Havoc87

I went to apply for SSDI and because my appeal took so long, my work credits expired so I am unable to apply for SSDI. I am hoping to be able to fight with SSDI on the expired work credits, if I can get the VA to correct the TDIU effective date back to 2015 as should be. I have not worked since 2015 when I started the VA disability process because I couldn't physically work anymore. I did not get any disability retirement from my employer as I was never with them long enough. After leaving service I ended up going from job to job because of my injuries and time I had to miss work from each of my employments because of the injuries. The second claim, I can easily appeal since it was just a RO decision and so recently, and thought about doing so by brining up Rice v. Shinseki and my informal request for TDIU in the 2015 appeal. I am a little confused on the best action to take for appealing the VBA decision in August of 2020 that was a remand back to the RO and then granted the service connection for cervical spine at 30%, but failed to allow the TDIU at that time since I hadn't filled out the formal claim paper for TDIU. Should I file a supplemental claim to that RO decision with the TDIU approval information and ask for the earlier effective date, or can I actually submit an appeal back to the VBA? Or should I have filed to the CAVC and missed that opportunity to do so on the remand?

I need some opinions on which claim of mine to appeal, and the best route to do so to file for an earlier effective date of my recent TDIU award. Here is the back story to base this upon... In February of 2015 when I could no longer physically work due to my injuries in the military I went in and filed for VA Compensation. On July 15, 2015 I received my decisions back after my C&P exams and I was awarded service connection for the following things: 40% lumbosacral strain, 10% left foot injury, 10% bilateral tinnitus, 0% bilateral hearing loss. This ended up giving me a 50% rating. In this decision they did not service connect my cervical strain even though based upon the C&P exam, it warranted a 30% service connection. I quickly appealed this decision to the VBA as soon as it came in, asking for the cervical spine to be service connected properly as noted in the C&P examiners notes. I also included a buddy statement and pulled a medical record from my file showing the incident that caused the cervical spine injury in service and put that information with the appeal. SIX years later after filing the appeal, the VBA approved service connection and remanded the cervical spine issue back to the RO for rating. The RO rated my cervical spine injury with the 30% in August of 2020, effective back to 02/2015. When I filed the appeal, I also raised the question of TDIU in my appeal because I had to quit working in 2015 due to my back and neck and if the injuries would have been correctly rated all together in 2015, I would have been at 70% and eligible for TDIU. VBA noted this in the remand decision regarding TDIU: "As a final note, in his January 2016 Notice of Disagreement (NOD), the Veteran attempted to raise the issue of entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service connected disabilities (TDIU). The Veteran and his representative are advised that claims submitted after March 24, 2015, must be submitted on the application form prescribed by the Secretary. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.1 (p), 3.155, 3.160." On June 15, 2021 (less than a year after receiving the remand decision) I filed online for TDIU formally and it also put in increase requests for all of the disabilities I stated affected my ability to work. I went through C&P exams for each of those items and on July 19, 2021 was awarded the following additional disabilities effective, 6/15/21: radiculopathy left upper extremity 20%, radiculopathy right upper extremity 20%, radiculopathy right lower extremity 20%, and radiculopathy left lower extremity 20%. They also corrected my back injury to lumbosacral strain with lumbar disc herniation and degenerative arthritis and corrected my neck injury to cervical strain with degenerative disc disease. These increases brought me up to 90% and they approved TDIU at that time, effective 6/15/21. In the first claim that I put in I listed that I had to cease working due to my injuries I was filing for (which were service connected between the first decision and at the end of the appeal). I still have a few days left to put in an appeal on the remanded decision from the first appeal, and then I have the option of appealing the decision that just came in on July 19, 2021. Do I need to appeal the older remanded appeal decision to keep the 2015 service connection date in play for a TDIU earlier effective date, or would it be sufficient to (appeal or ask for HLR) of the most recent decision that granted TDIU, but only with the 6/15/21 effective date? I should also note that when the first C&P exams were completed back in 2015 it was noted on my lumbar and cervical spine exams notes from the doctor that there was functional loss that affected my ability to work, as well as on the C&P conducted in June of 2021. I appreciate any advice you can provide on this issue.