Awards & Denials

Question:

My spouse has a VA decision letter that was sent by his attorney. It states he was awarded 100 percent rating and back dated to 2015. The decision is taking a long time to become final and I'm wondering if the VA can change it to a denial. Have you heard of other cases where this had happened?

 

Jim's Reply:

No, I haven't heard of VA changing an award this soon after it's made. The delay is probably due to the numerous tasks that have to be done since the retroactive award will be large.
 

VA will send the entire file to be reviewed by a quality check team to insure that all t's are crossed and i's are dotted. Then the big labor, it goes to finance to determine just how much he's owed. The retro calculation involves adding the 100% rating to his record and backdating, updating and balancing the account since the rates change each year. 
 

Add the labor challenges that VA has had during the pandemic and there's your delay. Although you don't tell me that this was remanded from a higher authority (BVA) if that's the case the regional office will have more work to do. 
 

This is a great question for the lawyer who represents him...get in touch! Good luck.