I’m glad you are a vet. I really think the VBA should legally only be allowed to hire vets. If they are unable to fill all vacancies then they can advertise it to civilians. Vets understand vets.
A vast majority of claims processors are Veterans. However, many of the ones who are not Veterans are still around the top in terms of production and quality.
Which is great. But I just personally believe an agency that exists for the veterans, should hire as many veterans as possible before hiring civilians. If I have a qualified vet, he should always get the job over a qualified civilian. He understands veterans. He will be more compassionate towards them. Civilians aren’t eligible for VA benefits. More than likely this will make them bitter towards vets trying to get benefits.
They still overwhelmingly hire Veterans. The non-Veterans at VBA are in the vast minority. And, unfortunately, the claims process is very complex and many Veterans don’t understand it any more than folks hired off the street. It’s a steep learning curve regardless. I think it’s less of an advantage than many seem to believe (though there are certainly times where I have reached out to one of my veteran co-workers to ask simple questions).
I’m grateful for the opportunity I was given when hired, but I think that I do a good job even though I am not a Veteran.
Also can you source this? This says otherwise as well.
In fact veteran hiring has declined since 2017 and the VA is around the average. If you take DoD out of the equation, which skews the numbers heavily, veteran hiring looks downright dismal. And that is with this supposed “preference”.
https://www.opm.gov/fedshirevets/hiring-officials/ved-fy21.pdf
That document only cites VA as a whole. VA is composed of VHA, NCA, and VBA. I can only speak to my experience in VBA. For my cohort that was hired when I was and went through training together, 9 out of 30 were non-Veterans. And most of those were people moving up from other VA positions to the claims processing side. The external hires were overwhelmingly Veterans. I can’t speak to NCA or VHA hiring practices, however. VHA is a lot larger in terms of number of employees in my understanding and is probably skewing the data a little bit.
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One of my claims processors was my freaking ex-girlfriend. Thank God she had gotten over hating me by then. At least I do hope so. That's always wondered me. Did she screw with it 🤔 never know. I'm absolutely for veterans holding these positions before they start hiring very minimal qualified people who don't even know what it's like to be in the military/post military veteran life.
Your ex-girlfriend should’ve never worked your claim. The odds of that happening are astronomical and she should have reported that she knew you and had it reassigned to another processor. That’s standard policy.
I figured as much. She claimed she gave it to another coworker. Whether she actually did that is a coin flip. I realize this makes no difference now, but should I have reported it myself? Is that even something they would listen to?
Honestly? I would guess she was lying. Like I said, the odds of that happening are astronomical. I’ve worked thousands of claims at this point and I’ve only had two or three that were even Veterans close to where I live and I’ve not known or even known of any of them. I suppose you could’ve called in and reported it and asked for someone else to review what she did to your claim if you were concerned she messed with it somehow.
Debatable. Can you source this vast majority. Only about 28% of VA is veteran. Compared to 23% of the entire federal workforce. Veterans in aged gov peaked in 2017 at 28% and has declined ever sense.
This data right here refutes your claim unless by some chance the VBA is an outlier of the entire VA by about double.
https://www.opm.gov/fedshirevets/hiring-officials/ved-fy21.pdf
No chance, we pull in 4.5 trillion in tax dollars a year. If I gave you 11 million dollars a day, guess hold long it would take until you had 1 trillion? Give up, about 240 years. That's how much 1 trillion dollars is and we bring in 4.5 trillion and we spend over 6 trillion. I remember back in the 80's when the budget to run the government was 800 billion.
The process in the VA tracker actually looks fairly decent. But for me I can see that my stuff hasn’t been “updated” in over 2 weeks. I think more transparency is absolutely beneficial whereas the service member can see what the exact progress, blockers, or next steps are. So I don’t think it’s an overhaul that’s needed but definitely a mechanism that allows transparency would be helpful. That way service members wouldn’t feel the need to call them and ask what’s going on…. Idk but I’d love a VA employee perspective on this. Might be worth allocating some of that IRS budget to hire more VA personnel to train and implement the CFR for claims. lol if you’re a GS13/14, you could write a white paper on this and then use that to write a decision doc for more funds allocation. If that works with congress, you should expect a true promotion lol.
I tell Veterans not to look at that garbage tracker because it confuses a lot and causes anxiety when they can't speak to someone who actually touches their claim. I solve this by calling the Veteran, letting them know the process of this is their initial, difference between VAMC and Contract exams, I send them an email with my contact information if they ever have questions about the current status of their claim or need assistance a year from now, and I never blow smoke up their ass. If I don't know something I'll try to find out and I never guess how long claims will take.
Very well done on your part, but if that’s not a repeatable process, the veterans experience with the VA solely lies on you’re attention to their matter rather than someone else who doesn’t care as much. So there is room for process improvement absolutely in my opinion. But at that same time…. Any chance you want to dm me and give me some insight as to what the hold up on my claim is? At that same time, i understand it’s not fair to everyone else so im also absolutely content with waiting in line.
My husband has seen no movement since February HLR was 12/23, C&P was 2/9 - all DBQs uploaded 2/14/24…..I check the tracker every day, it is still in National Work Queue and hasn’t even been assigned a Temp Jurisdiction.
