Veterans' Healthy Living, Summer 2014
RBPS Allows Vets to Receive Dependency Benefits in Days
The Rules Based Processing System (RBPS) allows Veterans receiving compensation to add or change family member status through eBenefits quickly - generally in a matter of days. The idea for RBPS came from a VA employee, and it uses an approach similar to automated tax-preparation software.
With RBPS, Veterans who have at least a 30 percent combined VA disability rating may use eBenefits to:
- Add a spouse, child, or stepchild under the age of 18.
- Add or update a child’s (or stepchild’s) status who is 18–23 years old and enrolled in an educational institution approved by VA.
Nearly 50,000 Veterans have filed dependency requests through RBPS, which processes qualifying requests without hands-on human involvement, allowing for faster decisions and payments. Eligible Veterans who have already filed paper dependency requests can re-file through RBPS and, in most cases, receive payment the next month.
If something submitted through RBPS needs clarification, the system refers the claim to a Veteran Service Representative (VSR), along with the reason theclaim could not be processed, so the VSR does not have to start from scratch. Those include:
- Requests with an uploaded document. Marriage or birth certificates are not needed to grant a request, but if one is included, VA is required to review it.
- Adding an adoptive child, which requires certain documentation.
- Requests where dates overlap (e.g., a marriage starting before another ended).
- The dependent is already in VA’s database as a beneficiary or employee (e.g., the dependent is also a Veteran and in receipt of compensation or the dependent is a VA employee).
Veterans can file dependency claims online through the eBenefits web portal at https://www.ebenefits.va.gov.
