Effective Dates

Veterans frequently contact our office regarding effective dates for their VA disability claims. They have many questions about how the effective date was assigned, and whether or not the VA made an error when assigning their effective date. The effective date is important in a VA disability claim as it…

Veterans who plan on filing a VA claim for disability benefits within the next year should let the VA know by submitting a letter of intent to file. This allows the Veteran to gather supporting evidence for their claim while also setting an early effective date. What is a Letter…

The effective date for an original claim is usually the date that the VA receives the claim. However, when a claim has been denied and appealed, and then later granted, the VA may grant something called “staged ratings,” which often leads to a lot of confusion among Veterans. In this…

During his daily press briefing on 4/2/2020, President Trump announced that he had directed the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer relief to Veterans during the coronavirus pandemic in two significant ways.  The first step will be to halt collection of debts owed to the VA during the crisis.  The…

Many veterans who receive a negative decision from the VA don’t realize that they can appeal that decision. Some veterans unknowingly allow the deadline for appeals to run out. Later, if the veteran wants to pursue an earlier effective date, he or she will have to argue that the VA…

Generally speaking, there are four different ways you can get earlier effective dates for VA disability benefits compensation claims. The general rule for effective dates is the date the VA received the claim, or the date that entitlement arose, whichever is later. 38 C.F.R. § 3.400 (2013). If veteran filed…