New VA Disability Claim Requirement

The VA announced that starting 1 April 2023 transitioning service members applying for VA disability compensation under the Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program need to submit their new VA Disability Benefits Questionnaire (VA DBQ) with the claim. You can find additional information and the form at https://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/dbq_publicdbqs.asp.

My observations are as follows:

The Separation History and Physical Exam is currently documented on DD Form 2807-1 (Oct 2018). I haven’t found any official documentation to tell Service members to start using DBQ Part C except for the VA press release with the 1 April mandate.

• DBQ Part A only exists on the VA website – notably without a form number (so not an official document to support the 1 April deadline).

• VA Form 21-526-EZ was not modified prior to levying the new “Requirement”.

• The VA DBQ webpage provides guidance to fill out either DD Form 3146 or VA SHA DBQ. DD Form 3146 does not currently exist per www.esd.whs.mil/Directives/forms.

VA and DoD were both supposed to agree on this, it doesn’t look like DoD has formally approved it, nor does it look like VA has done due diligence to support the 1 April deadline.