Increased A&A benefit delays??

[luvnmom]

Out of curiosity Leslie, in your experience, does it normally take longer to process a claim for increased A&A benefits?  We are at 7 months on a reopened claim due to an error on the original claim dated 08/10, which she was approved for $99/month in 02/11.  We have asked for expedition due to hardship, but have heard nothing from the VA since September when we received one of those automated letters stating "sorry for the delay in processing"...Unfortunately, in my mom's case, contacting our Congressman's office has been as frustrating as contacting the VA.  The clerk in Rep. McKeown's office is nice enough, just not very informative.  He supposedly has been getting the runaround from his VA liasion as well, with no update in regards to my mother's claim which is being processed in the St. Paul center.

[vetadmin]

Would suggest you contact the Congressman's office again, and have them push harder.  There should not be a "run around" from a congressional inquiry, and this delay has gone on far too long.

[luvnmom]

Thanks for the reply Leslie ...

Received an email from my contact at the congressman's office informing me that he just heard back from his liason at the St. Paul pension center.  My mother's claim is "complete and ready to rate", although there shows no activity on her file for 1+ months (he gave me the following reasons: bad weather in MN & the holidays, etc.).  The liason told my contact that he was going to request that my mother's file be rated ASAP.

Sounds like more of a run around....right?

[vetadmin]

Whenever you find a claim that has had no activity in 30 days, there is a crack it has fallen through, and if you don't stay on top of things, it will stay in that crack going un-noticed.

Glad your congressman came through, and I suspect you will be getting that decision very soon now.

Keep us posted.

[caregiver48]

hi
am i understanding this correctly.  if u are requesting an increase in A&A because of medical expenses increases, you might have to wait just as long as you did to get approve forthe pension originally?  can u ask for expedition because of financial hardship or because of the age and health of veteran's spouse?  thanks for responding.

[vetadmin]

No, that is not true.  Once you are in the system and approved, things generally go much faster than waiting on an application decision.

If you submit a 21-4138 showing the increase in care and expenses, you can include a note stating that it is time sensitive due to the "financial hardship."