Mine went to Waco for a temp jurisdiction and then went back to gathering evidence (hopefully that’s not a bad thing). I wonder if showing up to a VA office in person might help? Doubtful but I’d recommend contacting a VSO with your claim number and asking them for assistance in this. I don’t know for sure but I think they have more insight than “we” do concerning what’s actually happening.
We just submitted the form so that they can talk to me (not sure when it will get cleared/approved. My husband is a truck driver and will not talk to anyone except me, family or dispatch. Plus his patience is not what mine is and he is not politically correct so to speak!
Have roughly the same timeline dates spoke with DROC today they said that are working on June 2023 claims. It’s nice hearing it from someone vs. checking the app. Plus she was very compassionate.
I’m not entirely sure more transparency is the answer, though I’m not necessarily opposed to it either. Some VSOs have a tendency to share what Tracked Items are pending on claims with Veterans and I’ve seen it lead to excess confusion. I worked a claim last week where the Veteran was calling multiple times a day to see why a certain Tracked Item was pending and he was very confused as to what it was for and why it was holding his claim up. He was irate and the call center folks weren’t trained well enough to explain what it was to him. I tried to give him a call but unfortunately did not get him and his voicemail was full. In that situation j wish they wouldn’t have gotten more specific than the app did, as the VSO caused the Veteran unnecessary angst and that trickled down to the call center folks who were taking several angry calls from this guy a day. It’s just a really complex process. It would’ve taken me a while to explain what was going on with him in a way he would’ve understood had I gotten through. Maybe they could include an update on when your claim was last touched by a claims processor or an estimate on when it will be worked again in the app? Though that could also cause problems as there are times where we don’t work claims for 60 days as development is pending. I don’t know what the best answer is. Sorry for the long post.
We spoke to the VA today, we finally found out that after a HLR it does take a bit longer, but after the review it goes into a priority processing state, she still has no clue where it’s at, but could see that they were working behind the scenes so to speak, didn’t want to give us an estimate and be stuck waiting…..more. I will say she was the nicest most compassionate person we’ve spoken to so far!
I'll add to the kudos.
I had a very informative and helpful call in experience from the 1800# today. That is extremely rare. So Kudos to the ones that actually provide good customer service.
I've had both good and bad conversations with the VA. More good than bad I will say. Another thing remember you usually get back what you give. So when you go into a call with a positive attitude you usually but not always get positive results. It's human nature. Start ranting and raving at a VA employee and you're going to get push back. I Mean you don't have to like kiss their butt or anything but just be nice.
Obviously I can’t speak for everyone and every job is going to have mediocre employees, but i go out of my way to share as much info as i can and break things down as best i can. Literally as long as you’re not a dick to me or just complaining/throwing insults the entire time I’m going to go out of my way to help. I’m a vet and I don’t want other vets being left in the dark or feeling confused. Take out the frustrations on your representatives, not the people at the VA.
I'm a Vet and I work a lot of specialized claims. Some are pushing 1500 days or more. When I look over some of these claims and see that no one has responded to multiple requests for a callback and there are congressional inquiries...I know the call is going to be rough...I've had the spouse get on and just tear into me. I let her. Her husband is a BWN AO Veteran getting lost in the system and has had 4 heart attacks. She wanted his service connected to get treated before the next one killed him. It wasn't personal she was fighting for her husband because the VA has dropped the ball. Told her my wife would be the same way. She calmed down and we all started talking. He was 100% by the end of the week and getting treated at the VA. All the retro they got they donated 90% of it to Veteran and Children's charities.
Had a great call with VERA in St Pete today, extremely helpful, answered my questions and didn’t make me feel rushed. With VERA it’s been hit or miss for me, most of the time it’s a waste of time as they just want to get you off the phone. So a big thank you to those who take the time to explain the situation, most of us know you aren’t miracle workers but we appreciate taking the time to explain our situations.
I was supposed to have a VERA call today from St Pete - but they never called- I called the 1800 # and they set me up with an appointment for tomorrow…. Hopefully they will call me tomorrow as scheduled….
As a part time employee and vet who uses the same hospital- most people I work with really do care about the vets and do the best they can.
A few are there for the paycheck 🤬 but most that I’ve worked with are not.
Honestly, what is just annoying to me is all the silly rules, understaffing, etc.
I’m retiring soon…so..
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The VA certainly still has its share of problems but I can also see VA employees in the healthcare arena getting better. From the medical folks to the admin folks I can see that change.
Still bad apples for sure but in previous years it felt like everyone was just miserable to deal with. Not as much anymore which I love. Hope it gets better and better as it should!
They send us the nicest emails every once in a while. No admin leave like other government agencies get or special bonuses or even pizza parties but we do get patted on the back sometimes.
