Greetings, friends.
I would like at this time to give you, my valued readers and Street Roots supporters, an update on what has been happening with my disability pension claim.
I will quickly go back and give a condensed version for the readers who might not know what I’m referring to. About three years ago, the disability checks that I had been receiving just stopped, without so much as “Hey, we’re stopping your check, jackass.”
Well, I was pretty hot, especially when they said they had given me warning in the form of a letter, which was a complete lie.
Well, seems I had a warrant in California that I needed to take care of. The long and short of this is I finally was able to get back down to California last year, only to find out that the warrant had been squashed two years prior, which would make it about the time my check was stopped. What I’m trying to say is the VA knew when I had a warrant, and they knew when I no longer had said warrant.
Since May 6, 2006, the VA has been putting up hoops for me to jump through just to get my check back.
Fast-forward to March 21, when I had received a letter from the VA stating that my checks would once again begin. I had been reinstated! Hurray! Bingo! I not only received that news, but also I was informed in writing that I was to receive back pay to October 2004, because losing my checks had once again made me homeless. Well, I tell you, old friend, I was ecstatic. I was finally going to have my life back.
However (that’s right, you knew there had to be something else), there was yet another setback. Things just couldn’t be this simple, even though it has taken almost a year.
What happened next was that I received a check a couple weeks after receiving the letter (that so plainly stated I was to get all that was owed me, then I would get my monthly check amount on the first of each month thereafter).
Well, friend, I got a check, all right, but it wasn’t even for my regular monthly amount. I quickly got in touch with the VA, which informed me they really didn’t know what was going on with my claim. They said I probably received a check that was left in the computer. Come on, people. I didn’t just fall off the taco truck.
It’s been 'bout a month and they’ve told me it had been approved here, now it has to be approved by the finance department, which may take another couple of days. Well, yesterday I was finally able to get in touch with the people back in Texas where the checks come from. And they pleasantly informed me that it would be at least another four weeks as they had just gotten my waiver form that I had turned in two months ago.
See what I’m saying? I thought there was one United States VA. Come to find out they can invent all kinds of them when needed.
I guess I should be thankful, at least my monthly checks are supposed to start again. I’ll let you know after May 1 rolls around. Until then, all I can do is just keep pestering the VA back in Texas until they tire of hearing my voice and send me my money. I think they are trying to postpone it as long as they can in hopes I will croak. Well, I’m going to do my best to stay alive, just to be mean. Until my next update, thank you for reading this and for your support of Street Roots.
Semper Fi!
