Single No Dependent ???? Why?

[nwlivewire]

Well I filed dependency paperwork a "second" time in February and have been waiting and I guess will continue to wait for this broken system to verify my marital status and dependents.

Both entities work for the same government...you would think someone up the chain would make the no-brainer decision to accept dependency paperwork submitted at retirement and in DEERS for the VA.

Better yet since it took them 2 years to process my original claim you would think they could have done the dependency paperwork WAY back then and had it finished by the time the got around to making a decision in my case.

How hard can it be to take a copy of my marriage paperwork, birth certificates etc and say...yep he's married with dependents alright.

Great idea!!!

My Son got married to a gal with three kids and he's a full-time student on his GI Bill.

He filed with the VA for his new family "add-ons" a week after he got married.

He's still waiting for the family increase in VA compensation.... almost 9 months now.

I'll let him know about the financial hardship thing and see what happens.

I jokingly said to him that by the time the VA finally gets around to paying him correctly, he'll be dead, divorced, or a great-grandpa by then!

GEEZ!

Thanks for the tip - will pass it along.

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

[Combat Eng]

VA Dependency are handled in the order they are received and are not priority so unless you get dependency put in prior to separation or retirement then your in for a long wait

 

[triedandfailed]

What I'm about to tell you is wrong. I'm only telling you what I did, not suggesting it should be replicated, but, you know the saying "A stupid idea isn't stupid if it works", right? Also note that this has no bearing on his financial compensation as he receives Army retirement compensation over and above the VA benefit.

My husband's VA status also showed as "single". While logged into ebenefits, I went to change it to add myself (of course, he was here and knew what I was doing as he asked me to fix it). Anyway, as I was going through the process of adding myself, every time it got to the section where I was to add the information on my ex-husband, the app lagged and then crashed which wouldn't allow me to submit that info. Frustrated, I just went through adding my info and didn't try to input that info anymore (after around 8 tries). Within a week, we got a letter saying they have approved our dependency claim and have added me. To submit my divorce paperwork from 25 years ago, I will have to get a copy of it as I don't have one. (We had a really big party when I got my decree and part of the celebratory events was that I burned my Marriage Cert and Divorce Decree. Hey, we were 21 and it is one of those good memories LOL). Anyway, I will get that as soon as that task makes its way to the top of my priority list and I'll submit it to them and fix that error. Until then, we'll all just have to live as we have the past 25 years and be focused on more important things...

My estimation is that the reason they ask for the prior spouse information is to assess whether the prior spouse may also be receiving VA benefits for the same current spouse. As my ex had no military service whatsoever, I don't think it is a matter the VA needs to be too concerned with.

 

[Redstripe101]

Update on my status:

After scheduling call backs from the VA since they are experiencing "higher than normal call volumes" which is redundant since you always get this message, the VA operator explained to me a new system for completing dependency claims such as this and most that were already submitted would be picked up by said system and prioritized before accepting new claims. Well as luck would have it, my claim was never picked up to go into this new system. Then, like watching a movie you've seen 20 times and you lip read the ever so familiar lines as the actor says them, the VA operator quickly reverts to script as he tells me he isn't sure why my claim hasn't moved or been processed and he would submit an inquiry for higher-ups to stare at it like Narnia. Since then (2 weeks ago) I've washed my hands of it since home-life requires my attention and I can only take so much VA before wanting to punch kittens in the throat. So today I decided to check ebenefits and see how much more useless they made the website and seen a newly submitted claim on 08/20/2014 that I certainly didn't submit and I'm assuming that this was started by the ever wonderful VA. Of course, because it's another dependency claim, it closed my existing one. So i'll update the next events, hopefully none of them include violence but no promises.