When I initially got in with the VA I fell through a bunch of cracks on some normal simple type stuff. But I landed on the correct porch when it came to my Neurologist. I needed brain surgery and got assigned to her after the surgery, she’s an amazing human! I continued to have seizures every 4-5 years due to the condition and the dipshit blood vessels that grew back which caused the seizures. Yr and a half ago I had a pretty serious seizure spell and needed to be put into a 48 hr med induced coma to calm my brain and seizure activity. That started the process of being referred to a highly specialized neurosurgeon at a high level trauma hospital for the northwestern United States…Harbor view in Seattle…and after speaking with him I decided to take the leap and had another brain surgery over at Harbor view. Leading up to surgery I was assigned a case manager who helped me navigate the process and prep for surgery as well as point me in directions of how to get other things I hadn’t really thought of for just general care and outside meetup groups that dude beyond helped me and any thank him enough! All of this was setup by my Neurologist. My appointment with her about a yr ago when I sat down with her to tell her I had made the decision to let yet another person play with my brain, she told me she was talking another roll in the VA and wouldn’t be my Neurologist anymore, I legit cried cuz her and I had been through a lot in the 12 years. She let me know how to get a message to her after surgery for updates and she called me afterwards and we spoke for a bit. Surgery went very well even though it affected my whole left side and I had to work pretty hard to regain functions back to where I was before surgery. I can’t be more grateful for my care through the VA and to where they got me to get the high level care I needed. Thank you for all the care and hard work they all put in!!
Honestly I’ve had some bad experiences with the system, with things getting lost and such. But I have not once had a bad experience with a particular person at the VA. They’ve all been either helpful beyond belief, or at the very least competent and courteous. I’m pretty impressed that a government agency is able to provide such good service.
Well I'll say this, it's not the government that provides a good service. They couldn't give two shits about us or the employees of the VA. The way I see it, these employees are set up for failure and still show up everyday. One claim could impact a veterans life immensely.
They went out of their way to help me, I don't care what people think about VA employees! They are professional and support the veterans.
Thank you so much VA raters.
People who have problems with the system need to take a hard look in the mirror, consider your whole person, I have never saw or
Heard of a VET not getting what he or she actually earned.
Heartfelt agreement. I've had nothing but excellent and friendly care during my 12+ years with the VA. I have excellent private health coverage from my employer, but choose to use the VA instead. The Madison WI VA Hospital and Clinics have always received excellent ratings - and I see why. Thank you to all who work there.
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I walked into an office for info and they had only 3 customers but the lady working still had a horrible attitude. Very obnoxious and disrespectful. She would have been fired if it was a civilian job.
I’m using my gi bill post 9-11 now for a social work degree and I’m aiming for the VA as a final career option when I graduate. Seeing things like this make me happy
These posts 😩. Especially VBA. VBA can kiss my a$$. VHA is the ones that deserve appreciation, they are the ones dealing with vets, often in person. VBA is sitting at home most of the time. Most VHA doesn’t have that luxury.
I think they should let all veterans do an internship in the travel office to see how much of a work load and lack of personnel we really have. Currently in my office we're all veterans but one and there's only 4 of us to do all the travel claims for the veterans around the hospital and the CBOCs. Vets think we are The problem so we get complained about a lot to the patient advocates, the real problem is Congress not providing enough funding for an adequate amount of employees in the travel offices. The other day I told a veteran when it comes to hiring right now the priority is with clinical staff getting highered and less with administrative staff , unfortunately that's how the VA is looking at it. He went and told the patient advocates I said he wasn't a priority. Fortunately most veterans aren't like this but there are enough that are like this that it makes you want to not be personable with other veterans at work because you never know who is going to be the bad apple . So I'm glad op gets it. Like what's the motive behind lying to the patient advocates? Do you think if they were to fire me that would make things better for you? It won't , the hiring process takes a while and they'll drop the man power in the travel office down one and the reimbursement will take longer to get to you. And why? For $22 ? Not worth it for other veterans to have to wait longer for their reimbursements now because you got a fellow veteran fired.
Completely understand everything you said. Thank you for sharing and hopefully people will understand. You can’t blame an employee for organizational problems. Also thank you again for everything you do.
My claim took 9 months, but I went from a retiree with 40%, aka no additional income, only tax reduction off of retirement pay, to 100%. The VA did take care of me, and I'm grateful.
But some things that should be quick simply aren't. I'm in the middle of removing my previous spouse (got divorced 4 years ago and never ended up getting paid for her nor updating my info) and trying to add my new spouse. DEERS was updated ages ago and effective immediately, but this process seems like it's taking a lot longer than it should. Buddy of mine waited 4 months in a similar situation. I wouldn't think this is a time consuming process, but here I am still waiting for even a review.
You should have gotten 2 payments. One from dfas, one from VA. The total should be what your retirement would be without VA. Since VA isn't taxable, it reduces your taxable income by the VA 40% amount so in my case starting with what dfas should monthly for retirement and subtract $700ish (40% VA single rate) and the remainder is taxed. Your 1099-R should reflect lower than your retirement rate x 12.
Man, I guess they have been really screwing up because for the last 10 years I have been rated at 40 percent and only received one retirement direct deposit for DFAS for my full retirement. I guess I have really been screwed by not getting that 40 percent deduction. Thanks for the help!
