john999

What you don't want is to be jobless, and not have TDIU or 100%. You should not think too much about getting 100% or TDIU and somehow working. It will get you in a bind. Your age is a big factor in the real world. If you are over 50 you will probably be unemployable even if you get ten degrees from voc rehab. I got TDIU when I was 51. I had been approved for Voc Rehab when I was 30%, but I was 47 years old and I was making 50K a year at the USPS. I knew I could not make it to regular retirement. I had a secure job, but due to undiagnosed chronic pain issues, depression and job harassment I put in for disability retirement and all the rest. Actually, I waited too long and got fired. No money for six months!!!! When you get over 40 it gets much harder to start a career if you have a disability and you have two severe ones. The best job for disabled person is self employment, however, if you get TDIU that goes away as well. These are hard decisions any way you look at it. John

I used to fish a little but you need a boat where I am at to get to places around Tampa Bay. I have one money pit already so I don't need another. If I lived on a lake it would be nice, but I fish salt water being on the bay. I have seen guys pull in some astounding snook from shore within a few miles of downtown Tampa fishing in four feet of water. These fish get huge and will hang out around pilings and docks trying to catch little fish. I saw this guy catch one three feet long on spinning rod with a lure like a flashing spoon. Huge sea trout also hang out in canals on Davis Island in winter. I caught a huge one on a mirror lure years ago. Now it is all private property and I can't get back there. Florida was truly heaven for fisherman 50 years ago before population explosion. It still is for some if you can just get to where the fish are like those big redfish. You hook into a 30lb redfish and you will think you have Moby Dick. John

I don't know what the VA will do, but get an IME/IMO and appeal the decision unless you get everything you want. You cannot just lay your case in the hands of the VA and expect justice. You need to provide your own medical evidence. If you are TDIU then just go for P&T. You just need to establish that you are not getting better over time. I admit it does sound more like 70% than 100% but what do I know? TDIU or 100% it does not matter if you can't work. If you want to be rated 100% and then return to school or work it gets harder.

I was TDIU P&T for about 8 years when I got another rating for 60%. After reading about Bradley v Peake I made a claim/request for SMC "S" as in statutory HB. It had been two years since I had gotten the extra 60% award, and I had five 10% awards since a few years before that. The VA called a CUE on themselves and granted HB with two years retro. So the VA did treat it as a CUE because they should have granted me "S" as soon as I got the 60% award. If I had not claimed it I would not have it today. If I have a claim and there is a shot at getting money out of it I will file. I am not filing just for the heck of it, but if it is for potentially fatal disability or there is money on the table then I am going for it and I don't care what some VSO tells me. In the past I let VSO's and the VA succeed in discouraging me from filing appeals etc. That has not happened in the last 25 years, but it happened when I was a young vet. The hostility leaking out towards Vietnam vets was nasty. I felt it with all the bad vibes included. John

The VA should fire about 9000 just to start and get some workers and doctors who respect veterans. The last C&P exam I got for DMII the exam doctor told me that Vietnam vets get fat on purpose just to get an increase in their DMII rating. That is insane and I don't believe it. I get this negative anti-vet attitude all the time at the VA of all places. The care I get at the VA is so poor I have to get the same care from private doctors because the VA can't be trusted. I went for PT at the VA and they turned me down and then they tell my congressman I refused treatment. John

I think the best defense against getting reduced is to file for "more" compensation if you have real new SC disabilities. Since I got 70% P&T TDIU in 2001 I have filed for 7 new disabilities and/or increases. I am now Total plus 80% and get "S". I think another good strategy is to go to the VA for at least some treatment and complain. I went to pain doctor and she DX'ed me with new PTSD symptoms. I really am fed up with VA medical care, but be sure if you have mental disability that you get medications and at least accept them. You may improve with medications, but that does not mean your condition has improved substantially. For instance, if you have PTSd and are taking three PTSD meds then you may improve but that's because you are in treatment and getting many medications. The best defense with the VA is a good offense. File those claims if they are legitimate. Secondary claims are what give you some padding if ever they do question your main claim. I was DX'ed with DMII due to AO after I was P&T. I filed for it and a couple of five other secondary claims. Now I have over ten years P&T so my wife gets DIC if I croak before her. I wanted her to have ChampVA and it took an appeal to get it. This thing the VA and VSO's do to instill fear in vets to keep them from filing claims is really dirty business.

