john999

Remember you have to be able to show a nexus to service for every single disability you are claiming. That means DX or treatment must be in your service medical records or in a VA exam within one year of discharge. You have to have DX for PTSD and TBI from the VA. Your increases are already SC'ed so you have to show they have gotten worse. The main thing is to connect the dots from your service to your illness and injury.

Sure, submit a claim! See what happens. I have heard of some pretty strange awards for PTSD recently.

Take your stuff to a VSO or hire a lawyer. For statutory HB all you have to do is have the percentages and just ask for it. If you are IU plus 60% that is all you need. You don't have to prove anything. Just write a letter to your VARO stating you are IU or 100% plus 60% and ask for "S".

What you need is a statement from a doctor that your disabilies are permanent in nature. You can appeal the denial of Chapter 35 benefits if you did not get them. The grants and A&A you talk about need to be applied for separately from P&T (Chapter 35). If you want something you have to ask for it. Read your decision letter and see if it says anything about Chapter 35 benefits.

If the VA wants to insist that a vet have every single PTSD symptom then nobody can get SC'ed for it. I don't trust the VA to be the arbitrator of who has and who does not have PTSD since they have a financial interest in the outcome.

"Out of the car, Longhair!" I couldn't resist that. If you got SSDI for a SC condition you should have gotten IU way back in 1992. Did no one ever tell you that you could apply for IU before? We are talking about 18 years of potential IU lost. If the VA knew you were on SSDI for a SC condition that should have inferred an IU claim. I think this is something to look into. I believe you were screwed.

I got an answer in about 8 months I think. It really went pretty quick since I got the hearing in about less than one year and got a decision in 8 months. Getting the hearing did not make a bit of difference since my claim was a CUE and the lawyer just furnished his brief. The hearing lasted 20 minutes at most. My case is atypical I think.

When do we hear about Nehmer claims?

Go to the exam by all means. Do you have private opinions regarding these secondary conditions to establish a nexus? There is no real way to tell how the exams will be written up until you get the copies of the exams. You want to do this via your VARO. Ask for a copy of the exam.

Regardless of what happens stay in treatment! Even if you start to feel better stay in treatment. This will help with your claim and future claims.

I think you need an independent medical opinion from a psychiatrist which will conclude that you are totally disabled due solely to your SC conditions. The VA is just playing games with you. I got IU from the St. Petersburg VARO and I was 70%. I got denied the first time I applied for IU even though I was on SSD and disability retirement from the federal civil service. I got an IMO and that put me over. I do think if you stay with it and appeal this awful decision you can win.

I called my VA social worker since I got HB and asked her if there were any services she could offer me. She says they can come to my house and do in-house PT. I could not even get the VA to let me go to PT on fee base before. They expected me to hike out to the VAMC, take a shuttle bus, and walk forever to get to PT area. Since getting access to the VAMC is a problem for me I wonder what other services I can get in my home or close to my home?

You don't have a DRO decision until you get the letter in the mail. Usually, the time from a DRO Hearing until a decision letter is a matter of a month or two. Six months is a long time. There may be some hitch. I would do as Pete suggests and go visit these people to find out. It is possible to lack one document and the VA won't tell you. They just make you wait while they try to aquire it like a DD214. It happened to me.

If you were hospitalized for depression prior to the effective date of your IU you might be able to get an EED for the IU. I did it that way. The VA treats hospitalizations as informal claims for an increase sometimes. It is the same for SSDI. If you are granted SSDI for depression earlier than your current IU date you could possibly file a new claim for an EED. Letting your one year NOD date run out makes it harder. I agree that the VA never grants IU without filing out formal claim for IU. If you win SSDI what would be the effective date? That is the date you might use to claim an EED for IU. It is a long shot I think.

Stay in treatment and do not ignore or disregard anything you get from the VA. If the VA sends you a letter asking for information you need to supply that information.

Berta and Larry Thanks, now if I can get her to take a real course that might have some value. Distance learning is a good deal. There are good technical schools right here in Tampa. Every spouse needs to know how to navigate the VA. First thing to learn is not to take "NO" for an answer.

If a vet is HB (S) what kind of help can they get from the VA? Travel to the VAMC is hard on me. Before I was HB I was refused fee base for certain kinds of therapy and other help. Should I see a social worker?

Larry, you're a bad .............! Shut yo mouth, we talking about Shaft (Larry).

Many years ago when I was just a 10% vet the VA began to pay me at the 100% rate. I looked at the check and my name was on it, but I knew it was wrong. I called the VA and told them they made a mistake. The checks kept coming. I wrote them a letter and told them they were overpaying me. The checks kept coming. Finally, I just deposited the checks into a savings account as they came in the mail (1975). One month I started getting the 10% amount again. Nothing was ever said about the 100% checks. I did officially owe them about 200 bucks once and they hounded me for it. It was an overpayment for G.I. Bill. I got it forgiven by bringing in my congressman Sam Gibbons who had been an airborne ranger in WWII.

VA is committing massive fraud by sending co-pays for SC conditions to vet's private insurance. The insurance companies pay up because the VA hides the nature of the co-pays. They lump them together for drugs and services. I had 53 claims for VA drug co-pays and the VA says only 3 were for SC conditions. They told this bold faced lie to my congressman. I have told my insurance not to pay and my congressman what is happening and I get nowhere. It is just fraud and I resent it. I am 100% HB. Why do I have any co-pays? Soon they will try to charge my insurance for SC conditions officially. Obama came up with that idea. That really gets me since I voted for him. The idea was shot down, but I see tricare rates may go up. Screw the vet every chance you get is the VA motto.

In 2003 I was awarded Chapter 35 back to August 2001. How many years of eligibility would my wife have and would it start in 2001 or 2003. Is she going to run out of time in August 2001? Can she get an extention?

Stillhere Where did you go for AIT? Probably Ft Polk am I right?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I found out the school is just a scam. My wife always falls for these things. The school says they don't deal with the VA. What decent school won't certify a student with the VA? It was some kind of BS correspondence course that teaches "Alternative Health" crapola. The contract obligates students to pay if they drop the course before completion. Wife did not read the fine print. She did not sign it, thank God. There are good distance learning schools out there I know that the VA will certify.

My wife wants to take a correspondence course. I have Chapter 35 bennies and I believe she would qualify for educational assistance. I downloaded the application from the VA. Where do I send the application and what supporting documents do we need to send. We called VA but the site for education benefits is down. I know the school has to send some kind of form to VA. The school is in Vermont I think which is their physical address. Is this process very complicated because if it is my wife will give up. Not me, but she can't handle VA hoops. I am trying to break her in to dealing with the VA since she will have to deal with them someday.

That really means every guy who served in Vietnam could file a PTSD claim and get SC'ed if he has a DX of PTSD because everyone heard the sound of war even if they were in the middle of Saigon or offshore.