john999

I pretty much agree with Pete about VSO's, but if you think you need help hire a lawyer. I won all my claims without VSO's, or lawyers. One VFW rep actually argued that I should get 100% because I had a personality disorder. This was at the BVA level. This happened 25 years ago, but I don't think they are not much better these days. The good ones are swamped.

If I was paying in any way for representation I would get a lawyer who is qualifed to argue cases before the Court of Vet Appeals.

I think these younger vets are filing more claims than us Vietnam Era vets. This is a good thing but maybe it is slowing down the snails at the VARO. A year is too long for a disabled vet to wait for benefits. 6 months is too long. I think if a vet files while still in service he should receive his disability within two weeks of ETS. Not only do vets have a hard time getting hired the disabled ones face employment discrimination based on disability. The companies have gotten smart about beating the EEOC.

If your decision was based solely on the C&P exam you might have a CUE. For instance, you have wound to left leg and VA makes a decision saying you are denied because your right leg is fine that should be a cue if the left leg is not mentioned. I found out 30 years later that the VA had excluded evidence from my rating decision.

Walt Are you a Vietnam Vet?

If you want some action you have to start bothering the medical director of the VAMC. Send them certified letters. Ask for appointments to talk to them. Bug their secretaries. You will get calls from patient advocates, but just keep being a pest. It has worked for me,but the effort required is great and the rewards are temporary. John

File because you don't know what will happen 20 years from now. People with ptsd often have ups and downs.

Berta You are right! He should ask for HB. He acutally is housebound due to agoraphobia. I think he can win this. John

100% total disability permanent and total! I think you should get 100% schedular as opposed to TDIU. John

Papa So all your claims are at the VARO? You have some claims going to the DRO and the rest are in development, correct. I just don't see why they have to wait on your 2010 claim in order to make some decision on the claims on appeal to DRO. They assume you are going to appeal the 2010 claim and they have no right to do this. They should make a decision via DRO on what he has before him while they develope the other claim. John

Ask for a copy of your C-File. If the 1973 denial exists it should be in your File. If it is not in your file and you don't have a copy then it does not officially exist. The VA is supposed to have a duty to send you your decision and appeal rights but after almost 40 years there is nothing you can do about them not sending it. I tried to put that in my CUE claim and it would not fly. If you can find this old decision it could open up a whole new battle for you. I had a old decision like that hidden away in my C-File and I am in process of filing CUE on it due to major errors and lack of due process. Try and find it. John

If you have evidence that was before the VARO that they did not consider in any way in your decision when it became final that might be a CUE. If there is evidence in the record that would have made a definite difference in your decision that the VA excluded then that is a CUE. This is a tough fight but possible.

I reached 62 years old as a disabled FERS retiree. My annuity was recalculated since I get SSD as if I had actually worked all the years I was on disability. My new annuity is just short of $1200 a month. This for almost 30 years? For the last ten years I was unable to contribute anything to TSP. Once my FERS is reduced by my insurance it will be less than 800 bucks a month. With my SSD this comes to around $2500 a month. This is a very small amount of money to live on month to month with out the VA compensation I get. I do have money in the TSP but not enough to last 20 years. Going from CSRS to FERS was a scam on federal employees.

One big factor with a gamble on keeping 100% rating is your age. If you are 28 or even 38 I would probably gamble. If you are 58 I would not gamble. If I was 100% schedular and working I would keep working until the VA proposed a reduction. You have time to bolster your SSA and any pension benefits you might have coming. At age 40 you can't see the future that by age 50 you really will be totally disabled. It happened to me and came as quite a shock. I am glad I was able to work for 20 years, but I was also low balled for 20 years. When I got out of the army at age 21 I was totally disabled, but the VA did not see it that way. With 15 years of psychotherapy I was able to hold a job for 20 years. I am now better off than someone who has was disabled from age 21, but it is just an accident. The VA's treatment of those with emotional disabilites is so counterproductive and usually ends up hurting the vet in the long term. They punish attempts to rehabilitate yourself. Why is a mental disability different than a physical disability? Nobody tells a double amputee to just shut up and take the money. The VA will bend over backwards to rehabilitate that amputee. Everyone in society applauds when an brain damaged vet or amputee gets a job. They accuse a PTSD vet of being a fraud if he works. John

Your being pro-active is what made this happen for you. The VA left your hardship request sitting in someone's inbox gathering dust until you started make noise. They really don't give a &^^%$ since it is not their house going into forclosure and their car going back via repo.

Maybe you could get a lawyer to help you with this since there is potential 8 year retro. I say this because once they start to play legal games it could go on for years with them bouncing your claim back and forth between RO/BVA and maybe Court of Vet Appeals. Since the 93 claim is final now you may have that CUE, but you know they will delay and fight retro. They will use all the legal tricks. You have TDIU so you can let someone else fight this for you. John

The good thing about getting OPM disability and/or SSD is that you have an exact date for VA purpose of TDIU. I did this myself, however, I was on worker's compensation for a few years. What the feds hate to deal with is a vet whose work-related job duties aggravate his VA disability. This makes you eligible to file for workers compensation. This pays a hell of a lot more than a FERS disability pension. If you get TDIU you will have to choose between workers compensation and TDIU. You can actually apply for OPM disability and also file for workers compensation at the same time and if you get both you can opt for one or the other. Your employer will never tell you about this or hint that this is a possibility. I had to got out on disability when I was just 30% so I was hurting for money.

Did qtc doctor say the other 26 conditions were service connected?

It should be pretty quick but it may be a remand back to the VARO. I have had pretty quick, but negative, decisions from the BVA recently.

Since you are in constant pain you might file a claim for depression as secondary to the IBS. People who are in chronic pain are usually depressed just from the meds they take not to mention quality of life. You need to start seeing a psychiatrist. I would try and see both a private and VA shrink so you can get an IMO out of one and lots of medical psychiatric notes out of the other. The depression/chronic pain disorder is a secondary condition of the IBS.

When you get TDIU or 100% from VA you will be doing OK.

If you are already connected for a mental health disorder I would just leave it alone. You probably won't die from PTSD so there is no benefit I see in filing for it since you are way over 100% now. If something is going to kill you directly then file for it. If you had a fatal AO cancer I would file for that.

Where is your claim at now?

You know I got a CUE claim going back to 1971 asking for the difference between 10% and 100% benefits. I have been denied twice at the BVA and remanded at the Court once. My laywer says if I can just hold out I will have a nice payout one day. I discovered the CUE after I got my C-File in 2005. I never would have recognized that the VA had made an error if not for reading Hadit for years. I think that in many of these older claims due process errors were made. For instance, if the VA ignored evidence in making a decision that is a due process error. I know that after WWII it was common for the VA to just terminate claims and then wait to see what the vet would do next.

I could maybe give a better guess at a timeline if I knew if you were headed for an appeal to the BVA or DRO. It could be less than two years if you are going to the DRO. However, it is anyone's guess. I had a BVA hearing within one year of my appeal and a BVA remand that took just three months. My original claim to the VARO took two years. If you get TDIU or 100% out of this it will be worth what you pay lawyers.