When I first got out of the Army the VA diagnosed me with schizophrenia. They had never heard of PTSD in 1971. Then later they changed my DX to bipolar. It means nothing as long as you are SC for a genuine mental disorder, and not a personality disorder. My DX has been changed as often as my shoes I think. I was MDD for a while, and then back to schizophrenia plus PTSD, panic disorder, social phobia, depression, anxiety and chronic pain disorder. Now after starting off with a 10% rating I am P&T plus "S" because as you get older all the mental and physical stuff melds together and you are just FUBAR. Bipolar disorder can be aggravated because I won a worker's compensation case based on that fact. My job at the post office aggravated my "bipolar disorder" and I proved it with the medical evidence from two shrinks. What they did with me was to change my hours from days to the worst night shift after I got fired as a shop steward. It screwed up my sleep real bad, and put a strain on my marriage since my wife worked days with weekends off and I was made to work 6PM to 2am with Monday and Tuesday off. I never saw her, and we were newly weds. Plus my chronic pain got worse, my mother was dying and I was getting sued. So, yes, bipolar, schizophrenia, depression, and all these things may have genetic component, but it usually takes some event to put you over the cliff and the military is great at that part. So is working for those Mf'ers at the post office. John

Once you file your claim and get to the point of filing a Notice of Disagreement with their decision (The VA always low balls you or deprives you of some benefit) you can hire an attorney to take you the rest of the way. I probably lost many thousands of bucks because I did not file a timely appeal back in 1973, but I gradually learned from guys like Phil and gals like Berta to file my own claims, and just hang on until I got something out of it. Don't hesitate to file because you are not a lawyer. You have to file for benefits to get them. There are people here you had their discharges changed just by filing with the proper department, and I got 60% increase just by filing an appeal. I got benefit of doubt. Filing in a timely way is the main thing. Once you file see it through all the way to federal court if you have to do it that way. Screwing vets out of benefits is the motto of the our government since the Revolutionary War. John

I think if I thought I was taking a CUE to the BVA I would want a lawyer with me. CUE's are really a minefield for the vet. Your CUE must be based on an error in law or regulation with no speculation or reweighing evidence etc. If you make mistakes at BVA they will haunt you all the way to the CAVC and beyond. You already beat the military on the pension question, but the CUE question is sticky and weighed heavily on VA's side IMO. That being said "Go for it". John

If you are denied Chapter 35 (P&T) I would appeal it right away. I got it that way and I waited one year from the date of TDIU and got the Chapter 35 on appeal. Why wait 5 years? If you can get a doctor to say your condition is permanent or at least stable with no improvement likely then that is P&T in a nutshell. If you have dependents and get P&T then they can get help with school in the form of "money". You can solve many problems with that little letter combination P&T. Unless your award letter said you are being paid at 100% rate due to unemployability then you are not TDIU. If it says your combined rating is 100% then you are scheduler. Working is not so much of an issue for scheduler, but I would not broadcast it to the VA. John

I hope Carlie is back with us soon. She is a fighter and worked on her 100% for decades. Pete53 and Jbasser are still with us. Pete really understands the thinking at the VA and Jbasser understands the rules. Formidable combination with Berta and Flip thrown into that mix. Solid advice form them all. John

I know as soon as I got TDIU and was initially denied P&T (Chapter 35) I appealed that denial. I got P&T within a year of my TDIU award. ChampVA alone is worth the fight. FERS is pretty easy to get. I know you have to apply for SSDI as well and there is an offset to your OPM if you get SSDI but it is well worth it. In two years after you get SSDI you get Medicare. If you combine this with insurance from OPM you will have no copays at all. John

I think more enlisted vets use the VA and experience the downside because there are more enlisted. I don't know about financial condition of enlisted vets vs officer vets. Many of enlisted vets have no place to go but the VA. That's possible with officers as well. I think the younger you are when you must use VA the worse off you are because you don't have time to get pension or Medicare and you are stuck with VA. My VA is so poor in quality that they are only good for pills. John

You are eligible to file for SSDI. I would do as others say and just wait until you get the award letter. If you are 100% with Chapter 35 Benefits (P&T) unless you are TDIU you might be able to continue to work. Would VA money replace you working income? If you become 100% for PTSD then working is probably not such a good idea since that DX at that level of disability usually precludes working. If you are self-employed you can often keep working just never mention it to the VA. If you apply for SSDI then working becomes even more of a "No, No". Of course you can do a little work under SSDI but poverty level stuff and they will look at you. Just read you award letter carefully and post results with name and any identifying numbers blacked out. John

I would sure file for SC on the heart. Even if you got 0% you are SC. Are you working? Am I right that you have no other insurance. How far are you from Medicare? I would not put up with lousy VA care if I had any other resource. No cardiac rehab after surgery? Then they VA should not be doing cardiac surgery. Damn them. John

