The Board has determined that the appellant timely perfected an appeal of the January 2004 rating decision that assigned a February 25, 2003 effective date for the award of DIC benefits. The criteria are not met for the assignment of an earlier effective date than February 25, 2003, for the payment of DIC based on establishing service connection for the cause of the veteran's death.

The deciding factor: The appellant filed a timely NOD and substantive appeal regarding the effective date issue, but did not file a timely substantive appeal within one year of the January 2004 rating decision or 60 days from the August 2004 SOC. The Board finds that her August 2004 hearing election form was received at the RO within the required time frame.

Claimed conditions

Not specified in this decision

How they argued it

Direct service connection

Exposure basis

None

Rating assigned

None in this decision

Decision date

June 20, 2006

Citation

0618037

This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0618037.