The One VA Form That Could Protect Months of Back Pay | Intent to File Explained

VetLine: Coming up on VETLINE. Because Intentafile starts the claim date. If it's a first-time claimant, most of the time that's earliest we can do. Great to have someone in your corner who can check your record. They have to do the 2122 or 2122A. That's like the power of attorney through the VA. You could be making up those numbers. It could be, but I'm not. It's a very important document. It's a simple document, takes maybe two minutes. But as soon as it's done, it'll benefit you moving forward. VET line, my name is Adam. My name is Zach. You know what an intentifile is? I do know what an intentifile is. He does 'cause he was a a VSO. He's done veteran stuff for a few minutes here. I got a a hypothetical for you. Let's say in nineteen fifty one when I was in Korea, I suffered an impacted bowel. A bowel obstruction. Okay. And I I suffered and I've been suffering the consequences of that ever since. And here it is twenty twenty six and I'm hundred and thirty years old. So first time claimant? Yeah, first first time claimant. I've never dealt with the VA before, but I feel as if my dep Department of Veterans Affairs, the government, the DOD owes me something for what I dealt with and what I've been dealing with since with my obstructed bowel since nineteen fifty one. Can I file a claim that gets me back pay seventy years back to when I was in Korea? So as a first time claimant It's not that simple. Okay. ⁓ what I would recommend, if this is the scenario of a hundred and thirty year old man with a backed up bowel. ⁓ It's it's been rough. It's been seventy years. You know, I would ask ⁓ I would ask you first, like, okay, what kind of records do you have? Going back as far as possible. They were written on papyrus. Yeah. See, there's probably not a whole lot there. So that's where an intent file comes in handy. It was a really intelligent joke. Was it? On papyrus? You know what papyrus are? Yes, it's brilliant. Maybe I could have said They were carved out of ⁓ cuneiform tablets. That's a lot better. Just ignore me and press on. So with that intent to file, right? It's VA form zero nine nine six. With that veteran not having all his records and not not everything that he needs in order to file that claim, we put an intent to file. What that intent to file does it tells the VA that we're going to file a claim and we have a year to file that claim that we'll be able to go back to that date as a the earliest date for that claim. Veteran comes in today's date, intent to file. All right. Between now and then next year, we got to get all our records together to see what we have on that client. So we go request all those ⁓ veterans records on S F one eighty if needed, get all those records in. If he doesn't have any, okay, we don't have any. Maybe we put together statements, a list of disabilities, because the goal is when we do file that claim on a five two six C Z, we have every disability that we want to apply for on there and it goes back to that intent to file date from being today's date. So if we file in six months, it goes back to today's date. What will happen is after a year, that intentive file goes away. It expires. Can you re up an intent to file or not? You just get a year. You gotta file within that year. Okay. The only way he'd be able to go back to like the nineteen fifties in this scenario would be maybe he brought up on a wrote on a piece of paper like, Hey, I want to file for, you know, what was the disability again? bowel obstruction. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you wrote on a piece of pile p piece of paper about his bowel. Yes. And maybe that's the case, but that would not come until later on because Ntenophile starts the claim date. If it's a first time claimant, most of the time that's earliest we can do it. So the earliest you can go back to for the start of a claim if you're talking about something that happened in the past, back pay, isn't necessarily when I was in Korea and had problems on the John. But when I told the VA that it happened. When you file the claim. That's when it starts. Yep. When you file the claim. A lot of times when veterans are getting out, you know, the fifties are very different, right? Nowadays, like veterans getting ready to go out, they'll go through the whole ⁓ taps process and they'll file claims and blah blah blah. Back then there's some some guys did it. A lot of guys were just if they were in combat and that, they're getting done and going home. So it didn't really happen a lot. There's scenarios that we possibly could, but More than likely it's gonna be from that intent to file they've started today. So taking a quick 20-second break in the action to talk to you about our incredible sponsors, Tabac Law. The best in the business, the most reliable when it comes to VA disability claims and appeals. It personally helped me. I am a client, and I highly recommend that if you need some support with your ⁓ VA disability claims, that you check them out. Brand new website at tabacattorneys.com. Back to it. So the point of an intent to file would be like if I just, let's say I just told you about my bowel obstruction and you said you should file a claim on today's date. And I