john999

I got SC rating in 1973 without any C&P exam. Did the VA just use your husband's service medical records to make the award. How could a social survey be enough evidence to award SC? If you have the records that your husband was unemployable due to SC condition the VA should have adjudicated a claim for IU on an inferred basis. I am sure that exams probably did require a doctor's signiture if it was a genuine C&P exam. It only makes sense,otherwise VA would have janitors doing exams. They already have PA's doing the actual exam and the doctor just signs off on the nonsense. You might have basis for a CUE if the VA knew your husband was unemployable and just ignored the fact. What does your original rating use for evidence for SC? What evidence do they quote in the rating? If you really want to dip into this claim you might run it by a lawyer because the only way to get benefits if the rating became final is to do a CUE. One thing is if he never had an exam for benefits why worry if exams had to be signed or not? I don't believe exams are required for SC ratings even if most get them. I am being devil's advocate to some extent. If you have the C-file look at all evidence the VA had in their hands when decision was made. If they ignored evidence of IU then you may have something.

Fight for the EED since the only difference in your condition was the exam. This is a dirty trick as Berta says. This is how they cheat vets out of thousands of dollars with these baseless staged ratings. I had a rating in 1973 that was based on the same evidence and diagnosis as the rating I got 30 years later. I got 10% for the one in 1972 and 70% for the one in 2002. I got 30% in 1995 when I was actually better than in 1972.

The VA is playing games with you. Like Carlie says you need a statement from a doctor saying that you are unemployable solely due to your SC conditions. I went through something similar. What the VA did with me was to say "Yes, you are unemployable, but it is due to another conditions besides the one you are 70% SC." I used an independent medical examination to rebut this VA contention and got my TDIU. I had already gotten SSD for the SC condition and yet VA was claiming I could not work due to another condition. It seems obvious to me the VA is just going out of their way to deny your IU. They know if they approve you then that's it, so they will let you starve to discourage you, and drive you back into the labor market, and then claim that you are obviously not IU. If you do any work the VA will use this a sign that you are not IU. This is the rock and hard place the VA puts many vets. You might even get a lawyer to help you.

I don't know if a IMO would do any good since with CUE neither you, nor the VA, can add to or subtract anything that was before them at the time of the final decision. Have you thought about getting a lawyer to look this thing over and argue the case? It is good to have a very objective set of eyes on these claims. The VA will dig in and drag their heels all the way since it means lots of retro. I am asking for about 30 years of retro. I am surprised they did not punch my face and hit my lawyer with a chair. I think from a gut level they did you wrong and they owe you. The military owes you and the VA owes you at least morally even if you can't collect from both.

Use the date that the VA knew you were unemployed due to the disorder as the date you ask for TDIU. Why did the VA decide you got worse in 2008? Was there some big factor that tipped you from 50% to 70%? Lots of time the VA will rate you 30-50% when your symptoms are the same as when you finally get rated 70-100% with no explanation except that you are now unemployed due to the SC condition.

Yes, I think it will fly. How long was he 100%? If he was 100% for over ten years then you get DIC no matter what the cause of death. It is better to get the death SC'ed because the VA will pay for a certain % of funeral fees. His SC cancer contributed to his death so that is good for DIC. Others can direct you to the exact regulation and how it reads.

If you claimed the other conditions then you will probably be set up for a C&P. Did you get a VCAA letter on those other conditions?

Review your medical records and say in his report that he has reviewed your records. Then you need a bona fide medical opinion about the nature of your disability and the severity and the nexus to service.

I think you and your friend are really lucky.

My father-in-law was a severely disabled and mentally disturbed veteran. I really could not understand why he did not get benefits. His family covered up for him when he did criminal acts due to being nuts. Everytime I tried to help I was told his records burned in the St. Louis fire. I would try to dig deeper and they I was told all his personal records were destroyed in fires he set because he was crazy. I talked to him about his experience in WWII as a combat marine, but I did not have enough time with him. He died soon after I married his daughter. He was an example of a mentallly disabled vet who could not hold a job and put his family through hell. I will never know the truth, but he did spend years in prison and was probably a TBI victim and a PTSD victim. He believed he was perfectly normal. He was perfectly and dangerously crazy. He tried to get help a few times from the VA but they failed him. He went in the marines at 17 and came back a few years later a humam wreck. They dumped him back into society where he could not function. I say the marines and VA murdered him. He is an example of someone you cannot help just because of time and loss.

The VA's first line of defense in a CUE is to just say "No CUE was made" ...denied!!! When they take it in their minds to deny a CUE everything they say boils down to just "We don't want to pay or admit a mistake". The CUE law favors the VA so much that it does take a mighty good claim to get past the minefield. Have you met any "reasonable minds" at the VA lately?

