john999

Usually, you get a rating very soon after a C&P exam. LHI did mine and I got an extra 80% rating. I was shocked of course, but sometimes good things can happen.

My father-in-law suffered a blast injury in WW2. He was never the same and had severe mental problems the rest of his life. His was an invisible injury like yours. File your claim and gather the evidence as you go. Did you get medical treatment in Nam? Also you got good advice about Agent Orange. I now have four AO conditions all these years later. Don't assume you don't have any AO conditions. You will get great support here.

If you want to work go for 100% if not then just stay with TDIU. 20 years ago I wanted to do something like start a business but having TDIU I could not do it. Now I have 100% but I am too old and disabled to do it. No other reason to get 100% IMO.

Just leave it be is my opinion. If you have been TDIU/100% for over 20 years let the beast sleep.

I am going to open a branch of Tegrity Farms in South Park.

Do you have a lawyer?

I did about the same thing Buck. I had 90% P&T for years and then got an extra 60% and then an extra 80% so I have 100% now. Big deal I can't work anyway these days even if I wanted to work. I used to want to get a business going but it is too late now.

When you go for a VA C&P you never know how it will turn out. I used doctors who were willing to write IME's. If you get a good doctor who knows how to do an IME for the VA it can be fantastic. If they don't get the picture it can really hurt you. The doctor needs to keep to the script. He can't use in-exact statements about your condition and DX. If you are so disabled by symptoms he/she needs to say so in definite terms. No "Possible This" or "Possible That". He can't say "It seems the vet may be depressed due to his service in Iraq". He has to say "The vet suffers severe depression due to his service in Iraq where he witnessed much death and destruction"....for example. You get the idea.

You could passively earn a million dollars a year and still get your compensation. Only earned income has power to hurt you. Your wife could be as rich as Bill Gates which has nothing to do with your ability to work or your disability.

So true, Broken Soldier! All those interventions and nation building attempts. All that money and dead American soldiers. We are acting like the imperialists that we broke away from during War for Independence. We did not have to bomb Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. It was already there. I bet if you asked American soldiers in Afghanistan ten years ago they would have predicted this disaster then. Afghans were like the ARVN in Vietnam. When we packed up and left they fell apart. We spent billions training them but their government was corrupt and they fell in a heap.

I watched the Fall Of Saigon on TV. It gave me some twinges. I did think about the Vietnamese I knew during the war. The USA just seems to never learn. Every generation repeats the same mistakes. I am not losing sleep over it but it is sad.

You might hunt up a SSDI lawyer who will know some doctors who can help you and who know how to write a report. That is what I did. I live in Florida. I used an ex-VA employee via my lawyer who wrote a dynamite report for me for chump change. This has all been 20 years ago but the principal remains the same.

If SSDI says you are disabled then you are totally disabled. I don't think that will hurt a TDIU claim. If you are IU for the same condition as the SSDI award then I think that will help you. You might even be able to use the SSDI award date for you EED for TDIU. I used my SSDI award and a hospitalization I had to get an EED. Since you got SSDI for your back then that is what I would claim for TDIU. You can pursue all the other claims as well, but you want to claim your most serious condition for IU.

Bronco That is funny. I have been filing claims for increases and new conditions for the last 50 years. I got denied for some and had some granted. I am glad I filed for every one because I would have wondered if I should have filed for as long as I live. Persistence is the major factor in winning VA claims.

.You don't need earned income to get the stimulus . If you get SSA you are entitled. I got it and I don't work. I do have investment income. I don't think I would be too anxious to report minor "earned income". Did you get a 1099 on the handyman work? You don't want to wake up the Beast. If you got 100$ for cutting your neighbor's lawn for a couple of weeks I would just let that slide if I were TDIU.

Since I got P&T back in 2001 I have filed many claims and the VA never dragged me in for a C&P. I recently got an extra 80% rating which I did not need but I got it anyway. I would not let the VA or the VSO's convince you to just take it when you know you have a compensable claim. Go for it!

You know when I was discharged from the Army in 1971 I had been hospitalized for what they called "Depression and Anxiety". There was no PTSD diagnosis at the time. Given this the Army discharged me as being "Unsuitable" which was a general under honorable conditions. I almost instantly applied for a Honorable Discharge and I got the upgrade. I went to a Board with military and civilian judges. I had a terrific advocate who explained the wrong that had been done to me. Back in the day if you had any sort of emotional problems after Vietnam you would be getting a "Personality Disorder " type discharge. Thousands of vets were screwed to the wall by the military because they thought you might apply for a medical discharge and ask for money. I will never forgive the Army for the screw job, but I prevailed just as you did.

I also know some vets who have 100% for a emotional/mental condition. They are profoundly disabled and do live a pretty restricted life. I am sure that at one point I was 100% when I got back from Vietnam. The VA criteria for 100% for a mental disorder are severe. You should read the DBQ for 100% if you have not read it already. If you have 70% for a mental condition you probably cannot work at all anyway. I got rated 70% for mental and I was in sad shape. This is what TDIU is for without having to have some SOB contract shrink decide you just are not that disabled when you apply for 100%. We all want 100% schedular but getting it for a mental thing is sometimes a bridge too far. I don't blame anyone for going for 100% for mental. I tried but the VA clowns said 70% and even denied me TDIU the first time. I had three IMO's saying I was 100% and VA just ignored that.

If you are trying to get 100% for a mental condition be prepared for an exam via VA. Have you looked at the criteria for 100% for any mental condition? If VA goes by their own criteria you have to be a basket case. You must be psychotic and needing to be institutionalized. I got 70% for bipolar disorder and my doctors were very supportive, but not to the extent I was psychotic and drooling. You can get TDIU with 70% and not have to roll around on the floor and bark like a dog.

I had an attorney for my claim. It went to the Veteran Appeals Court and we lost due to "Reasonable Minds" and forcing me to prove a negative etc. They knew I had a good claim but because I could not prove the VA did not consider my evidence I lost. You get to the court and if there is one shred of judgement involved you lose. It was obvious to any "reasonable mind" that the VA did not consider all my evidence in 1972, but the VA is not reasonable, and could just care less about justice. They go by the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law.

If you are 90% you just need an extra 50% to get to 100%. Not so easy really.

Buck At our age with TDIU I don't believe we need to file the form for unemployability. I was told I did not have to do it. If you are 70+ VA assumes you no longer work. Under 65 they might want the form but I doubt it. Too much paperwork for them.

The VA ought to review your rating for TDIU but they almost never do unless you officially claim it. Fill out the TDIU form and claim it.

I had TDIU at 90% and then I filed for an increase for DMII and PN. I got that increase which put me over the 100% schedular rating. I was not really trying to get the 100% schedular but only to get the increase I think I deserved for my DMII and PN. I got it in spades with an extra 80%. I got two new ratings as well. The thing is if you are not going back to work why do you need 100% schedular if you have TDIU P&T. I had P&T TDIU for 20 years. No way was I going back to work at age 71 to bag groceries.

Do you plan on working in the future? Is so try for the 100%. If not you can go for TDIU which with your 90% is probably much easier. I had 90% TDIU for almost 20 years. I just got 100% recently. Big deal because I am not going back to work any way.