Does anyone know about alpha veterans disabity advocates? in VA Disability Claims (General) Forum

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Does anyone know about alpha veterans disabity advocates?

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RandyR	Does anyone know about alpha veterans disabity advocates?		Lead	[-]
Posts: 2 Dec 9 10 11:13 AM	Tags : None They advertise about getting the veteran a higher disability rating.?
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71infantry		#1	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4990 Dec 9 10 11:16 AM	RandyR wrote: They advertise about getting the veteran a higher disability rating.? Yes from the web cite... http://www.alphadisability.com/about/advocacy-fee/ They charge for service that means they are not veteran friendly, they are just out to make a dollar. They can't do any better a job than the free veteran service officers of the DAV , AL etc.
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RandyR	Thank you	#2	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2 Dec 9 10 11:23 AM	Thank you
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hutsky		#3	[url]	[-]
Posts: 2781 Dec 9 10 12:16 PM	I am not sure ALPHA even understands the VA system. Take a look at their example of fees on their website. How the VA Calculates the Fee – an Example We help you apply for disability compensation in January 2008. The VA approves your claim but rates your disability at 40 percent. You get $541 a month. We strategize that you should get 50 percent disability, or $770 a month. We appeal for more in June, 2008. In June 2010, we win you the 50 percent increase of compensation effective June 2008. The VA now owes you 24 months of benefits at the new 50 percent rate. You have received 24 months of benefits at the 40 percent rate. The VA subtracts $541 from the new rate of $770, which is $229 and multiples 24 months (June 2008 – June 2010) $229 x 24 = $5,496. This is the retroactive amount due you for your disability now rated at 50 percent. The VA withholds 20 percent of your retro benefit, or $1,099 and pays us directly. This is a one-time-only fee we receive for each appeal that secures you additional compensation. If a claim were filed in Jan '08 and approved in Jun '08 they would start payments in Feb '08--the effective date is the date claim was filed. Likewise, it the award were appealed and overturned it would be effective from the initial award date, Jan '08. So, the back pay would be applied to 29 months instead of 24. Guess I would be leary of their other claims.
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darkphasex	Uneasy Feeling	#4	[url]	[-]
Posts: 21 Dec 9 10 1:11 PM	The people running Alpha should be facing cognitive dissonance if they understand the true meaning of helping. It strikes an uncomfortable feeling in me to charge a Veteran a fee to work a disability claim. Just does not seem right for such business to exist; however, people will have ways to make money one way or another. I greatly appreciate non-profit organizations such as DAV that provides selfless assistance to Veterans. I do not support charging Veterans that need help. -Tom
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Vike17		#5	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1969 Dec 9 10 1:26 PM	Alpha disability cannot, and does not, charge a fee for initial disability compensations claims. The only time an accredited attorney or agent can charge a fee is after a Notice of Disagreement (during the appeals process) has been submitted by the claimant (after June 2008), and this fee must be reasonable. Fees up to 20% of any retroactive disability compensation is deemed reasonable; however, the Office of General Council still must approve any fees charged by an attorney or agent. Copies of any fee agreement between an attorney or agent and a claimant MUST be submitted to the Office of General Council within 30 days of its execution. Vike 17 A-Btry, 3/35 Field Artillery 72nd Field Artillery Brigade "Fire Mission"
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dust4tears		#6	[url]	[-]
Posts: 920 Dec 9 10 3:12 PM	This article was on Facebook today: http://www.facebook.com/notes/veterans-benefits-administration-vba-us-department-of-veterans-affairs/qualifying-for-non-service-connected-disability-and-death-pension/472165688491 It kind of has to do with this.
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Cb1984		#7	[url]	[-]
Posts: 560 Dec 9 10 3:57 PM	They can't do anything the DAV or any other good service organization won't do for free. Just a thought Chris
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LIKEYOUREADABOUT	Great thing about America!	#8	[url]	[-]
Posts: 452 Dec 9 10 5:51 PM	71Inf. The great thing about America is that it gives you a choice. A veteran may go it alone,when filing;and hopefully covering all his bases with the claims process. The veteran may choose a certain VSO orginanation to cover his tracks. Or,the veteran may choose a reputable attorney that has many years of experence in dealing in VA law ,.and at different levels (BVA/Court/Federal court/Supreme court). The deeper your claim goes into the system, the more knowledgable and knowing the neauance of the VA system the person must be. It may be money well spent. Let the Buyer Beware!!. and Trust andVerify,because you are ultimately in charge of your own claim. There are all types of horror stories of VSOs,Attorneys,helping agencies and the veterans own bungling!. Bottom line coose well and with thought.
