tdiu Tdiu Form

[Josephine]

Seems that I have been in the system for a long time, and my Service

Officer and myself did not know that my asking for, " 100% Service

Connection for Chronic Anxiety" was not the same being Unemployable.

I wonder why the VA never sent me this form with any of my filing

dates.

Not much on the duty to assist, this is only my opinion.

I thought the NSC Pension which stated:

We are granting you a Non service connected pension as we find that you Suffer from disability which is sufficient to render it impossible for you to follow substantially gainful occupation.

I thought this statement alone was stating " You are unemployable due to these disabilities.

I have the treatment records for chronic anxiety from 1965 to 2008.

Dr. Muller in his C&P stated she is taking such and such medicine and has since 1967 and has not been able to work since 1983 secondary to her high level Chronic Anxiety Disability.

My question, now how do I go back in time and secure TDIU to the last day I worked.

Is this the impossible?

We are talking about 25 years.

I quit my job the morning I had a nervous breakdown on the job.

How do I prove that now?

Thanks,

Betty

Edited April 29, 2008 by Josephine

[LarryJ]

1 a: a simple machine of the inclined plane type consisting of a spirally grooved solid cylinder and a correspondingly grooved hollow cylinder into which it fits b: a nail-shaped or rod-shaped piece with a spiral groove and a slotted or recessed head designed to be inserted into material by rotating (as with a screwdriver) and used for fastening pieces of solid material together.

from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary............

[Josephine]

1 a: a simple machine of the inclined plane type consisting of a spirally grooved solid cylinder and a correspondingly grooved hollow cylinder into which it fits b: a nail-shaped or rod-shaped piece with a spiral groove and a slotted or recessed head designed to be inserted into material by rotating (as with a screwdriver) and used for fastening pieces of solid material together.

from Merriam-Webster's online dictionary............

Larry,

Thanks, looks like I ask another stupid question.

I have a law degree, but wish now I had majored in Engineering.

Have a good one.

Betty

Edited April 29, 2008 by Josephine

[free_spirit_etc]

I might have missed something along the way. I haven't been on much. But did they NOT give you 100%?

I would think that ALL your claims have had an INFERRED claim for TDIU.

I was thinking you filed your claims with a letter and they never sent you ANY forms. If they REQUIRE a form - they are supposed to SEND you a form. If not, isn't the time tolled until they send you the form they require?

It is not like you haven't mentioned you were unemployable. And as you have stated -THEY determined you are unemployable.

The claim was apparently filed. They apparently determined you weren't employable. It would seem like the only thing left for them to do would be to connect it to service connection.

Free

Seems that I have been in the system for a long time, and my Service

Officer and myself did not know that my asking for, " 100% Service

Connection for Chronic Anxiety" was not the same being Unemployable.

I wonder why the VA never sent me this form with any of my filing

dates.

Not much on the duty to assist, this is only my opinion.

I thought the NSC Pension which stated:

We are granting you a Non service connected pension as we find that you Suffer from disability which is sufficient to render it impossible for you to follow substantially gainful occupation.

I thought this statement alone was stating " You are unemployable due to these disabilities.

I have the treatment records for chronic anxiety from 1965 to 2008.

Dr. Muller in his C&P stated she is taking such and such medicine and has since 1967 and has not been able to work since 1983 secondary to her high level Chronic Anxiety Disability.

My question, now how do I go back in time and secure TDIU to the last day I worked.

Is this the impossible?

We are talking about 25 years.

I quit my job the morning I had a nervous breakdown on the job.

How do I prove that now?

Thanks,

Betty

[Josephine]

I might have missed something along the way. I haven't been on much. But did they NOT give you 100%?


I would think that ALL your claims have had an INFERRED claim for TDIU.


I was thinking you filed your claims with a letter and they never sent you ANY forms. If they REQUIRE a form - they are supposed to SEND you a form. If not, isn't the time tolled until they send you the form they require?


It is not like you haven't mentioned you were unemployable. And as you have stated -THEY determined you are unemployable.


The claim was apparently filed. They apparently determined you weren't employable. It would seem like the only thing left for them to do would be to connect it to service connection.


Free

Hi Free, I have missed you, but do realize that you are extremely

busy.

Whether Official or Not, the Rater told my Service Officer that for

1991- 2001 my rating would be 10%.

To me that is a bunch of crap for I want the R.O to acknowledge my

medical records from 1965 - 1979 and quit listing the ones from 1979

to date.

I do not have one SOC or SSOC with these medical records used as

evidence.

The R.O knows they have them and have had them for a lifetime of

years.

The two C&P's do make mention of these medical records and so does

the Judge at the BVA.

For 2001 - 2008 - they rated 70%

I want to know where did the unemployable go?

Yes, I did send a complaint through to Huntington via the complaint

departmert so that D.C would have a copy.

I spoke to the Regional office about the pension and was told once

declared in writing unemployable , you at my age remains same.

The NSC Pension was broken into ratings.

