john999

Never even thing about foregoing any retro you may be owed!

It almost sounds like PTSD is almost presumptive if a person serves in a combat zone.

I think if the doctor wrote in the record that the vet was unemployed due to his SC condition that would be an inferred claim for IU. Of course, the VA is not going to infer this. They will ignore this statement until the vet makes a claim for IU and also cites this statement for an EED for IU.

I have heard of people somehow receiving radio waves via their metal fillings so that they hear things. They really are hearing stuff and this is no hallucination. If you tell a shrink you are receiving messages in your head you get classified a paranoid schizophrenic.

That is interesting and I never knew that. I know you can pay back the SSA if you retire early and then wait until regular retirement age and get more money.

I knew a guy who had an appartment near a major hospital. The sound of medivac heliocopters was a trigger. It drove him wild.

If a vet serves in a combat unit in a combat zone this should make PTSD presumptive for that vet if he has the symptoms. Having to prove every aspect of the blood and guts discourages many vets from filing for PTSD. They don't want to relive this stuff. I heard tonight on BBC that 1 in 5 German troops in Afghanistan have depression or alcohol abuse as a result. Most of the German troops are not engaged in the kind of combat operations the Americans are engaged in, and yet they are having mental health problems. I know a truck driver who got his leg broken when he hit a mine in Vietnam. I don't know if he even got a PH. He was medivacted back to the states. He did not care about any PH. He just wanted out of that place. I can't prove I was directly sprayed with AO but it is presumptive that I was exposed. I think the VA is choaking on the potential compensation for PTSD. It is not science. It is cold, hard cash.

People that managed to avoid military service during the draft era got a two to four year head start on those who were drafted or enlisted due to draft pressure. I enlisted in 1969 when the economy was booming. I got out at the end of 1971 when the nation was on the verge of severe recession. I could not have gotten a job if I could have held on to one at the time. Guys like Bush, Clinton and Cheney had more immportant things to do than serving in the Vietnam era military. We served so they could party at Harvard or Yale. I am sure in their hearts they consider us fools.

Hoppy My private doctor said I was unable to work, and was completely incapacitated due to a psychiatric condition that was the same condition that I was service connected for by the VA. It was not me saying I could not work, but my private clinical psychologist saying it in a report. The VA has the report, but just ignored it. I never had a C&P exam. The VA just relied on my SMR's and an in-patient stay at the VA hospital back in 1972 to make their rating. I got a 10% rating from the VA. My SMR's mentioned a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, drug addiction. The VA said schizophrenia. Even ignoring my doctor's evidence the rating is a joke. I never got appeal rights. I forgot about the claim because I don't even remember making a claim, but someone must have made if for me while I was in the nuthouse. A couple of years later I got a letter saying I was connected for a "nervous condition" and got back pay to the day after I was discharged. I was never informed about any appeal rights or NOD deadlines, so it became a final decision. I had such a horrible experience with the VA that I never went back for 25 years. I do have a CUE claim waiting on a BVA Hearing based on the fact that original decision was in error because the VA excluded my doctor's report. They did not weigh it incorrectly. They just put it on the shelf. The VA never listed the evidence they considered so I never knew about it until I got my C-File, and found the letter. It was stamped and dated as received before the rating decision was made. The lawyer explains it to me this way: If I win the CUE the VA will have to reweigh the evidence in the original decision to include the evidence they excluded. I guess I could still lose since the VA may decide that just because you can't work or are incapsitated only rates 10%. You know I have no faith in the VA at all. Them owing me potential big retro will skew the decision I have no doubt. Even if they just rated me 50% instead of 10% that would mean almost 30 years of retro. I am not counting on anything regardless of evidence or law.

I submitted medical evidence of unemployability back in 1972. The VA compeltely ignored it. I did not know what TDIU was then. Not once in 30 years did the VA or any VSO ever even mention the topic of TDIU. I never heard the phrase until I clocked into Hadit in 2002. What the VA was requiring was that you meet the rating percentage before they would even mention TDIU. So the guy with a 50% rating who was unemployed would never even have his IU discussed because he did not meet the percentage requirement. What the VBM states is that if the VA has good reason to believe you may be unemplloyable due to a SC condition that is an inferred claim for IU. They mention a guy with SC foot oder as potential IU because his VA social worker is aware of the foot oder and its impact on potential employers. I agree that a wise vet should file for IU and not wait for an inferred or informal claim for IU by the VA. That vet will be in his grave before that happens.

