john999

Ricz So what you do is when you can't do your job anymore put in for disability retirement and TDIU. I worked for the feds for 20 years before I took disablity retirement, SSD and TDIU. Start planning for the day you won't be able to do it anymore. There is always a waiting period and you want a stream of income while you wait for all the programs to kick into place. Towards the end of my working days I saw it coming. It is hard to face, but better to prepare. How old are you now may I ask?

I got SC'ed back in 1973 and all they used were my VA hospital records. These old claims where the VA only used a part of available evidence to make a decision should be looked at for errors. It is an error to exclude or ignore evidence in the record when making a rating decision.

No, if they find you anxiety and depression is service connected you can get a rating for that just like PTSD.

You need an extra rating of at least 50% to get to 100% from 90% schedular. You are ten percent able bodied according to the VA. This is VA math. If you can't work go for TDIU since you have enough to get there now.

I think it is 10% for each foot. Have you had surgery for the PF? The VA is about 40 years behind in this regard. You probably don't want surgery anyway since the result can be a disaster. There are new treatments, but the VA does not have them. If shots or orthotics can't fix it the VA is done. I had a semi-surgical treatment for my PF and it became a mess. I got a staff infection. You got to watch these podiatrists. Many are quacks. I am suing a podiatrist right now. Mine is not service connected. I thought everyone's feet hurt like hell all the time.

Ricz You are 90%. Are you trying for TDIU or 100% schedular? That last 10% is very hard to get I can tell you. What are you trying to accomplish with appeals?

He needs to file a claim for depression as secondary to chronic pain due to service connected DDD. He may need to get an independent medical opinion. I would file the claim to protect the earliest effective date and then start to get more evidence. It takes months if not years to get a decision so he has time. Does he go to VA pain clinic? What kinds of pain meds does he get? He needs to tell them how badly his back hurts on a scale of 1-10. The closer to 10 the better. If a person has chronic pain the meds alone will tend to make you depressed. This is common knowledge except at the VA where they are thinking in terms of saving money for taxpayers. Is the VA counselor trying to find an alternative reason for his depression like the fact his mother took away his hobby horse when he was 5 years old? Usually, they will try and convince the vet it is all due to home life or the fact mommy whipped him or dad was a drunk. This is crap, of course, but the VA spent decades convincing combat vets that there PTSD was just due to home life or high school.

When you are active duty you are a hero. When you become a vet you are a dog. The American way. Remember the bonus marchers.

It should be obvious even to the VA that keeping a vet at home as compared to a nursing home is much cheaper. The nursing homes that provide care for vets now will get their PAC to scream to politicians that they are being cheated out of money.

Are you asking for DRO or BVA appeal?

It is possible, but you need to file the formal claim right away. This is the only sure way to protect your effective date. We can speculate about informal claims.

USN That wording says "injury". Does that rule out things like PTSD which is considered an illness and not an injury? Then only reason they limit it now to 9/11 is money. Is congress going to expand an "entitlement" to us freeloading vets? They think entitlements need drastic cuts now. I hope they do expand it since it is the only reasonable and fair thing to do. The VA is discriminating against older vets and older caregivers with the rule as it is now.

If the evidence was in the hands of the VA and they chose to ignore or exclude it you file a CUE based on that fact. If the VA had the evidence and chose to neither list it or refer to it in the decision you may have a CUE.

I got a job as a disabled vet at the post office doing a job a monkey could do. It was the best paying job I ever got including jobs that required a college degree.

I asked for some home health care from the VA and they charged medicare. I made them give the money back to medicare and pay for it via the VA. That really made me angry that they would try and pass the buck to medicare. I really want nothing from the VA except money. If I could get pills some place else I would never go back to that place. My hospital is a charity hospital. That is understood by all. We are the beggers and they are the doctors and staff doing the unfortunate a favor.

It takes a depression to spawn a bonus march.

Did the VA discuss and deny special monthly compensation in the form of housebound SMC? When they VA finds that a vet is 100% they are supposed to decide if he is entitled to housebound. Look at the rating decision and see if they mention housebound.

Apply for it if he has tardive dyskinesia. If he gets a rating of 100% plus 60% eventually he can get extra money. Side effects of all anti-psychotic drugs are powerful and sometimes permanent. I would apply for every single secondary condition caused by the service connected schizophrenia. What about the effective date?

I think with the VA it is always the bottom line when it comes to vets. If they can save money letting vets die then that is what they will do. I don't think they have any shame. The VA knows that poor dental care can cause lethal infections in the heart and bloodstream and, yet, only a handful of vets get dental care such as it is. If it is cheaper to pay caregives to take care of vets then it may get done if political toes are not stepped on in the process.

It would save the VA money if vets could stay at home and be cared for by spouses. Of course, they can save even more money if they can get this for free since most spouses will not abandone their husbands or wives even if they don't get paid. I can see many ways for the VA and government to save money but they would be politically difficult since it would mean loss of jobs for government employees and loss of subjects for medical students to practice on without worrying about lawsuits for killing the subjects.

Spadoman I would keep fighting this all the way at least until I get a rating back to 93-94. I would appeal that 10% rating as well. You had a heart attack. Get more tests and keep appealing. I went from 0% to 60% just by appealing a heart rating and getting some tests I should have had to begin with by the C&P doctor. Unless there is no way you can squeeze another dime out of the VA keep appealing. If you don't get it someone else will.

Is the VA really saying you can or cannot mention God in funeral service for vets? I think this violates an amendment to the constitution. The constitution says there shall be no establishment of religion. That means no official religion by the government. From everything I have read the founders never said people had to believe or not believe in God. We have freedom of religion which means to my understanding that you can believe or not believe. It is not the government's business how you practice religion. Just because the VA pays for some of your burial how can they include or exclude God from the service?

I got a 0% rating for cardiac artery disease. I appealed and got some more tests via the VA. I made sure the VA was aware of these new tests. I got an increase to 60%. So new VA medical evidence can help you a lot as long as the VA knows it exists.

You know if the VA is going to cheat it will probably be on the effective date. Say you have a claim that has been on appeal for five years. You send in one extra piece of evidence in year five. The VA grants your claim and makes the effective date the date they got that one piece of new evidence. They do that.

It should if they include both claims together.