said, you know what? I'm gonna file a claim. But it's gonna take me three months to get all the paperwork that I need together to actually file it, or a couple months or something, instead of waiting to start that clock that. that pay by date, that back pay date, instead of waiting to start the clock when I have all the documents in three, six months, a year, whatever. Yeah. By doing an intent to file, that's starting that clock. Correct. It it's allowing the veteran to put together everything he has. But more importantly, that, you know, veteran service officer, that law firm that's representing you, it gives them time to get access to your entire file. Mm-hmm. ⁓ they have to do the twenty one twenty two or twenty one twenty two A. That's like the power of attorney through the VA. You could be making up those numbers. I could be, but I'm not. But allows them to represent that veteran because their first time sitting in there, they're not gonna be able to see the record. And sometimes a veterans like, I've never filed before. But as soon as we get access to that file, this guy's filed a ton. There's always that possibility. Maybe it was twenty years ago, maybe was thirty years ago. But with the way the AMA process is with the VA peels. We could always reopen those cases if they were earlier. A good service officer, a good veteran rep never wants to file a claim without having access to your file. And that goes into that veteran ⁓ advocate being accredited, being able to see all those records. Because if they don't, they could file whatever and totally screw up your claim and you can lose out on a lot of money of those benefits going forward. If you're getting help with your claim and you should have somebody help with your claim, using a VSO or an accredited legal represent representative. Accredited folks can check they understand the VA and they can check your your military records. They have an understanding of how the system works and interconnects. If somebody's not accredited, they don't necessarily know that. So that's a very important point. You mentioned ⁓ digging up records and s noticing that somebody had filed a claim after years of trying to convince my dad to to file an initial claim, you know, in the the waiting years of his his life. Finally got him to file a claim and then we were going through his paperwork and found out that he had filed a claim for hearing loss like in the sixties or seventies or something. And he had been rated for hearing loss. he had been service connected, but rated at zero percent. And had we understood that, ⁓ we would have been able to to move something around for him because he had the last twenty years of his life, he couldn't hear a thing, basically. Great to have someone in your corner who can check your records and actually made his filing process a lot more simple because he was he was technically in there. A veteran is not going to remember everything they've done with the VA throughout the years. Yeah. Like your dad filed in his sixties, he'd probably remember that. Yeah, you know, but with the way the appeals process is set up nowadays, we have an argument to go back to that date. It's very difficult, but there's an argument nonetheless. But filing a brand new claim for it, it kind of takes away that argument. These unaccredited reps out there that are filing the file They're screwing veterans out of thousands of dollars, if not more, because they don't have the availability and accessibility to get into VBMS because they're not accredited. So you know what, friends, if you intend to file, we suggest you file your intent to file to let the VA know that you intend to file. If you're a brand new client and you don't know if you want to file yet, go sit down with the veteran service rep, do an intent to file. It doesn't do anything. It only protects the date. And allow that veteran rep to do that what they need to do, get access to your file and let you know exact exactly what you're eligible for, and then move forward. It's a very important document. It's a simple document, takes maybe two minutes. But as soon as it's done, it'll benefit you moving forward. And the difference could be th you know, thousands of dollars of back pay. And if I do an intent to file today versus waiting until I actually file the claim when I have everything situated in three months. We're talking about three months of back pay. If I go from zero to a hundred percent, we're talking twelve thousand dollars that I just lit on fire essentially. Example I had a w a buddy of mine, this is a couple of years ago. He came in and he's like, I don't have a lot of time to do all this. I was like, All we'll do an attempt file, takes two minutes, we'll get it done, be done. ⁓ and then eleven months later, I got him back in. I was like, All let's file everything. Yeah, let's get this in there. We got it all done. We got him to a hundred percent right out the gate, and that was about four grand a month for for almost a four year. Yeah, very good payday. Almost fifty grand he got or something like that. Did he did he buy a a Dodge Charger with thirty-five percent APR with it? No, he was going through custody with his kid, but thanks for bringing that up Adam. ⁓ so we had lawyer fees. ⁓ but he did buy me a burger.