If you are not able to work you can file for TDIU and with 80% rating get it pretty easily. I felt the same when I went from 30% to 70%. However, I was out of work so I had to file for TDIU pronto. You done good! John

The VA is a jobs program. I went yesterday for a test and the radiology dept. overruled my doctor on the type of test I needed. Where else does a radiology dept. dictate to a prescribing doctor as to what test a patient needs? The VA radiology dept. just wanted to do a cheaper test and they get away with it. I wanted to know exactly where the stenosis in my neck is and you are supposed to use either MRI or CT Scan with contrast. So VA just does the CT scan which shows nothing specific.....cheap! I talked to a vet with prostate cancer and he is waiting for a referral to outsourced VA treatment provider. I told him not to wait, but you get it done on his Medicare before the caner spreads. He told me he had aggressive type of prostate cancer and the VA is fooling around with paperwork! If I was surveyed I would say the same thing as Concerned Vets for American but I am not conservative since his is not liberal vs conservative issue. This is veteran's health issue. The VA ignores the entire existing private medical care system to what end: To protect VA as jobs program and place where doctor's are trained for free at government expense and at Vet's expense. John

Maybe the BVA ordered another pension exam, but then they should have returned it to your VARO I think. This is weird and makes no sense to me. Maybe ombudsman can shed light on this. I never heard of BVA making a decision in 2 months

I went for years without a DX for the pain at the base of my neck which radiates into my left shoulder. Nothing showed up on MRI or X-Ray. In 2011 at least 15 years after I started to complain about pain an MRI showed some stenosis at C-5. Even with that I could not get unanimous opinions on surgery. I went to excellent neurosurgeon and orthopods and they all disagreed with each other. One thing I did learn is that they can fix the problem and you will still have pain because by then nerves are damaged. I even had a surgery in 2004 because I was told it was my shoulder that was the problem. Now I have ruined shoulder and C-5 still causing pain. If think if I had nerves so impinged that I had numbness I would probably just go for it and get surgery, but what do I know. When it gets bad enough you will do whatever you think will help. There is always a doctor who will oblige you. John

I had SMC waiting for me due to some secondary issues with DMII. I got the rating but the VA deferred actually granting me the SMC money. I waited until I just filed another claim saying there was no good reason for them not to pay me. I got paid and claim was settled in a month. I had to file CUE to get "S". Well, VA turned my request into a CUE. They just want to hold onto the money perhaps for some accounting reason known only to God and VA. John

You know date for TDIU is the date you filed for it and/or the date the VA knew or should have known you were unable to work solely due to SC condition. For instance, you were hospitalized 6 months before TDIU was filed for and hospital notes say you had GAF of 40 and could not get out of bed much less work. You have a case for that being your retro date. Sometimes they will use date you got SSDI solely for SC conditions. You need records to prove this contention. It worked for me. John

I am sure there is a trail of paperwork for your TDIU payments. The bank should have them. Plus having ChampVA and commissary card is proof. What about disabled vet insurance. Did you put in for free insurance when you got bumped up to TDIU? If you have VA insurance and you become Total you can ask for your premiums to go away and keep the $10,000. Also, when you began to keep medical care from VA with no co-pays there should be record of that and reason for that. The VA does do crazy stuff. Way back in early 1970's they began to pay me at 100% rate and then just suddenly stopped with no questions asked and no refund asked from me. Me and some other vet had the same name but entirely different SSA numbers and VA claim numbers. I do remember this guy lived in Texas and I live in Florida. They would not listen to me when I told them they were making a mistake. I sent the checks back for a few months and then just began to deposit them at interest. They are dumb as a bagful of rocks. They also just stopped sending checks about 20 years ago because I changed banks. I told them I was changing and all that but they stopped them anyway. I got it going again but had to go to congressman who was a powerful guy on Ways and Means back about 20 years ago. So anything is possible with the VA. John

Too late to get IME saying you are P&T? I bet you get P&T out of this exam. Can I ask how old you are?

I don't think you need to worry about a TDIU rating being taken away. The only way VA can reduce you if you are TDIU is if you go back to work full time at above the poverty level. After five years, or age 55 you are almost untouchable. I think I would skip interaction with DAV. Do you have a copy of your original TDIU decision stashed away some place? Some few guys who are 100% scheduler get reduced, but that is usually because they tell their doctor they feel better and start working and talking about it to the VA. The VA usually reduces those who give them a reason, but sometimes they just do it for fun. They tried to take away my SC rating but were 15 years too late on that one. That was in 1989 I think. That is last proposed reduction or talk of reduction. John

They threw you into the briar patch and you came out like Brother Rabbit! What about retro pay? Shouldn't you get retro P&T benefits from the time they told you they were disputing your rating? John