Citation Nr: 19129456 Decision Date: 04/16/19 Archive Date: 04/16/19 DOCKET NO. 17-62 220A DATE: April 16, 2019 ORDER Entitlement to accrued benefits in excess of $1,504.00 is dismissed. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. In April 2018, the appellant provided a corrected VA Form 21P-601, Application for Accrued Amounts Due a Deceased Beneficiary, requesting reimbursement of the last expenses of the deceased surviving spouse in the amount of $560 for hospice care and $944.00 for burial expenses; a total of $1,504.00. 2. In a July 2017 decision, the appellant was notified that a one-time entitlement of $1,504.00, for accrued benefits, was granted. CONCLUSION OF LAW The grant of accrued benefits in the amount of $1,504.00 represents a full grant of the benefit sought on appeal; and there remains no justiciable case or controversy for the Board to adjudicate. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from April 1943 to March 1946; he died in June 2015. In a December 2015 rating decision, the Veteran’s surviving spouse (hereinafter the deceased beneficiary) was awarded entitlement to aid and attendance effective June 1, 2015; she died in June 2016. The death certificates of the Veteran and the deceased beneficiary show that the appellant is their daughter. Under 38 U.S.C. § 7105, the Board may dismiss any appeal which fails to allege specific error of fact or law in the determination being appealed. Historically, as noted above, the Veteran died in June 2015. In July 2015, the deceased beneficiary filed claims for burial benefits, death pension, and accrued benefits. In a memorandum concerning in-home health care services, S.M., noted that she provided services for the deceased beneficiary at a cost of $400 per week. In a December 2015 rating decision entitlement to aid and attendance allowanced was established effective from June 2015; a finding of incompetency was proposed. In addition, month of death benefit in the amount of $2,120.00 as well as burial benefits in the amount of $745.00 were also granted. Except for the March 2016 payment, the improved death pension payments in the amount of $1,149.00 per month effective from July 1, 2015, a total of $9,191.00, were held pending appointment of fiduciary. In March 2016, VA was advised by the deceased beneficiary that she had moved into a nursing home which was being paid by Medicaid. In April 2016, the deceased beneficiary requested that her daughter, the appellant, be appointed as her fiduciary. That same month, the monthly pension rate effective from May 1, 2016, was reduced to $90.00. The surviving spouse died in June 2016 ; and benefit payments were stopped from July 1, 2016. In July 2016, the appellant filed an Application for Accrued Amounts Due a Deceased Beneficiary. The appellant noted, “A claim was pending for a fiduciary to be appointed so the monies the VA owed my mother would be released. I was the intended fiduciary. I am requesting those monies the VA is holding from July 2015 – March 2016 be released to me so that I may recoup the amount I spent out of pocket for my mother’s caregiver. The appellant noted that she has spent $12,000 and noted the nature of expense was “Caregiver.” In November 2016, the appellant was informed by letter that her claim for accrued benefits had been denied. She was also informed that the caregiver fees were considered when calculating the surviving spouse’s death pension award. It was also noted that if those fees had not been counted when determining the death pension benefit, she may have not been entitled to death pension. In July 2017, the appellant submitted her Notice of Disagreement with the November 2016 decision. In addition, the appellant has submitted invoices from S.M.. from September 2015 to December 2015 for a total of $5,600, for in-home health care services. In a November 2017 Statement of the Case, the appellant was again advised that the fees paid for in-home attendant/caregiver (S.M.) could not be claimed as both a medical expense on the surviving spouse’s death pension award and a payment by the appellant for the last illness expense of the surviving spouse for accrued benefits as those in-home attendant/caregiving fees would represent a duplication of expenses prohibited by law. The appellant was advised that if VA determined that she paid the caregiver fees, the surviving spouse would not have been entitled to receive non-service connected death pension benefits. On her VA Form 9, Appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, received in April 2018, the appellant noted that she had misunderstood the application for accrued amounts due a beneficiary, that she had submitted last expenses that were already counted as a source of medical expenses on the deceased beneficiary’s own VA pension award, and that the VA decided the case correctly. She noted that she was submitting the correct and eligible last expenses of the deceased beneficiary. In May 2018, a “corrected” Application for Accrued Amounts Due a Deceased Beneficiary was filed by the appellant. The appellant noted that she paid $560.00 to Hospice of Okeechobee for her mother’s room and board and $944 to Burton and Bass Okeechobee Funeral Home for burial expenses. A May 2018 correspondence from VA indicated that the appellant was paid a one-time entitlement of $1,504. In May 2018, accrued benefits in the amount of $1,504.00 was granted; considered by the Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) as a partial grant of benefits sought on appeal. The Board, however, finds that the grant of accrued benefits in the amount of $1,504.00 represents a full grant of the benefit sought on appeal. As there remains no justiciable case or controversy for the Board to adjudicate, this claim is dismissed as a matter of law. 38 U.S.C. § 7105. ROBERT C. SCHARNBERGER Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD P. Olson, Counsel