ptsd Am I Eligible Or Smc (S) Now?

[nwlivewire]

First time poster and have a question about SMC (S)

I have been told both "YES!" and "NO!" as to my eligibility to apply.

Can you please help me by providing your answer? And,how you came to logically/legally arrived at your answer?

My situation is as follows:

Army PDRL discharge - APR 2012 - 70% - IDES process (VA/Army both at once)

ARMY RATED ISSUES:(ARMY USED VASRD %)

1. LOWER BACK = 40%

2. R. SHOULDER = 30%

3. NECK = 20%

40 + 30 + 20 = 70%

VA FINALIZED IDES CLAIM - JUN 2012 - RETRO TO APR 2012 = 100% P&T

VA RATED ISSUES

1. PTSD = 70%

2. BLADDER = 60%

3. LOWER BACK = 40%

4. R. SHOULDER = 30%

5. NECK = 20%

6. TINNITUS = 10%

AT THAT TIME, VA "DEFERRED" 3 ISSUES FOR FURTHER ASSESSMENT, BUT ALLOWED THIS 100% P&T RATING/ISSUES TO PROCEED

70 + 60 + 40 +30+ 20 + 10 = 100%

SEPTEMBER 2013, VA FURTHER AWARDS RATINGS FOR THREE "DEFERRED" ISSUES - AND, RETRO'S THEM BACK TO DATE OF ORIGINAL CLAIM ABOVE - APR 2012

(THESE ISSUES WERE PART OF THE ORIGINAL CLAIM, but it took the VA another 15 months to decide and then rate them)

THESE VA RATED ISSUES ARE:

1. ASTHMA = 30%

2. R. KNEE = 10%

3. L. ANKLE = 10%

********************

So am I eligible to apply for SMC (S)??????

Or any other code???

Thank-you very much for your time!

V/R,

nwlivewire

[NavyWife]

some good links on SMC S

.http://www.jimstrickland912.com/SMC.html

http://www.purpleheart.org/ServiceProgram/Training2012/10-M-%20SMC%20final.pdf

(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.

My opinion would be no, because you do not have a single disability rated at 100% or IU. But I also think that SMC S is in a state of flux right now. There are a lot of questions surrounding it as well as some changes in the interpretation of the law. For those reasons, it might be worthwhile to just ask VA to consider you for it, and let VA figure it out. Then if the law is interpreted differently in the future, it will be in your record that you asked to be considered for it. If your PTSD rating ever got bumped up to 100% then you would definitely qualify for SMC S.

Edited May 19, 2014 by NavyWife

[nwlivewire]

Thank-you for your speedy response.

Too bad I don't qualify for any SMC (S).

I appreciate your explaining this to me.

V/R,

nwlivewire

[FormerMember]

Correction. You only need a TDIU rating to qualify for the 100% requirement of SMC S. This was decided long ago in Bradley and Buie. One single disability at 60% or above can be the predicate for your P&T. Once that is satisfied, you begin adding up (from scratch) the other disabilities from largest to smallest using the 4.25 table. If the disabilities are separate and not of one etiology, then you qualify if you go over 60%. Special monthly compensation (S) is not hard to comprehend. If you have separate and distinct disabilities that affect different parts of your body, and they equal or exceed an additional 60%, then you qualify-period.

Using what you have listed, add them like this. 70% (PTSD) +60% (bladder)= 88% + 40%(lower back) = 93% + 30%(rt. shoulder)= 95% which is now enough to equal 100% . That's 100% total, not 100% schedular. You still have 30% for asthma, 20% for neck and 10% each for tinnitus, right knee and right ankle. Begin again. 30% + 20% = 44% + 10% = 50% + 10% = 55% + 10% = 60%.

Now, if the etiology of the right shoulder, lower back, neck, rt. knee and left ankle is one common cause -say from a parachute accident, you'd have a problem. One single disease such as the PTSD (or the bladder), needs to be held to be a stand alone reason for unemployability or TDIU. This becomes the fulcrum for the P&T rating. Once you attain that as Mr. Buie did, the rest of the ailments are viewed as separate body issues that are unrelated to the PTSD. The bladder alone (at 60%) would qualify you for SMC S all by itself. Don't get caught up in the math of adding 8 or nine ratings up. One, and only one, disease or injury is usually the culprit (and thus the path) for unemployability. Get that if you have not already. Armed with it, the SMC is awarded based simply on your other ratings for different body systems that add up to or exceed 60%.

If you attain an additional 100% above the original one granting you P&T, you also will get a bump up from SMC L to SMC M when you reach the higher, more debilitating part of life in the future. The bump carries through to SMC N.

I see far too many Vets attempt to string together a pearl necklace of ratings to do this. Focus on the one that is going to kill you or make you unemployable and get the 100% schedular or TDIU for it. After two years, go for the P&T unless it is never going to improve. In that case, go for the P&T immediately. Once you have the P&T, with your other ailments, VA will see it and award you the SMC S. You may have to remind them to do so but most raters would spot that long list of ratings and add it up themselves. With VA, assume nothing (of course).

Best of Luck.

a

[FormerMember]

I suppose someone will come along and state the obvious so I will now. If your disease/injury is so debilitating as to keep you "substantially confined" to the immediate environs of your house or property, that qualifies you as well ( assuming you have the 100% P&T). Currently, I do not meet the extra 60% to qualify for SMC S but my service connected Porphyria Cutanea Tarda from AO requires me to avoid the sun. My soon to be cryoglobulinemia keeps me inside in temperatures below 40 degrees to avoid the subsequent Raynaud's phenomenon. This qualifies me for being "substantially confined" but VA has not acknowledged it yet. Actually, the PCT alone should be the predicate but you know VA. They suggest SPF 2000 sunscreen creme and a very large umbrella. Good to go, bro.

[NavyWife]

Asknod--

Can you clarify for me?

The OP does not have TDIU and also does not have any single disability rated at 100% schedular. So are you saying that because they have P&T, that qualifies?

[lotzaspotz]

Fighting this battle right now at the COVA. My husband is 100% schedular rated, with one of those ratings at 60%, but he also has a 50% rating for a condition upon which the SSA based his disability award. Above the 100% schedular rating, he's also got an extra 50% and 30% for two other conditions. He is not TDIU. We have asked the RO to consider him as if he were TDIU or to change him to TDIU, since the regs say the VA is to do whichever is of most benefit to the veteran, and we applied for SMC(s). The RO refuses to do either strictly and specifically because he's already got a 100% P & T schedular rating -- that is the only reason the RO stated for refusing consideration.

The only difference this all makes is for statutory eligibility for SMC(s), since he is not housebound.

Edited May 30, 2014 by lotzaspotz