Retroactive Awards

If you receive a favorable award from the VA, you should read the Rating Decision closely to make sure that you received all the benefits to which you are entitled.  Specifically, you should closely scrutinize these parts of the Rating Decision:  the award of service connection, the degree of disability granted, and the effective date of the award.

In some cases, your award may have an effective date that could go back for decades.  When this happens, the VA is required to pay you all of the benefits you would have received over the years.  This could result in a very large award of money.

When you get a rating decision, you should have the decision reviewed by an attorney to make sure that you not only got the right rating but also that the award was started granted with the correct effective date.