATION AND PENSION MATTERS; Sec. 101. Regulations on contents of notice to be provided claimants with the Department of Veterans Affairs regarding substantiation of claims. Section 101 of the Committee bill, which is derived from S. 3023 as introduced, would require VA to promulgate regulations relating to the notice provided to claimants seeking VA benefits.
Background. VA's system for adjudicating claims for service-connected disability benefits is intended to be a claimant-friendly and non-adversarial process. Under chapter 51 of title 38, VA has a duty to assist claimants in gathering the necessary information and evidence to fully develop their claims.
A series of CAVC rulings in the 1990s narrowly interpreted the duty to assist concept, culminating in Morton v. West, 12 Vet. App. 477 (1999), which held that VA had no authority to assist. claimants absent verification that the claim was well-grounded. The CVAC found that VA was precluded from assisting a claimant `in any way unless that claimant had first established that his or her claim was well-grounded.' PVA v. Secretary, 345 F.3d 1334, 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2003). As a result of the Morton decision, VA ceased providing any assistance to claimants who did not have a `well-grounded claim' except for the verification of military service and obtaining service medical records.
Congress disagreed with the Court's interpretation of VA's duty to assist and, in 2000, in Public Law 106-475, the Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000 (VCAA), clarified and expanded VA's duty to assist claimants. The VCAA reinstated VA's traditional practice of assisting veterans at the beginning of the claims process.
Prior to the enactment of the VCAA, section 5103 of title 38 provided that, if a claimant's application for benefits was incomplete, VA was required to notify the claimant of the evidence necessary to complete the application. Under the changes made by the VCAA, VA is required to inform the claimant of what information and medical or lay evidence is needed to substantiate the claim. The notice must also stipulate what evidence and information is to be obtained by the claimant and what evidence is VA's responsibility. VA is also required to notify the claimant when it is unable to obtain the relevant records.
Since the enactment of the VCAA, various actions, including decisions of the Court and VA's responses to some of those decisions, have led to notices that are not meeting the goal of providing claimants with sufficient, clear information on which they can then act. Instead of simple, straightforward notices that can be easily read and understood by claimants, VA is now routinely providing long, frequently convoluted, overly legalistic notices that do not meet the objective of the VCAA. It is clear to the Committee that there is abundant evidence supporting the need to change the current situation and strong support for doing so.
The VCAA letter is fairly new in that endless stream of junk mail that appears to be intentionally designed to obfuscate and confuse. This one, the VCAA, happens to have some significance.
The bottom line: Complete it, make a copy for your records and return it via certified mail.
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