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2411 B Charles Boulevard Greenville, North Carolina 27858 or Post Office Box 154 Greenville, North Carolina 27835-0154 |
Phone:
(252) 757-3977 Fax: (252) 757-3420 email: hughcox@hughcox.com |
North Carolina Bar Number
6567 Department of Veterans Affairs Accreditation number 8925 |
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The information contained in this website is general legal information and not legal advice on any legal subject. It is no substitute for the services of a
competent professional attorney experienced in these matters. This information is subject to change at any time due to new legislation or new court cases.
DOES
THE WINSTON-SALEM REGIONAL OFFICE AVOID PAYING SPOUSE OR DEPENDENT BENEFITS?
Over the years of representing disabled veterans at the Winston-Salem Regional Office, I noted that a high percentage of these veterans with spouse or dependents were not being paid for spouse or dependents. There is an appearance that approximately 25 percent of veterans who should be paid for a spouse/dependent are not paid. Then when the veteran learns that she or he is not being rightfully paid, the Regional Office plays a regulation "card" that they cannot paid for a spouse until they are notified of the marriage or dependent status. Of course, the Regional Office is usually on notice of the marriage or dependent status since the veteran first applied for service connected benefits. The Regional Office simply takes the position that they do not have to search the veteran's Claims Folder (C-File) for marriage or dependent evidence.
The reasons and bases of this Statement of the Case
are extraordinary because the Regional Office blamed the veteran for failure to,
"tell us any information on prior marriages" and concluded that his information
was "incomplete."
Of course, the Regional Office was on notice that the veteran had been married
to the same spouse since 1960 since the Regional Office had the original
marriage certificate since 1960.
Most interestingly, the Regional Office admitted that, "The VA failed to respond
to you and explain that we needed all this information."
The veteran was forced to lose two years of spousal benefits in spite of the
Regional Office mistake.
After three and a half years, the Regional Office still ignores the veteran's
appeal to the Board of Veterans' Appeals.
To find charts of veteran's monthly service-connected benefits, special monthly compensation, and dependent indemnity compensation, see
http://www.benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/rates-index.asp?expandable=0