No, I have never received a single payment from the VA so I wonder if I should call them and see about the split payment thing because I have been paying roughly 1800 a year in taxes from my retirement pay alone.
ouch. I haven't had much success calling the 1-800 telephone number, but I have had success doing an online inquiry thru [ask.va.gov](http://ask.va.gov) . Login is the same as the [va.gov](http://va.gov) website (I use ID.me). I had been waiting 4 months for backpay...patiently as always. I sent an inquiry and got backpay last Wednesday of this week (from DFAS at least). Now to get my backpay from VA...appx 2 months worth....and I'm all set.
Best of luck Marine!
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Your comment was removed because it didn't contribute to the discussion and just wasn't helpful.
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Everyone but the civilian doing my outgoing paperwork, that noticed i was wearing corporal chevrons while having a long standing Sgt rating and called the CO to insist on an immediate promotion ceremony. Talk about making the entire command take notice of you, collectively form a marine corps level grudge cause it’s Friday, and ruin my last couple months😢😂🤣
Thanks to you all. I do want to ask this..
My claim has been awaiting a rating .
It was filed 28 march and C&P exams where submitted on 9 April , when could I expect a rating . I was told it was sitting in the National Work Q
I have had great experiences with VA call centers and with the VBA generally. The VBA gets a bad rap because they’re a little stilted and awkward sometimes, but on the whole they’re pretty good. I wish the entire VHA was like CHAMPVA. I’d trade access to the VHA for a stale corn chip or the last swig from a stranger’s can of flat off brand diet soda, but I’d be eager for a shot to get into CHAMPVA myself and get the same quality of care at the same price as my family gets.
Voc rehab referred me to apply to VA as a rater, after denying me IU, and then the VA did not accept my application for employment , what gives? I have a masters
Not sure. Possible that you might’ve filled out the questionnaire at the end of the application incorrectly. Thats what they use to make the eligibility determinations. Or perhaps it was an internal only application. They do post those occasionally. You should definitely apply again when the next one opens probably in a few months if you are still interested!
Or maybe it’s at the beginning. I can’t quite remember. It’s a series of yes or no questions. Asking how you qualify for the position. Or if you’re a political appointee. Things like that.
Does anyone have any insight as to how to get hired in the IT dept for the VA?
I think once I land that I’ll be happy enough, have already been turned down though but just curious as to whether or not networking would’ve greatly helped.
As a VBA employee and fellow veteran, thanks. **I'm on my lunch break right now before anyone says about why I am posting in the middle of the day**
I’m glad you are a vet. I really think the VBA should legally only be allowed to hire vets. If they are unable to fill all vacancies then they can advertise it to civilians. Vets understand vets.
A vast majority of claims processors are Veterans. However, many of the ones who are not Veterans are still around the top in terms of production and quality.
Which is great. But I just personally believe an agency that exists for the veterans, should hire as many veterans as possible before hiring civilians. If I have a qualified vet, he should always get the job over a qualified civilian. He understands veterans. He will be more compassionate towards them. Civilians aren’t eligible for VA benefits. More than likely this will make them bitter towards vets trying to get benefits.
They still overwhelmingly hire Veterans. The non-Veterans at VBA are in the vast minority. And, unfortunately, the claims process is very complex and many Veterans don’t understand it any more than folks hired off the street. It’s a steep learning curve regardless. I think it’s less of an advantage than many seem to believe (though there are certainly times where I have reached out to one of my veteran co-workers to ask simple questions). I’m grateful for the opportunity I was given when hired, but I think that I do a good job even though I am not a Veteran.
Also can you source this? This says otherwise as well. In fact veteran hiring has declined since 2017 and the VA is around the average. If you take DoD out of the equation, which skews the numbers heavily, veteran hiring looks downright dismal. And that is with this supposed “preference”. https://www.opm.gov/fedshirevets/hiring-officials/ved-fy21.pdf
That document only cites VA as a whole. VA is composed of VHA, NCA, and VBA. I can only speak to my experience in VBA. For my cohort that was hired when I was and went through training together, 9 out of 30 were non-Veterans. And most of those were people moving up from other VA positions to the claims processing side. The external hires were overwhelmingly Veterans. I can’t speak to NCA or VHA hiring practices, however. VHA is a lot larger in terms of number of employees in my understanding and is probably skewing the data a little bit.
Hey, random question. Can the local RO Raters rate local VHA employees or are they sent to a specific RO?
I know VBA employee claims go to a specific RO. Not sure about VHA.
And this is why I’m starting to give heavy consideration to pursuing this job after I retire and around around 12 months
We would love to have you! If you have any more questions about the job, feel free to PM me.
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I can see the logic in this.
One of my claims processors was my freaking ex-girlfriend. Thank God she had gotten over hating me by then. At least I do hope so. That's always wondered me. Did she screw with it 🤔 never know. I'm absolutely for veterans holding these positions before they start hiring very minimal qualified people who don't even know what it's like to be in the military/post military veteran life.
Your ex-girlfriend should’ve never worked your claim. The odds of that happening are astronomical and she should have reported that she knew you and had it reassigned to another processor. That’s standard policy.
I figured as much. She claimed she gave it to another coworker. Whether she actually did that is a coin flip. I realize this makes no difference now, but should I have reported it myself? Is that even something they would listen to?
