The Board has determined that the effective date for the award of nonservice-connected pension benefits is December 12, 2000.
The deciding factor: The veteran's informal claim was received by VA on December 12, 2000, which serves as the date of receipt of his claim. The Board found this to be the earliest possible effective date given the provisions for retroactive pension benefits.
- Claimed conditions
- back and leg pain, right knee internal derangement with medial meniscus tear
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 20, 2006
- Citation
- 0639623
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,645 · Granted: 19% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
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 0639623.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran seeks compensation under 38 C.F.R. � 1151 for additional disability caused by VA medical treatment from around 2000 to April 2010, including heart attacks, congestive heart failure, two placements of heart implant stents, sleep apnea, low oxygen levels, edema, back and leg pain, and skin itching. He contends that his polycythemia was not diagnosed or treated properly by VA, leading to these disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected musculoligamentous strain, right knee, is currently rated at 10 percent and the Board finds that a higher rating is not warranted.
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