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broncovet		#9	[url]	[-]
Posts: 993 Dec 9 10 10:07 PM	Out of Frustration and delay, Vets have turned to trying to pay others to help them with their benefits. The VA does not tell a Veteran how to spend his money, and if he would like to pay someone to help them get their benefits, they are welcome to do so. Vikes example is when the money is paid direct from the VA from monies due to the Veteran...if the Veteran pays the paid service provider out of his own pocket, he is free to do so. There is a group of people who say, "You get what you pay for" applies to Veterans benefits also. If you get a "free" Veteran Service Officer, you are often one of hundreds or even thousands of claimants that VSO is representing, so he will be dividing his time between you and many other Vets seeking benefits. Will he have time to properly work your claim? Maybe. But will he be motivated to do his job well when he makes the same regardless of if/when you get your benefits? I dont know, but I do know that money motivates some people to do a better job. Perhaps Veterans Service Officers are all honorable, and are exclusively motivated by their compassion to help Vets. Remember, also, that Veterans service officers such as the DAV often gets free rent from the VA at the hospital or RO. Ever heard that bit about, "There is no such thing as free rent"? Well, there are many who think the VA "gets their rent paid" by forcing VSO's into compliance with VA philosophies. Example: Why arent the Veteran Service Organizations doing anything about the million man backlog and shredded claims? Some would say because they are getting rent money to "shut up" about the mistreatment of Veterans, and look the other way when the VA shreds Vets evidence. There are certainly scammers who target Veterans. I recommend you consider hiring a professional, such as an experienced Veterans law attorney, if you have been repeatedly frustrated with the VA, like others, and have not been successful with "free" VSO's. Rarely, if ever, would I recommend paying someone to help with your claim who was not an attorney, tho there may be circumstances that could be productive to the Vet also. Its a shame the VA is so poorly managed that Vets are so desperate that they turn to this.
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71infantry		#10	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4990 Dec 9 10 11:57 PM	LIKEYOUREADABOUT wrote: 71Inf. The great thing about America is that it gives you a choice. A veteran may go it alone,when filing;and hopefully covering all his bases with the claims process. The veteran may choose a certain VSO orginanation to cover his tracks. Or,the veteran may choose a reputable attorney that has many years of experence in dealing in VA law ,.and at different levels (BVA/Court/Federal court/Supreme court). The deeper your claim goes into the system, the more knowledgable and knowing the neauance of the VA system the person must be. It may be money well spent. Let the Buyer Beware!!. and Trust andVerify,because you are ultimately in charge of your own claim. There are all types of horror stories of VSOs,Attorneys,helping agencies and the veterans own bungling!. Bottom line coose well and with thought. Out of all the people that responded you call me out..... Bottom line if you have to pay someone to do your claim, then you likely don't have a valid claim. It doesn't take a rocket specialist to file a va claim, All it takes is some common sense, a little reading, the right evidence and a lot of time to wait,,, but if you want to pay some one for something that you can do or get someone to help for free go ahead, as the saying goes a fool and his money are soon parted....
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LIKEYOUREADABOUT	Paranoid!	#11	[url]	[-]
Posts: 452 Dec 10 10 9:39 AM	71Inf. , A little paranoia doesnt hurt anyone,and most likely keeps your brain functioning constructive manner. I quess my question would be what is valid for one person may not seem valid for another. If a veteran has a so called simple construct claim may fal into the relm from presumptive to direct once it hits the VA front door. So if a veteran doesnt have the understanding he stands at a great disadvantage of an approved claim decision,and a claim which mayend -up in (the belly of the beast) for many months and years. My personnal paranoia is that VA is friendly,until that veteran files his claim,than the gloves come off. I would say the majority of claims are simple (kiss). and if valid equals simple,why are most regional offices are only scoring a 60 or 70% claims adjudication correctly by (IG) inspections. The way I see it,if someone is being given a (D) or(F) on a grading system. So a simple claim may fall into this catagorty of scoring. So you have taken something simple and made it complex by the appeals process. and the deeper your claim goes into the bowels of the beast.
