john999

My local newspaper, the St. Pete Times, just had an editorial saying that vet benefits should be on the table for budget review (cuts). They were critical of Obama's speech saying vet benefits were off the table. The paper used the fact that some big shots at the VA got bonuses to then justify cuts to vet programs. They said we are used to sacrifices so we should be up for more sacrifice. How much have Wall Street banksters sacrificed?

VA mental health care is a joke. They don't do psychotherapy and they don't do effective drug therapy. How can you moniter drug therapy when you only see a patient for 15 minutes every three months?

The VSO's could gain my respect if they successfully battle against budget cuts and for some reforms in VA benefit and health care delivery. Since I can remember the VA has been the dumping grounds for hacks who have I.O.U.'s from successful congressmen, senators and presidents. I can think of so many obvious ways the VA could improve health care delivery. I know the VSO's want to protect the status quo, and maybe that is not too bad a thing. I don't want cuts, but the VA could sure spend the money smarter. Decentralizing the health care system would be good if the VA would pay medicare rates or pay medicare co-pays. The devil is always in the details. I do agree that as soon as these present wars are behind us the congress will start trying to cut the VA's budget.

This case raises some questions in my mind. For instance, if an active duty guy is in Afghanistan and finds out his wife has been murdered back home could this be used to claim depression or some other mental health disorder if the guy has a nervous breakdown. When I was in Nam a guy shot himself due to getting a Dear John. He survived, but would his wounds and disability be service connected? If a guy is active duty and has a car wreck while off duty he still gets disability. Where does the VA draw the line?

I asked ILP for a guitar and they wanted me to link that to my SC condition. What the heck? They wanted my shrink to write a thesis about why it would benefit me. The Voc Rehab guy was a guy was a total spastic. However, he wants me to prove all this crap to get a $100 guitar and some lessons. I sure hope you get your A/C and bed. Obama was just telling us he wants the nation to do everything possible to help us poor pathetic vets.

What gets me is how the VA can rate a person with schizophrenia as being just 10%. It is the most severe of the psychotic disorders and yet the VA rates people with this disorder as being 10% disabled. The VA often looks only for psychotic symptoms that are active and ignores the negative ones like not being able to work. If you are hearing voices or having hallucinations you get a 100%, but if you just sit on a park bench all day you get 10%. Be careful that the VA does not try and lead you down the road towards being a sociopath. Your criminal record is going to point the VA bean counters towards a personality disorder DX. Did the VA C&P doctor ask you extensive questions about your criminal record and family problems and trouble with peers in the military and high school? Did they ask about drug and alcohol abuse?

Send everything certified mail/return receipt. If you can send copies keep the originals. The VA can lose even certified mail.

No, you were right to file for TDIU. You should file as soon as you are unable to work due to SC condition.

It is possible that you should have been given an effective date for IU effective the same date you got SSDI. Sometimes the VA will accept SSD records from the vet and sometimes they won't.

Ten years ago I got a rating for 70% for a single MH issue. The VA denied TDIU for some crazy reason. I had already filed for it before I got 70%. I don't believe my VARO would have inferred TDIU if I had not claimed it. My VSO told me not to ask for it. It took an extra year to get it. My experience has always been that you must ask for what you want because the VA won't do their jobs otherwise. My agent orange exam identified three AO issues. Do you think the VA would have inferred these issues as claims? Hell no! I had to file for each one and then appeal. This cost me time and money.

Tbird You deserve a gold star for creating Hadit! This forum has helped many, many vets and spouses. Before I started posting here I never heard of TDIU, CUE, SMC or a hundred other terms, regs and rules.

My psychologist told me the VA is trying to get him and other clinical psychologists to do C&P exams for $165 each because of the overflow. What professional is going to do a real C&P exam for $165? This relates to the VA's stupidity and cheapness. Few of us understood what creeps they are when we started our progress towards getting a rating. If I had understood what cheap bums they were I would have gotten an IMO much earlier. As long as I could work I guess I just did not worry about it. The best health care system in the world....???? Vets should be marching on their VARO's with pitchforks and tourches like in the old Frankenstein movies.

Before the internet or BBS where did you go for information about your claim? You sure as heck could not trust the VA. I trusted them to an extent but I regreted it. The VSO's were pretty awful and even helped me lose claims. The biggest factor was lack of information. If I had a doctor who understood the VA system and was an advocate I could gotten a much higher rating years ago. It took 15 years to get an increase from 10% to 30% and another 6 years to get to 70%. Once I started posting on hadit it took a couple of years to go from 30% to TDIU.

Most vets probably just give up after 6 months of wrangling with these people. They know this and all at VA are afraid to stick their necks out one inch for a vet.

You can use G.I. Bill or Vocational Rehabilitation via the VA.

You have to consider that the SSD system provides employment to a lot of people. If it were easy there would be no SSD lawyers or administratived SSD judges and clerks. Hey, we need to spread the honey around the whole system so everyone gets to wet their beak.

You are considered a war era veteran for pension purposes. You are a Vietnam era vet.

What gets me is the army sends troops with medical dx of PTSD back to a combat zone and to a combat MOS! When they get desparate they will send everyone with a pulse to the combat zone regardless of MOS.

Retaliation is not justified when you can only lose. You have to play by VA rules to beat them at their own game. If your brother-in-law is a congressman then it might be different.

When the VA says your claim is not "perfect" I think they mean all stages and steps have not been met or taken. Your claim has to be perfected before it goes to BVA for instance.

If you wait for a final decision you could be waiting for a long time. Someone here probably knows the exact answer to your question so keep asking. I live just 25 miles from my VARO and, yet, they have failed to send me C&P notices. If the disability rating is not going to make or break you then I would just go ahead with the move while finding out all the facts.

Sounds like what Cooter said. I think I might write my local newspaper and tell them you lost your home while waiting for a VA rating.

You have to appeal. What are you service connected for presently?

Do you belong to a union? When you mention ADA to your employer the little wheels in their heads start to turn. You must be very sure that if you are fired it is for no other reason than the facts of your disability. That means to the best of your ability be the perfect employee. No lateness, undocumented absences, long breaks etc. The ADA says that to be covered by that law you must be able to do the main functions of your job with or without accommodation. Also, if your employer takes action against you for filing an EEOC complaint that is retaliation. I won an EEOC complaint against my employer, the USPS, for retaliation. I also lost one because the administrative judge did not think bipolar disorder constituted a disability under the act. When I was fired for misconduct due to bad drug reactions to bipolar and pain meds I filed for workers compensation. They were not expecting that and I won my claim. There are many ways to skin a cat.

If he was injured in combat his word has pretty heavy weight as far as confirming his injuries. If he says he hurt his ankle or knee escaping ambush the VA is supposed to give his statement some weight. Does he have purple hearts or combat badges from OIF/OEF? Having a claim in development for a year is not that unusual. What it really means is that the claim is just waiting in a pile. If you could find out exactly what they are waiting for you might be able to provide it.