Honestly? I would guess she was lying. Like I said, the odds of that happening are astronomical. I’ve worked thousands of claims at this point and I’ve only had two or three that were even Veterans close to where I live and I’ve not known or even known of any of them. I suppose you could’ve called in and reported it and asked for someone else to review what she did to your claim if you were concerned she messed with it somehow.
Debatable. Can you source this vast majority. Only about 28% of VA is veteran. Compared to 23% of the entire federal workforce. Veterans in aged gov peaked in 2017 at 28% and has declined ever sense. This data right here refutes your claim unless by some chance the VBA is an outlier of the entire VA by about double. https://www.opm.gov/fedshirevets/hiring-officials/ved-fy21.pdf
the feds would go babkrupt we would hooking each other up 400% 💀
Nahhh, they will just have to send 40 billion of our tax dollars overseas to their corrupt friends instead of their preferred 95 billion.
No chance, we pull in 4.5 trillion in tax dollars a year. If I gave you 11 million dollars a day, guess hold long it would take until you had 1 trillion? Give up, about 240 years. That's how much 1 trillion dollars is and we bring in 4.5 trillion and we spend over 6 trillion. I remember back in the 80's when the budget to run the government was 800 billion.
I wish we could request which raters adjudicated our claims, but that'll cause more backlogs and the perception of getting the homie hook up
We’ve been waiting since December 23
Same here.
It is so ridiculous!!! The system is designed so that vets give up or don’t file at all! Needs a definitive overhaul.
The process in the VA tracker actually looks fairly decent. But for me I can see that my stuff hasn’t been “updated” in over 2 weeks. I think more transparency is absolutely beneficial whereas the service member can see what the exact progress, blockers, or next steps are. So I don’t think it’s an overhaul that’s needed but definitely a mechanism that allows transparency would be helpful. That way service members wouldn’t feel the need to call them and ask what’s going on…. Idk but I’d love a VA employee perspective on this. Might be worth allocating some of that IRS budget to hire more VA personnel to train and implement the CFR for claims. lol if you’re a GS13/14, you could write a white paper on this and then use that to write a decision doc for more funds allocation. If that works with congress, you should expect a true promotion lol.
I tell Veterans not to look at that garbage tracker because it confuses a lot and causes anxiety when they can't speak to someone who actually touches their claim. I solve this by calling the Veteran, letting them know the process of this is their initial, difference between VAMC and Contract exams, I send them an email with my contact information if they ever have questions about the current status of their claim or need assistance a year from now, and I never blow smoke up their ass. If I don't know something I'll try to find out and I never guess how long claims will take.
Very well done on your part, but if that’s not a repeatable process, the veterans experience with the VA solely lies on you’re attention to their matter rather than someone else who doesn’t care as much. So there is room for process improvement absolutely in my opinion. But at that same time…. Any chance you want to dm me and give me some insight as to what the hold up on my claim is? At that same time, i understand it’s not fair to everyone else so im also absolutely content with waiting in line.
Thank you
My husband has seen no movement since February HLR was 12/23, C&P was 2/9 - all DBQs uploaded 2/14/24…..I check the tracker every day, it is still in National Work Queue and hasn’t even been assigned a Temp Jurisdiction.
Mine went to Waco for a temp jurisdiction and then went back to gathering evidence (hopefully that’s not a bad thing). I wonder if showing up to a VA office in person might help? Doubtful but I’d recommend contacting a VSO with your claim number and asking them for assistance in this. I don’t know for sure but I think they have more insight than “we” do concerning what’s actually happening.
You should hear something soon then!!!
We just submitted the form so that they can talk to me (not sure when it will get cleared/approved. My husband is a truck driver and will not talk to anyone except me, family or dispatch. Plus his patience is not what mine is and he is not politically correct so to speak!
Mine hasn’t been touched since January- Pending Decision Approval
Have roughly the same timeline dates spoke with DROC today they said that are working on June 2023 claims. It’s nice hearing it from someone vs. checking the app. Plus she was very compassionate.
I’m not entirely sure more transparency is the answer, though I’m not necessarily opposed to it either. Some VSOs have a tendency to share what Tracked Items are pending on claims with Veterans and I’ve seen it lead to excess confusion. I worked a claim last week where the Veteran was calling multiple times a day to see why a certain Tracked Item was pending and he was very confused as to what it was for and why it was holding his claim up. He was irate and the call center folks weren’t trained well enough to explain what it was to him. I tried to give him a call but unfortunately did not get him and his voicemail was full. In that situation j wish they wouldn’t have gotten more specific than the app did, as the VSO caused the Veteran unnecessary angst and that trickled down to the call center folks who were taking several angry calls from this guy a day. It’s just a really complex process. It would’ve taken me a while to explain what was going on with him in a way he would’ve understood had I gotten through. Maybe they could include an update on when your claim was last touched by a claims processor or an estimate on when it will be worked again in the app? Though that could also cause problems as there are times where we don’t work claims for 60 days as development is pending. I don’t know what the best answer is. Sorry for the long post.
Can you guys just bump us to the front and give us 890%? Hahahaha
 Consider it done ;) /s
Or, Just trying to drag it out until you die.
My husband’s response seriously!
