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welcome to cck live in this video we're discussing the most common effective date mistakes with VA
claims so Claire what's an effective date so an effective date is used by VA as the start
date for the payment of disability benefits for a claim so in other words this is the date that
a benefit becomes effective this day is often the date that a veteran files their claim for
disability compensation or increase compensation but sometimes veterans can be entitled to an even
earlier effective date and there are several ways to argue for an earlier effective date if
you believe that you're entitled to one and one way to do that is through new military
records that's right so under 38 CFR 3.156 c a veteran can receive an earlier effective date
if VA denied their original claim for service connection and then later obtain service records
in a subsequent claim that substantiated the Veteran's original claim these records could
include service records related to the veterans disability additional service records forwarded
by the Department of Defense or service department anytime after va's original request for service
records even Declassified records which were classified at the time VA decided the claim
if new service records are obtained the veterans effective date could go back to the original claim
for service connection and set up the date of the subsequent claim sometimes they may make a mistake
by assigning the date of the subsequent claim as the effective date instead of the original claim
something else VA does sometimes is not use an intent to file so Claire why not tell us
about that so when a veteranian intends to file a claim for compensation they submit
a VA form 210966 which essentially puts VA on notice that a claim is forthcoming it preserves
the effective date and as long as the veteran submits a formal claim within one year of that
intent to file the grant of benefits should be effective from the date of the intend to file
sometimes however VA will interpret the effective date as only being the date of the formal claim
instead of the intent to file so that's something to look out for in reviewing your effective date
another thing that people aren't typically aware of with increased rating claims is the one year
look back rule if you want to talk about that absolutely so for veterans who file for increased
compensation VA is supposed to determine if any increase occurred within one year prior to that
increased rating claim if it did then VA could Grant an effective date up to one year prior to
the actual increase rating claim they often fails to conduct this analysis and claim it
should be sure to carefully check the effective date of any increase awarded now Claire why don't
you tell us a little bit about Q claims and how they can impact effective dates yeah so a queue
or a clear and unmistakable error is a very rare and specific type of error that VA makes
that could potentially result in an earlier effective date for benefits so cues are a way
for a veteran to challenge a final VA decision meaning a decision that the veteran did not
appeal within the applicable appeal period if EA acknowledges that it made a clear and unmistakable
error in its prior decision then VA will revise that original decision and pay benefits effective
from the date that they would have paid if not for the error so essentially even if a veteran didn't
file an appeal with that original decision once VA determines that it is committed a cue it can
grant an effective date for benefits back to that original claim another more common error that we
see is VA assigning an incorrect effective date for tdiu benefits that's right so VA will offer
to interpret tdiu as a new claim and it can be but it's not always a freestanding claim
often tdiu is raised as a part and parcel of an increased rating claim the effective date
for tdiu could be the date when VA received the increased rating claim or the date evidence First
shows the veteran is unable to work due to service connected disabilities during the pendency of it
increased trading claim however VA will sometimes assign the effective date for tdiu as the date it
receives the VA form 2189.40 in other words VA is using the claim for tdiu as a separate claim which
is incorrect tdiu should most likely be considered as part of the underlying increase claim and not a
separate claim so like the intent to file phases in that form if the date as opposed to the date
of the claim so Claire what can veterans do if they have the wrong effective date
so it's important to note that if an effective date is incorrect then a veteran is likely being
deprived of the correct compensation that they're entitled to under the law so for example if a
veteran is awarded disability compensation and the effective date is one year too late that would
entitle the veteran to a whole year of retroactive benefits but if the effective date is much earlier
perhaps years earlier as with cues this entitles the veteran to many times the award granted by VA
so in order to fix an incorrect effective date veterans will likely need to file an appeal
you can learn more about the different options for appealing a VA decision in
our other videos and on our website thanks so much for joining our discussion on effective
dates be sure to like this video And subscribe to our channel to stay updated thanks for watching
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