pacmanx1

Depending on your 90% rating breakdown, you could be 93% or 94% and the VA rounds down to a combined 90% but the additional 30% from 30% to 60% could possibly get you a 100% combined rating. All you would need is that your rating hit 95% and the VA would round up to 100% schedular.

Due to the fact that the veteran is having multiple symptoms within this category, The VA could actually rate him higher with a 60% rating. This of course does not mean they will. These are the criteria for each rating: GERD. 60 percent – the veteran experiences “pain, vomiting, material weight loss and hematemesis or melena with moderate anemia; or other symptom combinations productive of severe impairment of health.” 30 percent – the veteran experiences “persistently recurrent epigastric distress with dysphagia, pyrosis, and regurgitation, accompanied by substernal or arm and shoulder pain, productive of considerable impairment of heath.” 10 percent – the veteran has two or more symptoms of the 30 percent rating, but less severe. 4.7 Higher of two evaluations. Where there is a question as to which of two evaluations shall be applied, the higher evaluation will be assigned if the disability picture more nearly approximates the criteria required for that rating. Otherwise, the lower rating will be assigned.

Since you are already rated 100% P & T and working, you can only get retroactive pay (money). This is if your effective date is before your current 100% P & T rating. The problem is even though the BVA granted your appeal, they remanded it to the regional office, and the regional office has to rate your percentage and assign an effective date. The regional office could assign you a 0% rating in which there would be no retroactive payment (money) and you win but you lose with no money coming your way. It could also be that with your new ratings the regional office could assign you an even earlier effective date, if your new rating boils down to you being awarded an earlier combined 100% rating. The VA did this to me and I had to file a new appeal. I was granted a 50% rating after my 100% P & T rating which amounted to absolutely no money in retroactive pay. When I filed my appeal, the BVA granted me an unadjudicated award going back to my original date of claim and I won my earlier effective dates.

The only thing I can say is when I was going through Voc Rehab. The lady there told me to apply for PELL GRANT and any loans I felt that I needed. This was before I was rated 100% P & T. She told me that when/if funds are available or came available after all loans were paid out. They look for potential students that they could help and grant their loans. As to CH 35 I think I read here that a former member used CH 35 twice, once while her husband was alive and later after she was granted DIC and CH 35.

I know this is not what you want to hear but Memos are for internal use and more for VA personnel than to the veteran.

I would not put anything past the VA, the thing to keep in mind is if you get a decision that you disagree with you either have to file an appeal or try to file a new claim. I have seen and warned veterans to be very careful not to file claims for secondary conditions if there was no service-connected rating or not meeting the rating criteria. Example: Veteran has ratings of 30% + 10% + 10% and file for a new claim and TDIU. The problem is the veteran does not meet the criteria and if the VA denies the new claim, they can also deny the TDIU claim.

I may be wrong or off, and I am quite sure some others will correct me, but I think you are correct.

Who can truly answer for someone else? The simplest answer, because they have the authority to do just about what they want. I am not trying to be a smart ass. There is no rhyme or reason why the VA does what they do. You could have an incomplete medical exam, or the medical rationale may not be clear enough for VA rating purpose.

If my memory is correct, I believe they call these sheets legacy sheets or legacy pages. Even though these sheets are part of each and every rating decision, the VA rarely send them out with their decision, but they are in the veteran's records.

Typically, when the Board makes a decision, they remand it to the VARO to implement their decision.

Not only do you not qualify at the present time, filing any claim this late when you are already pending a decision would most like delay your decision.

SMC payments are determined by the records and when the veteran met the criteria and not by the date the veteran filed his/her claim.

Sorry to say, but this is just fear mongering, VA, some VSOs and other veterans pass on this information. Did you read my post? There is a regulation that states the VA cannot revise decisions in a manner that is less advantageous to veterans than the decision under review. Unless the VA has some type of proof that a veteran has improved beyond normal conditions than they cannot reduce and with this crazy back log of benefits, they the (VA) don’t have the time or workforce to review every disability claim. Heck, they don’t even have the time to get a regular claim/appeal correct let alone trying to review prior claims is way beyond their capabilities.

Actually, I think I understand your situation and I of course do not know how your claims were filed or processed but I do believe if you have a medical opinion that your service-connected mental health issue alone causes you to be unemployable would satisfy the SMC criteria. I am not sure, but have you read Buie V. Shinseki? It basically is a precedential decision that can be cited that states the VA has a duty to maximize the veteran's benefits by assessing the veteran's disabilities to determine if the veteran meet the SMC criteria by reviewing his/her disabilities. I am quite sure it is here somewhere because I have been posting it since I found it several years ago.

Trying to help and doing a little more reading. You are currently rated as a combined 100% schedular P & T and no more. As you stated the VA lumped all your conditions together and that is why they probably did not consider a SMC consideration. For SMC you would need a single 100% rating plus 60% or a single TDIU rating plus an additional 60%.

Because you have a pending decision, it is best to wait. SMC ratings are different than regular ratings. Regular ratings go by the date you filed your claims, but SMC ratings go by the date you actually meet the criteria. So, it is possible after your pending decision, if you meet that criterion, the VA may grant it without you filing a claim.

