WELCOME VETERANS OR VETERANS' DEPENDENTS!

ARE YOU FILING A CLAIM OR APPEAL WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS?

This site may be able to help FOR

THE "TRAVELLER" HAS RETURNED FROM THE "UNDISCOVER'D COUNTRY."

OR, in other words, the "traveller" returned successfully from the land known as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Please enter and may this site aid you in your quest.

When I began building this site I needed an opening statement of explanation, but I was stumped! Then, out of the blue, my husband began quoting from Shakespeare's Hamlet. To my surprise the verse seemed very appropriate for what I was attempting. Hamlet said,

"The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action."

If I were to substitute the Dept. of Veterans Affairs for "the undiscover'd country," the above verse describes the frustration of will, patience necessary, and decisions made to NOT file because of getting nowhere. The attempt to follow through on a claim withers as time lapses and the veteran grows tired of getting no response to requests for finalizing his claim or rejection of same or minimal percentage granted when more percentage seems more appropriate to the documentation submitted. This discouragement drains the energy until the veteran no longer feels enthused to take action and appeal.

Well, sit up and take notice!

THE TRAVELLER RETURNED FROM "THE UNDISCOVER'D COUNTRY" and is willing for me, his wife, to tell the tale!!!!

It all began a number of years ago when my husband (a veteran) applied for benefits. He filled out the form, supplied other requested documents and included all medical documents. The medical documents were slightly organized but nothing was really done other than that. He mailed this package off and waited. Months passed...(sound familiar?) Still nothing done.

Finally, after way too long waiting, evaluation exams were made. After all was said and done, my husband was rated at 10 percent (10%). This is a man with a lot of problems. More claims were filed and evaluations made and were rejected. This took up about two years.

Well, so much for the first two go-arounds. We immediately filed an appeal and reviewed our strategy.

This time I, his wife, decided to take action. BOY, did I take action!!! Through a lot of research I put together a response to submit for this appeal that brought to the VA's attention every medical problem known to man (I mean known to husband).

But my husband and I didn't stop there. My husband did not submit this research to the VA direct. Instead he chose a representative from our state agency (we live in a state that has a veterans branch) and let HIM submit the documents.

We dropped off the last of my research and written documents on a Friday. The representative took these documents home over the weekend along with other vet claims in order to review to see what needed to be done for submission to the VA. That Monday we received a letter saying our information as submitted to him was being submitted that day to the state's negotiator to be presented to the VA immediately.

Less than two weeks later my husband's rating had been upgraded to what we considered to be a very very VERY acceptable percentage for the documentation submitted. Errors by the VA were also acknowledged.

THE TRAVELLER RETURNED!!!! And thus ends this story.

Let all who read it live and learn!!!!

If you are still with me this far, I will tell you what I did. I am hoping that others will not suffer so much frustration and disappointment as we did by reading how and perhaps using this to submit better claims and/or appeals.

Good Luck and God Bless,

A Vet's Wife

NOTE: Regardless of what I suggest here, you the veteran, or the dependent of a veteran, have three options for filing a claim. (A dependent would be a surviving spouse, child or parent of a veteran who had a service-connected death.)