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LIKEYOUREADABOUT	shocked!	#12	[url]	[-]
Posts: 452 Dec 10 10 12:09 PM	71Inf., If each and everytime that you had to plug-in a certain applance in your home;and the home contractor told you that you would be shocked thirty (30) or (40) percent of the time that you plugged something into that outlet. Would you not want that outlet working close to (100) percent of the time,all the time. Safeguard/safeguard/safeguard.!!.
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71infantry		#13	[url]	[-]
Posts: 4990 Dec 10 10 8:49 PM	LIKEYOUREADABOUT wrote: 71Inf., If each and everytime that you had to plug-in a certain applance in your home;and the home contractor told you that you would be shocked thirty (30) or (40) percent of the time that you plugged something into that outlet. Would you not want that outlet working close to (100) percent of the time,all the time. Safeguard/safeguard/safeguard.!!. Hey take a break....or are you getting off on this stupidity?
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LIKEYOUREADABOUT	Take a break!	#14	[url]	[-]
Posts: 452 Dec 10 10 9:57 PM	71Inf. Iam sure rational minds have prevailed over the drivel put forth by irrational logic.Each and every claim is unique unto itself.They may be similar,but the content in the claim may make them very complex. And once the claim is denied and proceeds to BVA and higher courts,Only a fool will Represent himself with no logic involved. When you look at the Monday morning reports;how many claims do you see in the appeals process section!. You see the VA had a good thing going, until attorneys got involved. Before the rules were changed to allow attorneys to represent veterans. The attorneys were only allowed to charge a veteran a ten dollar fee for their service. This law was put in place after the Civil War. No attorney could afford this and the VA new that!. The attorneys messed-up a good messed-up a good thing that VA had going on with DAV. Thats why DAV fought to keep attorneys out of the fray. The VA,DAV had a so-called werehousing going on with veterans and their claims(just like werehousing inmates in prison).This system has allowed a continued backlog of claims,which is job security for all.
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Pop		#15	[url]	[-]
Posts: 12322 Dec 11 10 9:42 AM Site Owner 2002-2007	Just wait until more and more lawyers get involved and then you will see a true backlog of claims. You see IMHO, the DAV and others like then have nothing to gain when helping veterans. Lawyers do. They have specific amounts of money they are looking to make. Whereas a simply problem with a claim can be fixed by using VSO's it is not the case with lawyers. The entire file will have to go back and go thru the official process again otherwise the lawyers will cry foul. When they cry foul what do you think happens? It extends the case. What happens when the case is extended? They can charge more $$. This is simply common sense. Now, I agree that what is good for one may not be good for another but the VA process is menat to be "user-friendly". You can take your claim to the VA to help you if you wanted. I for one don't see the VA as the "enemy". Therefore, I don't see something suspicous around every corner. As for what takes so long is that the human body is not a robot that can be explained in a simple flowchart. The same meds in one person may cause a different reaction in anonther person. Therefore, you cannot take a cookie cutter approach. Just b/c you might claim depression secondary to lower back pain that might not lead to depression for another person. However, they might have a secondary claim for their hips b/c they have to compensate how they walk while the guy with depression can walk just fine. Both will need different kinds of meds. So, as you can see, the human body, in just this small little example becomes complex when it comes to trying to explain what happens in one person versus what happens in another person.
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LIKEYOUREADABOUT	Pop,I agree,to Disagree!	#16	[url]	[-]
Posts: 452 Dec 11 10 10:31 AM	Pop, In my humble opinion I agree with the majority of the body of your statement,except for your first sentence. VSOs do it free. That I personnally feel is what inhibits them from doing a professional claims process in some instances. Due to something been free,there system is abused by a overload of claims. The Local VSO starts with good intentions of helping veterans,but in a short time is desk is stacked with files and sees no light of day. So since his service is free,I feel he has no obligation to due , (DUE DILGENCE) to each and every file. But when you incorprate the capitalist system! (money) equals attorneys. The veteran gets what he pays for in most cases. Whenyou have a free system like welfare (not the veteran) but the VSO,who may quit,be transfered while in the middle of your case,and than another VSO picks-up your claim and says,"who are you"! Iguess when you put that proverbial carrot out there,peope pay more attention to detail. The VSOs are free to a certain extent,once you get to the court level the majority of claims are handled by attorneys but not VSOs Why?.