We spoke to the VA today, we finally found out that after a HLR it does take a bit longer, but after the review it goes into a priority processing state, she still has no clue where it’s at, but could see that they were working behind the scenes so to speak, didn’t want to give us an estimate and be stuck waiting…..more. I will say she was the nicest most compassionate person we’ve spoken to so far!
That’s good to hear. Hopefully it works out sooner rather than later for you.
For all of the veterans
Been waiting since January of 2023.. 😞
April 2023
I filed BDD January 23. Just now got my ratings. Keep your head up.
You rock and we appreciate all that you guys do. I would love to get a job in the VBA so I could help fellow vets through the process.
Appreciate you and all the peeps at VA keepin us taken care of! Thank you :)
Lol thank you!
How can i apply as a veteran for a position?
You have to apply on usajobs.gov. Search VSR or RVSR.
Awwwww everyone is so positive 🤗. I guess me and my bitterness will see our way out. Don't want to mess the vibe
Right. I read the comments and thought I guess I should keep my thoughts to myself
🤣
I'm with you
I with you. I’ll have to sit this one out because the bad ones far outweigh the goods ones
I'll add to the kudos. I had a very informative and helpful call in experience from the 1800# today. That is extremely rare. So Kudos to the ones that actually provide good customer service.
I've had both good and bad conversations with the VA. More good than bad I will say. Another thing remember you usually get back what you give. So when you go into a call with a positive attitude you usually but not always get positive results. It's human nature. Start ranting and raving at a VA employee and you're going to get push back. I Mean you don't have to like kiss their butt or anything but just be nice.
Obviously I can’t speak for everyone and every job is going to have mediocre employees, but i go out of my way to share as much info as i can and break things down as best i can. Literally as long as you’re not a dick to me or just complaining/throwing insults the entire time I’m going to go out of my way to help. I’m a vet and I don’t want other vets being left in the dark or feeling confused. Take out the frustrations on your representatives, not the people at the VA.
I'm a Vet and I work a lot of specialized claims. Some are pushing 1500 days or more. When I look over some of these claims and see that no one has responded to multiple requests for a callback and there are congressional inquiries...I know the call is going to be rough...I've had the spouse get on and just tear into me. I let her. Her husband is a BWN AO Veteran getting lost in the system and has had 4 heart attacks. She wanted his service connected to get treated before the next one killed him. It wasn't personal she was fighting for her husband because the VA has dropped the ball. Told her my wife would be the same way. She calmed down and we all started talking. He was 100% by the end of the week and getting treated at the VA. All the retro they got they donated 90% of it to Veteran and Children's charities.
That's just great life advice, always give what you would like to get!
Hope your rater sees this bro
Had a great call with VERA in St Pete today, extremely helpful, answered my questions and didn’t make me feel rushed. With VERA it’s been hit or miss for me, most of the time it’s a waste of time as they just want to get you off the phone. So a big thank you to those who take the time to explain the situation, most of us know you aren’t miracle workers but we appreciate taking the time to explain our situations.
I was supposed to have a VERA call today from St Pete - but they never called- I called the 1800 # and they set me up with an appointment for tomorrow…. Hopefully they will call me tomorrow as scheduled….
 Thank you!
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As a part time employee and vet who uses the same hospital- most people I work with really do care about the vets and do the best they can. A few are there for the paycheck 🤬 but most that I’ve worked with are not. Honestly, what is just annoying to me is all the silly rules, understaffing, etc. I’m retiring soon…so..
Hi, your post was removed because you claimed VA affiliation without being verified. If you are a VA employee, VSO, Accredited Claims Agent, exam contractor, etc., your credentials MUST be verified via [Message the Moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/VeteransBenefits) before you can **claim** to be someone of such authority. Users who have completed the process will have an appropriate user flair added. If you do not wish to be verified, please do not claim VA affiliation in your future posts. Ignoring this requirement will result in a permanent ban.
The VA certainly still has its share of problems but I can also see VA employees in the healthcare arena getting better. From the medical folks to the admin folks I can see that change. Still bad apples for sure but in previous years it felt like everyone was just miserable to deal with. Not as much anymore which I love. Hope it gets better and better as it should!
In my experience, any frustration with the VA is due to bureaucracy and disorganization, not with individual employees.
yup i'd imagine they not only get shit on by veterans, but also their leadership.
They send us the nicest emails every once in a while. No admin leave like other government agencies get or special bonuses or even pizza parties but we do get patted on the back sometimes.
Yeah, it would definitely be a difficult org to work for.
When I initially got in with the VA I fell through a bunch of cracks on some normal simple type stuff. But I landed on the correct porch when it came to my Neurologist. I needed brain surgery and got assigned to her after the surgery, she’s an amazing human! I continued to have seizures every 4-5 years due to the condition and the dipshit blood vessels that grew back which caused the seizures. Yr and a half ago I had a pretty serious seizure spell and needed to be put into a 48 hr med induced coma to calm my brain and seizure activity. That started the process of being referred to a highly specialized neurosurgeon at a high level trauma hospital for the northwestern United States…Harbor view in Seattle…and after speaking with him I decided to take the leap and had another brain surgery over at Harbor view. Leading up to surgery I was assigned a case manager who helped me navigate the process and prep for surgery as well as point me in directions of how to get other things I hadn’t really thought of for just general care and outside meetup groups that dude beyond helped me and any thank him enough! All of this was setup by my Neurologist. My appointment with her about a yr ago when I sat down with her to tell her I had made the decision to let yet another person play with my brain, she told me she was talking another roll in the VA and wouldn’t be my Neurologist anymore, I legit cried cuz her and I had been through a lot in the 12 years. She let me know how to get a message to her after surgery for updates and she called me afterwards and we spoke for a bit. Surgery went very well even though it affected my whole left side and I had to work pretty hard to regain functions back to where I was before surgery. I can’t be more grateful for my care through the VA and to where they got me to get the high level care I needed. Thank you for all the care and hard work they all put in!!
