BEAUDETTE V. MCDONOUGH
CAVC No. 20-4961

The Beaudette lawsuit was filed claiming that veterans and caregivers who applied for benefits under the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (“PCAFC” or “Caregiver Program”) must be allowed to appeal any PCAFC denial of benefits to the Board of Veterans’ Affairs (“BVA” or “Board”). In April 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims agreed with the petitioners, Jeremy and Maya Beaudette, and ruled that the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) must permit appeals to the Board.  You can read a summary of the Court’s decision here, or read the full decision here.

For claimants who appeal adverse Caregiver Program decisions, the Board could decide they are entitled to re-instatement to the program, increased benefits, and/or back pay of benefits previously denied.

The Class includes “all claimants who received an adverse benefits decision under the Caregiver Program, exhausted the administrative review process within the VHA, and have not been afforded the right to appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.”

After the court’s decision, VA agreed to let all claimants who received a benefits decision under the Caregiver Program to appeal to the Board, whether or not they exhausted the administrative review process within the VHA.  That means that if you ever received a benefits decision under the Caregiver Program, you can now appeal to the Board.

_______________________________________________________

This website is created and maintained by Class Counsel in Beaudette v. McDonough, CAVC No. 20-4961.  It is not a website of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and this website does not represent any endorsement by VA of the general policies, products, or activities of Class Counsel.  This website provides general information about the court’s decision in Beaudette and what it means for class members. Class Counsel represent the class in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claim in the Beaudette case, but do not represent class members in their individual applications or appeals for Caregiver Program benefits.