Andrew

Generally, this is good advice but it is not completely accurate. If you are filing a claim within one year of discharge from active duty, your claim will be backdated to the date of discharge whether you file it two days after you get out or 350 days after you get out. Second, some people have valid reasons for wanting to wait to file a claim. I typically suggest people file right away but if that doesn't work for you for a really good reason, make an "informal" claim. Call the VA 800 number and ask about eligibility for disability benefits. Call from your cellular phone. Keep a record of the call. Make it a lengthy call. Mention disability benefits to your primary care physician and try to get it into the treatment notes. If VA doesn't act on your informal claim and help you to perfect it, you can turn to it later to argue that you are eligible for benefits back to the date of making the informal claim.

I am replying to this somewhat dated post to add my view of the state of the law. First, there are two parts to a VA decision -- 1. Does the disability exist and, if so, how bad is it; and 2. Was the disability incurred in, caused by, or aggravated by either military service or treatment at a VA facility? So even is the Social Security Administration determines you are disabled, you must establish the nexus between the disability and your military service. If this is a PTSD case and you had a rough childhood or other possible stressors, VA may try to point to those stressors as the cause of your disability. If they do, request reconsideration and tell them that it is as likely as not that the illness was caused by the in-service stressor and, in the alternative, if you suffered trauma before the service, you were fully functional upon entry and so military service activated and aggravated the disability. Second, a decision by the Social Security Administration should be accorded "substantial deference" by the VA adjudicator. While the VA adjudicator is not bound by that decision, federal agencies should give the decision of another federal agency great weight. If VA disregards that SSA decision, it must give some reason why. Here's some language you may want to add to your cover letter when you write about your claim to VA. (There's more language that follows this, too, further below.) The Social Security Administration has recently determined that I am too disabled to work because of my service-connected (name the disability). As such, they have found me eligible for Title II Social Security Disability Benefits. Please see the enclosed decision of the Social Security Administration. While the VA is not bound by the Social Security Administration's decision, it must consider it. See, e.g., DeLoatche v. Heckler, 715 F.2d 148, 150 (4th Cir. 1983). The Court in DeLoatche considered Social Security's failure to consider such a disability determination to be an "egregious" defect in its decision. And in McCartey v. Massanari, 298 F.3d 1072, 1076 (9th Cir. 2002), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated: We agree with the approach of the Fourth, Fifth, and Eleventh Circuits and hold that in an SSD case an ALJ must ordinarily give great weight to a VA determination of disability. See Chambliss, 269 F.3d at 522, Brady, 724 F.2d at 921; DeLoatche, 715 F.2d at 150 n.1. We so conclude because of the marked similarity between these two federal disability programs. Both programs serve the same governmental purpose--providing benefits to those unable to work because of a serious disability. Both programs evaluate a claimant's ability to perform full-time work in the national economy on a sustained and continuing basis; both focus on analyzing a claimant's functional limitations; and both require claimants to present extensive medical documentation in support of their claims. Compare 38 C.F.R. § 4.1 et seq. (VA ratings) with 20 C.F.R. § 404.1 et seq. (Social Security Disability). Both programs have a detailed regulatory scheme that promotes consistency in adjudication of claims. Both are administered by the federal government, and they share a common incentive to weed out meritless claims. The VA criteria for evaluating disability are very specific and translate easily into SSA's disability framework. Because the VA and SSA criteria for determining disability are not identical, however, the ALJ may give less weight to a VA disability rating if he gives persuasive, specific, valid reasons for doing so that are supported by the record. See Chambliss, 269 F.3d at 522 (ALJ need not give great weight to a VA rating if he "adequately explain the valid reasons for not doing so"). Just as SSA must give great weight to VA decisions, so too must VA give great weight to SSA decisions. ------- In addition, send a letter to the VARO with the following language: The Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000 (VCAA or Act, Pub. L. No. 106-475, 114 Stat. 2096) requires the VA to notify all claimants of "any information, and any medical or lay evidence, not previously provided to the Secretary that is necessary to substantiate the claim." If you believe VA still lacks sufficient evidence to substantiate my claim, please tell me precisely what evidence is still lacking. In some instances, there may be positive and negative evidence in the VA record. If you determine there is negative evidence in my record, please let me know what this evidence is, and please let me know what types of evidence would tend to rebut this negative evidence and thus substantiate my claim. Even if VA does not answer your letter in an appropriate manner, it will be to your benefit later if you do not prevail on your claim. Please, please, please do not send the VA original documents. Always maintain your own copies in chronological order. And do send everything US Postal Service certified mail with delivery confirmation and return receipt requested so someone must sign for it. GOOD LUCK!