ptsd SMC (S) Confused

[bionoce]

I'm rated 70% TDIU P&T for PTSD with MDD, no future exams, and cannot leave my apartment to work a 40 hour week. Or work, period. Trying to read into all these interpretations of what "substantially confined" means is confusing. What do I need to submit for this SMC "S", or am I not eligible? If I am eligible how do you request this, is it a claim? Or do you just write a letter? Thanks.

Edited October 19, 2015 by bionoce

[ArNG11]

CFR 4.16 & 4.18 then wouldn't 4.10 and 4.15?

Also 

§4.10   Functional impairment.

The basis of disability evaluations is the ability of the body as a whole, or of the psyche, or of a system or organ of the body to function under the ordinary conditions of daily life including employment. Whether the upper or lower extremities, the back or abdominal wall, the eyes or ears, or the cardiovascular, digestive, or other system, or psyche are affected, evaluations are based upon lack of usefulness, of these parts or systems, especially in self-support. This imposes upon the medical examiner the responsibility of furnishing, in addition to the etiological, anatomical, pathological, laboratory and prognostic data required for ordinary medical classification, full description of the effects of disability upon the person's ordinary activity. In this connection, it will be remembered that a person may be too disabled to engage in employment although he or she is up and about and fairly comfortable at home or upon limited activity.

§4.15   Total disability ratings.

The ability to overcome the handicap of disability varies widely among individuals. The rating, however, is based primarily upon the average impairment in earning capacity, that is, upon the economic or industrial handicap which must be overcome and not from individual success in overcoming it. However, full consideration must be given to unusual physical or mental effects in individual cases, to peculiar effects of occupational activities, to defects in physical or mental endowment preventing the usual amount of success in overcoming the handicap of disability and to the effect of combinations of disability. Total disability will be considered to exist when there is present any impairment of mind or body which is sufficient to render it impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation; Provided, That permanent total disability shall be taken to exist when the impairment is reasonably certain to continue throughout the life of the disabled person. The following will be considered to be permanent total disability: the permanent loss of the use of both hands, or of both feet, or of one hand and one foot, or of the sight of both eyes, or becoming permanently helpless or permanently bedridden. Other total disability ratings are scheduled in the various bodily systems of this schedule.

[ArNG11]

You gotta be 100% scheduler plus the 60% right for SMC S. Not by IU or TDIU. One rating at 100% plus a combination of others for the additional 60%? Where are you Mr. Potato Head? Never mind I am confused now.

 

[bionoce]

Christ.

[Chuck75]

"the effect of combinations of disability"

This is where the VA can easily fail, and, as a result, screw the claimant.

How do you evaluate the combination? The few old examples were based on things

like the multiple loss of limbs, senses, etc.

[FormerMember]

You need to re read SMC S...

(i) Total plus 60 percent, or housebound; 38 U.S.C. 1114(s). The special monthly compensation provided by 38 U.S.C. 1114(s) is payable where the veteran has a single service-connected disability rated as 100 percent and,

(1) Has additional service-connected disability or disabilities independently ratable at 60 percent, separate and distinct from the 100 percent service-connected disability and involving different anatomical segments or bodily systems, or

(2) Is permanently housebound by reason of service-connected disability or disabilities. This requirement is met when the veteran is substantially confined as a direct result of service-connected disabilities to his or her dwelling and the immediate premises or, if institutionalized, to the ward or clinical areas, and it is reasonably certain that the disability or disabilities and resultant confinement will continue throughout his or her lifetime.

SMC S can be awarded absent the extra 60%. Howell v. Nicholson merely makes this regulation interpretation above all the more questionable. Always look for the conjunctives (and) or the disjunctives (or) in 38 CFR. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Edited October 20, 2015 by asknod

[bionoce]

I meet Congress's definition of housebound. Is there a specific reg I can quote to the VA for my claim?