Chronic Anxiety was rated at 50%

I want to know now that I have service connected this Chronic Anxiety

why did it drop to 10%.

The 14 years of my post medical records are the most important.

There is no way any one could work with all the meds I was placed on

and this was by a Board Certified Psychiarist.

I was discharged with anxiety and have been treated every day of my

life for it for the last 44 years.

I have all of my medical records to prove everything that is said.

I understand, my file is being re-looked at. It may change and it may

not.

No, I do not have a law degree, but I am just about to get there.

Engineering absolutely no.

I have no ideal of what Larry was saying.

Thanks,

Betty

Betty

[cowgirl]

Larry described a tool implement - a screw.

[tssnave]

Betty,

I know this is maddening to not even have a formal Decision yet, and you may need to get one in your hand before you will know how to really attack your appeal, but in the interim, I have a couple of questions of clarification to wrap my mind around what you've written. I've pulled out my 2007 VBM to help me understand pensions (page numbers are for the 2007 VBM if you have a copy so you'll see what I'm quoting).

You wrote:

1. I spoke to the Regional office about the pension and was told once declared in writing unemployable , you at my age remains same.

I would tell you to quote the person who told you this but it would be better to quote the regs, so, on pg 51: "As of Sept 17, 2001, veterans aged 65 and over are conclusively presumed to be permanently and totally disabled for pension purposes." per 38 USCS $ 1513

2. The NSC Pension was broken into ratings. Chronic Anxiety was rated at 50% I want to know now that I have service connected this Chronic Anxiety why did it drop to 10%.

Betty, again on pg 51, "to be eligible for pension benefits, a veteran must have wartime service, low income, and total and permanent disability." per 38 CFR so to have been approved for the pension, from my reading, I agree that the VA had to have already considered you total and permanently disabled. Now, what has me confused is that you were giving a 50% rating for chronic anxiety when you got your pension. I take it there were/are other non-service-connected (nsc) medical problems that they based your being 100% disabled? Is this correct? I am trying to understand how they determined you were totally disabled for your pension and from what you wrote it looks like there were other issues they factored into the pension decision. If you were 50% for nsc anxiety and 50% (or whatever % it would take to make it to 100% using VA math) for nsc heart disease then I can understand better why they may not rate you 100% for your anxiety based on your pension date though they should go no lower than 50% from the date of the pension. Please clarify how the VA came to 100% for your pension rating.

If you were only service connected for anxiety and not some other illness that brought your pension rating up to 100% then the VA has a leg to stand on from a pension review standpoing saying you were only 50% disabled from anxiety from the date of your pension. Do you follow what I'm saying? I'm trying to be clear but only had few hours sleep last night (which is better than no hours sleep) so not sure if I'm making myself clear.

Betty, what is the date of your pension?

3. For 2001 - 2008 - they rated 70%

This is good from the standpoint of a 70% rating makes you eligible for IU and I completely agree with Free that you have an inferred IU claim SCREAMING from the pages of your c-file so going from 70% to 100% IU for these years shouldn't be a problem if they rate you 70% from 2001 - 2008.

4. My question, now how do I go back in time and secure TDIU to the last day I worked. Is this the impossible? We are talking about 25 years. I quit my job the morning I had a nervous breakdown on the job. How do I prove that now?

Betty, be very careful before you fill out the TDIU form. Depending on how much you earned in the years you worked you may be eligible for an effective date for TDIU while you were still working if you earned (just your income, not your husband's) less than the poverty level for one person for the year in which you earned income. If you don't already have it, order your Social Security Earnings Statement ASAP. This will give you a snapshot of your earnings by year and you can cross reference the poverty table against it to see if you may be eligible for TDIU while you were working.

If you still know folks from 25 years ago who know what happened when you quit your job and it comes to having to fight for IU then you can have them write statements in support of your claim. The best place to look is in your med records. If you had a nervous breakdown at work then I assume there will be comments of such in your med records. You can use the med record comments "pt had nervous break down at work and could not continue working - increase meds to xx mg....." to substantiate your claim.

I would not fill out the IU form unless the VA sent it to me and then only after careful consideration.

Betty, I think you are simply going to have to get a Decision in writing to know how to best prepare an appeal. You need to know what you're up against. The good news is that once they actually give you a Decision you have a year to get your NOD together.

I suspect you may have to take a (forced) tiered approach to your claim like I did. First they deny service connection (in your case, for 44 years, in mine about 4). Then they finally service connect but low ball your rating (and everyone who's stuck with this answer is nodding their heads going, "Yep, that either happened to me or half the vets I know."). Then you go back and fight for the proper rating and effective date.

It is my hope that because your claim is so complex that they will put their best and most experienced DRO on it and get it done properly, up front this time, once and for all. If that doesn't happen, however, you need to get something solid in writing to fight against.

Hang in there, Betty. He that is within you is greater than anything else.

Keep us posted and God Bless,

TS Snave

Edited April 30, 2008 by tssnave