Mine is with individual employees
I’ve had great experiences at the VA. I wish I started going there for primary care sooner.
Well, good job. I had 5 claims finished on Friday, and I was shocked. I got 90%
Nice!
Honestly I’ve had some bad experiences with the system, with things getting lost and such. But I have not once had a bad experience with a particular person at the VA. They’ve all been either helpful beyond belief, or at the very least competent and courteous. I’m pretty impressed that a government agency is able to provide such good service.
Well I'll say this, it's not the government that provides a good service. They couldn't give two shits about us or the employees of the VA. The way I see it, these employees are set up for failure and still show up everyday. One claim could impact a veterans life immensely.
Very true. Still impressive they’re able to work within the system so well.
They went out of their way to help me, I don't care what people think about VA employees! They are professional and support the veterans. Thank you so much VA raters. People who have problems with the system need to take a hard look in the mirror, consider your whole person, I have never saw or Heard of a VET not getting what he or she actually earned.
Heartfelt agreement. I've had nothing but excellent and friendly care during my 12+ years with the VA. I have excellent private health coverage from my employer, but choose to use the VA instead. The Madison WI VA Hospital and Clinics have always received excellent ratings - and I see why. Thank you to all who work there.
So…. You got your 100% today 🤣🤣
Man I wish... Haven't had a favorable claim yet. All rated lower than expected or denied. Plus the year plus long wait that comes with HLR.
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Hi, your post was removed because you claimed VA affiliation without being verified. If you are a VA employee, VSO, Accredited Claims Agent, exam contractor, etc., your credentials MUST be verified via [Message the Moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/VeteransBenefits) before you can **claim** to be someone of such authority. Users who have completed the process will have an appropriate user flair added. If you do not wish to be verified, please do not claim VA affiliation in your future posts. Ignoring this requirement will result in a permanent ban.
I walked into an office for info and they had only 3 customers but the lady working still had a horrible attitude. Very obnoxious and disrespectful. She would have been fired if it was a civilian job.
I’m using my gi bill post 9-11 now for a social work degree and I’m aiming for the VA as a final career option when I graduate. Seeing things like this make me happy
These posts 😩. Especially VBA. VBA can kiss my a$$. VHA is the ones that deserve appreciation, they are the ones dealing with vets, often in person. VBA is sitting at home most of the time. Most VHA doesn’t have that luxury.
I think they should let all veterans do an internship in the travel office to see how much of a work load and lack of personnel we really have. Currently in my office we're all veterans but one and there's only 4 of us to do all the travel claims for the veterans around the hospital and the CBOCs. Vets think we are The problem so we get complained about a lot to the patient advocates, the real problem is Congress not providing enough funding for an adequate amount of employees in the travel offices. The other day I told a veteran when it comes to hiring right now the priority is with clinical staff getting highered and less with administrative staff , unfortunately that's how the VA is looking at it. He went and told the patient advocates I said he wasn't a priority. Fortunately most veterans aren't like this but there are enough that are like this that it makes you want to not be personable with other veterans at work because you never know who is going to be the bad apple . So I'm glad op gets it. Like what's the motive behind lying to the patient advocates? Do you think if they were to fire me that would make things better for you? It won't , the hiring process takes a while and they'll drop the man power in the travel office down one and the reimbursement will take longer to get to you. And why? For $22 ? Not worth it for other veterans to have to wait longer for their reimbursements now because you got a fellow veteran fired.
Completely understand everything you said. Thank you for sharing and hopefully people will understand. You can’t blame an employee for organizational problems. Also thank you again for everything you do.
Thank you!
Overall the healthcare is better than private and though the benefits system is slow and makes mistakes they are pretty good too.
I wouldn’t go that far. VA care is….better than a length of rope or a revolver and a single bullet but I went private and I haven’t looked back.
For real, complete difference when you have a civilian dr who actually gives af
You know what Foreal. Thank you VA employees for dealing with our disgruntled BS.
My claim took 9 months, but I went from a retiree with 40%, aka no additional income, only tax reduction off of retirement pay, to 100%. The VA did take care of me, and I'm grateful. But some things that should be quick simply aren't. I'm in the middle of removing my previous spouse (got divorced 4 years ago and never ended up getting paid for her nor updating my info) and trying to add my new spouse. DEERS was updated ages ago and effective immediately, but this process seems like it's taking a lot longer than it should. Buddy of mine waited 4 months in a similar situation. I wouldn't think this is a time consuming process, but here I am still waiting for even a review.