When the VA granted you 80%, they should have discussed TDIU in that rating because the 80% already makes you eligible for TDIU. SMC-S is about $300.00 to $500.00 extra above the 100% or TDIU pay rating. A veteran can be awarded SMC-S if he/she is rated a single 100% schedular rating plus an addition 60% or a single TDIU rating with an additional 60%. Total plus 60 percent, or housebound; 38 U.S.C. 1114(s). The special monthly compensation provided by 38 U.S.C. 1114(s) is payable where the veteran has a single service-connected disability rated as 100 percent and, (1) Has additional service-connected disability or disabilities independently ratable at 60 percent, separate and distinct from the 100 percent service-connected disability and involving different anatomical segments or bodily systems, or (2) Is permanently housebound by reason of service-connected disability or disabilities. This requirement is met when the veteran is substantially confined as a direct result of service-connected disabilities to his or her dwelling and the immediate premises or, if institutionalized, to the ward or clinical areas, and it is reasonably certain that the disability or disabilities and resultant confinement will continue throughout his or her lifetime. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-38/chapter-I/part-3/subpart-A/subject-group-ECFR6477ad08d327384/section-3.350

You do not need a new disability; you would just have to prove that the VA should have granted you a TDIU based on your evidence and your symptoms of record.

The reason why I was awarded two separate increased ratings and assigned two separate TDIU ratings is because the VA failed to correctly process one of my original claims. I filed the claim around 1998 and it was denied, I then filed a NOD that got lost for two decades (20) years. It took me 20 years complaining about my lost evidence. When the BVA finally reviewed my records and granted my claim/appeal, the regional office low balled it and I filed a new NOD. The BVA finally found my NOD and granted me an unadjudicated (still open and pending) claim dated prior to my 100% schedular rating. So, with their help they back dated my awards The only way you can get an earlier effective date, you will have to prove that you have a disability that should have been rated prior to your 100% rating. If the VA denies your TDIU rating and grant you 100% schedular. Yes, you can appeal and request a TDIU rating based on your current symptoms.

Some veterans do not fully understand that their effective dates are the key to when their protection period begins and when they are fully covered. My records contains all three ratings. I will give examples. These are not my actual effective dates, but my records show something like them. Because we have VA employees come to this site from time to time. I choose not to post my actual information. So, let’s say I was originally granted 100% schedular P & T with an effective date of 2006. When the BVA granted me a new disability with a 30% increase that was not already included in my combined 100% scheduler P & T rating. This caused me to be granted a TDIU P & T rating with an effective date of 2004. I disagreed with this decision and because the BVA directly service connected my new disability to my military service, I requested a higher rating and the BVA granted me a 50% rating in which that TDIU P & T rating gave me an even earlier effective date of 2003 which put me under the 20-year protection period. So, I have a TDIU P & T from 2003 protected. I have a TDIU P & T from 2004 protected and I have a combined 100% schedular P & T that will be protected in 2026.

When the decision was originally decided, it referred to a veteran rated with a single 100% rating plus an additional 60% to qualify for SMC payments. It was amended or changed to include veterans rated with a single TDIU rating plus an additional 60% would be eligible for SMC payments. I don't think I asked this question. I think it came from Rattler.

It is what it is, just keep in mind that I have been rated 100% scheduler P & T for most of this time and the two EEDs granted me two EEDs in my ratings and in my TDIU effective dates.

Both decisions dated 2023 and 2024 state that you are rated for Individual Unemployability. They then go on to say Dependent Education is granted. These two lines mean you are rated as IU or TDIU which are the same thing. Basically, a veteran's rating hits 100% when his/her overall combined rating is at 95% and the VA rounds up to 100% schedular. It's kind of hard once a veteran is rated at 80% or 90% because then the veteran would need an additional 50% to 60% just to get to that extra ratings to equal 95%. I did it and many others did it also. It might be easier for a veteran to get a single rating of 100% than to get a combined rating. Because you are rated TDIU P & T, you can take a deep breath because it would be extremely hard for the VA to try to reduce your rating. Keep in mind the P & T means you are rated permanent and total which is saying that your current ratings will exist or last for the rest of your life.

That is what the VA did to me. I was rated 90% and had a few claims on appeal and the VA decided to grant me 100% scheduler P & T and denied my TDIU claim stating it was moot. My appeals have been running and pending for quite some time. I finally was awarded two separate EEDs back to 1998 but the VA has been fighting me all the way to the CAVC (Court of Veterans Appeals). It is possible that with your new IMO (Independent Medical Opinion) that the VA may catch it and correct your rating percentage and effective date, just be prepared to file an appeal and fight for your benefits.

It is possible but keep in mind that most EEDs (earlier Effective Date) stem from when the veteran actually files his/her claim. Depending on what the VA and or the SSA decisions are you may very well have to get an attorney for both. I believe we are talking about some serious back pay, and you may need some hired attorneys on your side just like the VA and the SSA will have on their side. The key would be to get the granted decision and then go for the correct effective date with the VA. The SSA will normally try to set the onset date around your most recent opened application.