The
Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) filed a
join lawsuit on May 6 against the VA to force it to change its submission
procedure for new claims. The procedure, says the VFW, was created solely to
benefit the VA and not veterans.
The
primary issue is that the VA eliminated the informal claims process, according
to William Bradshaw, VFW’s director of National Veterans Service. Previously,
any form of written communication would have served notice on the VA that
within one year the veteran would be filing a claim for disability
compensation.
In
March, the procedure changed to require all veterans to use standardized forms,
which complicates the process for veterans, many of whom don’t have access to
computers to get the forms. Therefore, this delay essentially postpones the
effective date and denies compensation to veterans.
“The
VFW doesn’t oppose the use of standardized forms,” said Bradshaw. “Our
opposition is to this all or nothing approach that VA is forcing on veterans —
changes, that if left in place, will guarantee in this year alone that tens of
thousands of service-connected wounded, ill and injured veterans will be denied
benefits they were entitled to before the change became effective.”
This
change in procedure has been in the VA pipeline since October 2013, at which
time the VFW and DAV fought against the proposed change. Now, with it in
effect, the two organizations have teamed up again, this time to file a joint
lawsuit against the VA.
There
appears to be no reason given as to why the VA couldn’t accept both informal
claims and the standardized forms. The lawsuit alleges that the elimination of
informal claims unduly harms veterans and reduces veterans benefits, which is
unlawful as it goes against the “non-adversarial, pro-veteran principles upon
which the veterans benefits system is built.”
You
can read the full lawsuit complaint here:
At Legal Help For Veterans, PLLC, we
focus exclusively on veterans’ rights. If you are a veteran looking to get the
benefits that you deserve, call us today at 1-800-693-4800. We handle a variety
of claims for service-connected injuries. www.LegalHelpForVeterans.com
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