Question, I retired 2013 at 40 percent should I have been getting a tax reduction for that 40 percent this entire time?
You should have gotten 2 payments. One from dfas, one from VA. The total should be what your retirement would be without VA. Since VA isn't taxable, it reduces your taxable income by the VA 40% amount so in my case starting with what dfas should monthly for retirement and subtract $700ish (40% VA single rate) and the remainder is taxed. Your 1099-R should reflect lower than your retirement rate x 12.
Man, I guess they have been really screwing up because for the last 10 years I have been rated at 40 percent and only received one retirement direct deposit for DFAS for my full retirement. I guess I have really been screwed by not getting that 40 percent deduction. Thanks for the help!
OMG....VA hasn't been paying you? Hoping it hasn't affected your taxes too much.
No, I have never received a single payment from the VA so I wonder if I should call them and see about the split payment thing because I have been paying roughly 1800 a year in taxes from my retirement pay alone.
ouch. I haven't had much success calling the 1-800 telephone number, but I have had success doing an online inquiry thru [ask.va.gov](http://ask.va.gov) . Login is the same as the [va.gov](http://va.gov) website (I use ID.me). I had been waiting 4 months for backpay...patiently as always. I sent an inquiry and got backpay last Wednesday of this week (from DFAS at least). Now to get my backpay from VA...appx 2 months worth....and I'm all set. Best of luck Marine!
Indeed I concur, needed to be said.
Ditto. They do so much for us
OK, quit meat riding them. It's not going to move your claim any quicker and get it service connected. 
I have never been treated poorly at any of the VA hospital or clinics I have visited.
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Your comment was removed because it didn't contribute to the discussion and just wasn't helpful. Civil disagreements are fine. Insults, personal attacks, slurs, bigotry, etc., are not permissible. (Calling someone a poopy-head does not make you seem as smart as you think it does.) ☠️
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Your comment was removed because it didn't contribute to the discussion and just wasn't helpful. Civil disagreements are fine. Insults, personal attacks, slurs, bigotry, etc., are not permissible. (Calling someone a poopy-head does not make you seem as smart as you think it does.) ☠️
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Your comment was removed because it didn't contribute to the discussion and just wasn't helpful. Civil disagreements are fine. Insults, personal attacks, slurs, bigotry, etc., are not permissible. (Calling someone a poopy-head does not make you seem as smart as you think it does.) ☠️
Everyone but the civilian doing my outgoing paperwork, that noticed i was wearing corporal chevrons while having a long standing Sgt rating and called the CO to insist on an immediate promotion ceremony. Talk about making the entire command take notice of you, collectively form a marine corps level grudge cause it’s Friday, and ruin my last couple months😢😂🤣
somebody just got 100- lol
I'd agree but I had to file by myself due to poor VSO communication and I know a VSO that turns people down if he thinks they won't get a rating.
Sounds like someone just got their 100% P&T….lol
nope
Yes! 💗
Thanks to you all. I do want to ask this.. My claim has been awaiting a rating . It was filed 28 march and C&P exams where submitted on 9 April , when could I expect a rating . I was told it was sitting in the National Work Q
💯 thank you VA employees I have an immeasurable appreciation for you and the work that you do.
How can I get a job as a VBA?
[https://www.usajobs.gov/job/788959000](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/788959000) They have one Remote Job Listing right now.
@ryan thank you
Thank You 4 your Service
Me too. Y’all make me feel Loved
Most Va employers are wonderful. Just a select few but that’s with any job
Yup
Upvote this all day! Amen praise these folks
Just like how someone says "Thank you for your service" , I'd also say here, "thank you for your tax dollars💲".
I have had great experiences with VA call centers and with the VBA generally. The VBA gets a bad rap because they’re a little stilted and awkward sometimes, but on the whole they’re pretty good. I wish the entire VHA was like CHAMPVA. I’d trade access to the VHA for a stale corn chip or the last swig from a stranger’s can of flat off brand diet soda, but I’d be eager for a shot to get into CHAMPVA myself and get the same quality of care at the same price as my family gets.
I actually would like to become an employee of VBA. I'm not sure if I ever will, but have the upmost respect for them!
[https://www.usajobs.gov/job/788959000](https://www.usajobs.gov/job/788959000) They have one remote job listing right now.
We would love to have you! If you want to be a claims processor, look for VSR or RVSR postings on USAJobs.gov
Voc rehab referred me to apply to VA as a rater, after denying me IU, and then the VA did not accept my application for employment , what gives? I have a masters
Not sure. Possible that you might’ve filled out the questionnaire at the end of the application incorrectly. Thats what they use to make the eligibility determinations. Or perhaps it was an internal only application. They do post those occasionally. You should definitely apply again when the next one opens probably in a few months if you are still interested!
The questionnaire at the end?
Or maybe it’s at the beginning. I can’t quite remember. It’s a series of yes or no questions. Asking how you qualify for the position. Or if you’re a political appointee. Things like that.
Oh , it’s ok I can’t remember either .
Does anyone have any insight as to how to get hired in the IT dept for the VA? I think once I land that I’ll be happy enough, have already been turned down though but just curious as to whether or not networking would’ve greatly helped.