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biergeliebter		#17	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1 Mar 30 11 2:56 PM	71infantry wrote: Bottom line if you have to pay someone to do your claim, then you likely don't have a valid claim. It doesn't take a rocket specialist to file a va claim, All it takes is some common sense, a little reading, the right evidence and a lot of time to wait,,, but if you want to pay some one for something that you can do or get someone to help for free go ahead, as the saying goes a fool and his money are soon parted.... Apparently in the eyes of the VA "the right evidence" is subjective. I read some books, reviewed VA case files similar to my issues, and got the help of a DAV rep while at the VA clinic getting treatment for my tremors. At my C&P exam, when reviewing the part of my claim about the tremors I have suffered since 8 months after I returned from the Gulf, the doctor said "If I don't see them, I can't document them. Besides lots of people get tremors as they get older." So because I am finally getting treatment for them, he can't see them to document them. And 24 is now apparently "older". Oh, and my VA shrink was upset that they denied my PTSD claim. The denial letter actually stated "no evidence of ever having been diagnosed with PTSD" even though I have been diagnosed and am being treated BY THE VA! So after filing my original claim back in 2005, getting the DAV involved when I hadn't heard anything by 2008, and ultimately getting denied 2 years later for what I and my rep thought should be a no-brainer, yes, I'm considering letting someone else fight with the VA on my behalf for a portion of any back-owed compensation they can get me. I have nothing against my DAV rep, but I have seen that he is stretched thin with all the new vets coming home and his only being able to do his DAV volunteer work 2 days a week because he has to work a paying job as well. Since the 'back-owed' in my case would go back to the Feb 2005 claim date, I see that as one heck of an incentive for one of these companies to do their best effort on my behalf. And their compensation is still small in comparison to the 80% of back-owed plus the monthly amount I would get because of their effort on my behalf. Now if only my wife agreed. So I have to disagree with your statement that if someone has to pay someone to do their claim then they likely don't have a valid claim, because I have heard of way too many instances where an obvious service connected disability was denied and have now experienced one myself.
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The Old Medic		#18	[url]	[-]
Posts: 6031 Mar 30 11 4:05 PM	The Veterans Service Organizations have a LOT more experience in the Courts that handle VA Claims than ANY law firm does. For many years, you could NOT get an attorney to handle a Veterans Claim, because the maximum fee they could charge is $10.00. DAV, VFW, Am. Legion, Jewish War Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans, Vietnam Vets, etc. have all been providing full and complete service, totally free of charge to any veteran (you DO NOT have to be a member of their organization for them to represent you). Most of the "Legal firms" you deal with do not have attorneys that actually handle the case. This is done by para-legals, and in some cases by Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors, and others. Only when they get a case into court will they all utilize an actual attorney. Sadly, you often do not get what you pay for. Most of these "legal representative" do nothing more than any VSO would do, but they charge 20% of your back benefits for that. In my opinion, below the appeals court level, they are nothing but a rip off. US Army 1959-1969; Germany 1960-63; Medic 1964-69 SFC E-7 MOS: 55G10 (60-63) , 91B40, 91C40, 91F40 (64-69) Registered Nurse, 1968-2005 (Licensed, not practicing after 1975) Ed.D in Rehabilitation Counseling, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor Retired, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Independent Social Security Contract Vocational Expert 1983-2005, Contract Medical Expert 1987-2005 60% Service Connected Disabled; Life Member of the DAV since 1980
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Ivac		#19	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1386 Mar 30 11 4:19 PM	Bier, one other point: your DAV person does not appear to be a trained National Service Officer (DAV-speak for VSO) - you stated "because he had to work a paying job as well." DAV volunteers are not NSO's and are not likely to be well trained or knowledgeable at all. So that's your first problem - you were probably working with a rookie volunteer. NSO's are a whole 'nother animal and are very well trained and are paid (probably well). An NSO can look over your file and spell out what type evidence is missing and that evidence is often medical in nature. At that point, in the vast majority of cases, if you obtain the needed medical evidence, you will be approved. Personally, I would only recommend such an outfit if they had doctors on staff that would use their medical knowledge to write up a plausible nexus letter tailored to fit your claims needs. Ivac
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DocFMF		#20	[url]	[-]
Posts: 1441 Mar 30 11 4:24 PM	The way I see it is... The longer your claim is not paid, the more back pay you receive. As a businessman I would make sure the claim lasted a good long time if I was making money off of a vet's claims backpay. There are many ways to tie up your claim forever (not that the VA needs any help in that matter... LOL I would beware of a wolf in sheeps clothing with this sort of company. I do not like this game!!!.
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Does anyone know about alpha veterans disabity advocates?

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