The only rule the VA follows all the time is "screw the vet any chance you get". They follow that rule to the letter.

I say to never let your conscience get in the way when their is money to be made. I have kept to this philosophy, and have never gone wrong except when I was arrested that time. If a ten point vet gets a little help they have earned it. If not a ten point vet then who?

When you have to start getting information for other vets like stressor verfications we helpers are getting in deep. If the vet can't do it for themselves or hire a lawyer to do it then it becomes a full time unpaid job. Giving advice is one thing but doing it for someone else is a whole different matter. I tried to help a widow get a war pension and it opened my eyes. Her husband was not ever even in the military. Those least able to help themselves, and I mean the sickest people, have the least chance of winning their claim. Especially, if they are homeless and/or mentally disabled. It is survival of the fittest in the world of the unfit.

The VA needs to have assured funding on a generational basis not yearly. They need to be planning for the medical needs of future generations of veterans. They sure did not do that with Vietnam vets. The VA built a hospital around 1970 in my city. They could have bought up much property to expand in coming years, but they did nothing until the situation now is so crowded I have to take a shuttle bus to the hospital from a remote site. It is a damn mess due to piss poor planning and neglect of us vets. The government and VA like "Fallen Heros" so they don't have to take care of them fifty years later. Every vet in Iraq or Afghanistan is going to be old one day and need plenty of medical care. What is the plan? Wait until the year 2050 to allocate money for 2051? I appreciate you informing us of this Allen. It is nice to know the VSO thinks this is a great victory.

It is really good to have a calm, cool voice helping at a DRO Hearing. These things are very low key and non-confrontational anyway. What comes out the other end is anyone's guess. The last DRO I had agreed with me and my lawyer that my original rating was too low, but the CUE got denied anyway. Take anything they say with a grain of salt.

Your VSO sounds like a lazy SOB. You don't need that xxxxxxx. You hand carry all the documents to the VA and get copies. Do it yourself. This VSO might hurt you much more than help you. Since you are not in appeals you should be able to get another VSO to represent you. It is ok to have one, but don't depend on them to win your claim for you. That is your job. I don't understand what the VSO's get paid for to tell the truth. They made a mess of my claim often before I got serious about it. Evidence is what wins claims.

I was diabled and I got a job at the VA and then the Post Office. The USPS will hire just about any disabled vet. You won't like it but the money is pretty good and you have good benefits.

If you have treatment records since the service send copies (not originals). I suppose they want to see continuity of symptoms. In other words, that your symptoms have been present since you were last treated in the military. I hope you claim both PTSD and TBI since they can both be present.

When you lose SSDI you also lose medicare. That is a pretty big deal. Remember there was a reason you applied for SSD to begin with, and you have to ask yourself has that reason changed? If I were 30 years old I would be much more likely to take a stab at rehab. However, being almost 60 there is no way I am going to do that. The VA can rehab you, but if you have been unemployed for ten years can you get a job? When I pulled the plug I knew it was permanent. If you are over 50 I would think long and hard about giving up SSD. You may be the only one on your block who has a regular check coming in by year's end.

If you don't have a CIB or PH you have to prove your stressors. Why do soldiers in a combat zone have to prove PTSD stressors? This should be presumptive like AO exposure. They make it hard because they don't want to pay. That is the be all and end all of it.

If the pain is due to a service connected condition then I think you have a good claim for service connection for secondary depression due to chronic pain. Time to file your claim.

My VARO has lost so much of my evidence over the years that when I have important evidence I hand deliver it and get the date stamped copy. I don't trust anyone to file for me except my lawyer, and I am not sure about him. He is filing at the BVA for me and has done OK so far. I would not trust any VSO to file for me or handle evidence.

I think when you file a claim that is plausable you will get a C&P exam most likely. I know I did not get a C&P exam when I got service connected for a few conditions because they were presumptive and I had strong evidence. I also did not get a C&P when I got out of the service. I filed within one year and the VA just used my military records and VA hospital records. I think getting a C&P exam is usually a good sign that at least the VA is considering your claim. For certain claims, especially emotional disorder claims, the C&P can be important as to service connection because of the diagnosis. For example, if you claim PTSD and the C&P doctor says you have a personality disorder you will then most likely get denied. That is when you have to get your own medical opinions to rebut the C&P and end up in appeals. I can't think of any claims I have not appealed at least for percentage of disability if not for service connection. If you have nothing in your file regarding the disability you are claiming you may get a flat denial without a C&P in certain cases. Just remember that you always have the appeals process no matter what the VA decides.

When it comes to "mental" claims the biggest factor is if you are still working. If you are not working because of the mental condition you have a much better chance of getting a rating over 50%. With mental claims it usually goes 10%,30%, 50%, 70% and then IU or 100%. 70% is considered a serious disability and consideration for IU is almost automatic.