They better hurry up since every time I go to the VAMC I see a lot of sick vets about my age. I bet the Vietnam vets are the sickest group of vets in their age cohort of any group. The Korea and WWII vets you expect to be sick since they are all nearly 80 years old, but I see mostly Vietnam era vets looking haggard and yellowed in wheelchairs and using canes.

If the VA really intends to grant IU they will first bump you up to 70%. I filed when I was 30% and they bumped me up to 70% and eventually granted IU. Not without a long drawn out fight, however. I started at 10% and got bumped and lumped all the way to IU.

Texas You are right. It is horse trading. These guys have no conscience. Our system produces these creatures. The people are so downtrodden they only have time to just survive, and cannot involve themselves in the political process. Americans are worried about having jobs while these congress critters wheel and deal. My state government in Florida is even worse. Most state reps are just unindicted felons.

I think the dead from the wars should be brought back in day light. There should be a brass band their to greet the returning dead. They are coming back on their shields.

Yes, and you should ask for housebound as well. I say 100% with housebound and P&T. What a cruel fate to join the military in fine shape and be discharge as a guy with severe emotional disability. The military needs to fix what they broke, and not just discharge PTSD vets to a life of unemployment and disability. I think they should offer PTSD vets a job in the states with a permanent profile if they want one.

Zollie Yes, they do it all the time. They pass the claims around from one maxed out VARO to another. I guess this shows action. If they send it to the ST. Petersburg VARO fall on your knees and pray to the good Lord that your claims comes back.

Did you ever get a DRO Hearing?

Carlie I am surprised Google Earth is not sucked into the St. Pete death spiral and disappears over the horizon of the St. Pete VARO black hole. I still say the St. Pete VARO exists only in hyperspace. It is a concept not a reality. The VA has agents who go out at night and insert tiny chips in our heads to make us thing the VA exits when, in fact, it is an open lot. Very tricky!

Hoppy If the VA has evidence that a vet is unemployable due to a SC condition then there exists an inferred claim for IU. I don't know if they have a duty to inform the vet to send in a TDIU form. The VBM discusses this. If you file a claim and your doctor says that because of the claimed condition you are unemployable the vet is seeking the highest possible rating given the evidence. Would not this include IU? We are always quoting the rule that says when a vet make a claim he is seeking the highest benefit available. If you asked for 10% and the evidence shows a 50% disability then that is what you are seeking. I am not quoting the exact regs here but I believe that is the general picture.

I know some hoarders. It is a very difficult problem to deal with for most. I am a bit of a hoarder when it comes to paperwork having dealt with various agencies for years where records are important and I feel under threat of having to prove something from the distant past. I have known hoarders you live with so much junk that they cannot even walk through their house. They have tunnels in the junk to the bathroom, kitchen, bed etc. Animal hoarders are the worst. You can see them on Animal Cops. It is OCD and resists change even with therapy and pills. It is like a personality disorder except the OCD victims feel anxiety about it, but resist any change.

What the SSA exam wants to find out is if you are capable of doing any kind of work. They rate you as either employable or not employable. Their exams are like any second opinion exams. They hire doctors who are willing to do the paperwork. Most really good doctors don't do SSA exams. They can make more money doing procedures. You usually get the same sort of bottom feeders you get for VA exams and workers compensation and disability insurance claims. You need to cooperate in all details with the SSA examination. If you start to argue or resist the exam you will find your SSD cut off in a hurry. All they have to say is that you did not cooperate with the exam and you are history. If you cooperate with the exam you have appeal rights even if they deny you. If you don't cooperate you have appeal rights as well, but you get cut off in the meantime. If you want your SSD you have to go along with the program. SSD means a check and medicare. It is worth some aggravation for this benefit.

My VARO is a black hole. It even bends and sucks in light sunlight. You can't get in on your GPS because it exists only in hyperspace. You only think you have been there or seen it. Everything that really enters the St. Pete VARO never returns.

We could relate our personal experince with VA lawyers. I have one who seems good. Berta has the same guy. Karl K. from New Jersey. He flew down to Tampa Florida to do my DRO Hearing. We lost, but we are headed for the BVA and he has not dropped the ball yet. Lawyers can't make your claim go faster. They cannot force the VA to make the right decision. What they can do is know the law and represent you as objective person who knows the rules and has a general idea of legal issues, and what is and isn't due process.

90% and a letter like that seems like falling off a log to get IU. You should get IU and SSD.

Berta You are busting their &^%$#! Heh, heh. They deserve it and spouses and vets don't deserve being put through this hell just to get their evidence read.