What Are My Chances?

[noscopes4me]

Currently getting 70% for Flat feet 30%,Ankle 10%,knees and back another 20% etc. Filed Iu in december 08 had physical C&p in feb 09. Sent letter from private doctor saying I am unable to obttain gainful employment and reasons from my service connested disabilities. Statments from me and wife and last superviser ihad and co-workers of my problems at work.

Letter from physical therapist about treatments and prescribing me with a walking cane. having alot of problems with these and cannot walk hardly any distance anymore. Hoping I get Iu waiting about 2 mos now for decision letter. Anybody have an idea what my chances are it would be much appreciated thank you...

[noscopes4me]

No i am not. I wasnt sure if i should do that ot not right now was kinda waiting to see if this works out or not.

[Teac]

The law states either you must have one disability rated 60% or have a combined rating of 70% with one disability at 40%. Looks like you meet that requirement. The law also states your inability to work must also be related to your service connected disability. Seems like that is also the case.... But the question is are you working now? If you are working now I doubt you will be awarded TDIU. Also your doctor must be able to justify his medical opinion he can't just say you cannot work. All the other letters and statements will hold little or no water because they come from non-medical personnal. Best of luck

Edited April 14, 2009 by Teac

[jbasser]

Dont wait.

In a lot of situations, a SSDi award is the key factor to obtaining IU.

It proves you are not able to work. If the causes of your SSDi are Service conected then I see there is little chance for the VA to deny IU.

I would go ahead and file if I were you. If you are still employed , then IU and SSDI is not going to happen.

J

[rentalguy1]

You are going to have a fight, because as Teac mentioned, there is a requirement for TDIU of having a single disability rated at 40% or greater if your total service connected percentage is 70% or greater. This is not to say that you will not get it, but I would expect them to deny based on the fact that you do not have a rating that is at least 40%.

[broncovet]

Noscopes

IMHO your chances of getting TDIU are directly related to these three factors, in this order:

1. Your Regional Office location. RO's in some areas of the country are far more stingy in awarding benefits than others. Other than moving, there is nothing you can do about this. It is not fair, but it is the reality, according to reports by the Inspector General. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to overcome a "bad" regional office. If you are unlucky enough to have the Detroit, NY, Cleveland or ST. Petersburg RO, your chances go way down.

2. Your persistence. The longer you "hang in there" and are willing to send and resend information, the more likely you are to be approved for TDIU. Quitting at any point means you loose.

3. Your medical evidence, especially your C &P docs opinion. Claims are supposedly won/lost on medical evidence, however, many a Veteran has lost his claim because of items #1 and #2 above. If you dont think so, talk to one of the 10,000 Veterans in Detroit, for example, who's evidence was not even opened by the Regional Office, according to the VAOIG. Some doctors, especially those "doctors" hired by QTC, are very, very stingy and offer evidence which gets you a denial. Be ready for a 3 to 5 year or longer wait for benefits and many appeals.

My opinion: Your odds are 60/40, but can be adjusted upward/downward according to the above factors. Your odds are better than 50/50 because you have already been Service connected, and you wont have to jump through those hoops again.

Edited April 14, 2009 by broncovet

[noscopes4me]

No I am not working and have not been for a while. I was told filing for iu you need a total of at least 60 or 70%. which Ii have. As for location im out of the twin cities and have had good luck with them thus far and they seem to be very quick.

I wanted to wait for a decision from the va before I decided to try for ssdi. I have many doctor statments explaining all my treatments I have had and he has explained my problems and that I cannot work where I walk or stand for any period my back,hips is a huge problem when it comes to sitting. His statments was part of the decision I won 70%. So I have confidence in his statment. Will they look at all my old evidence from the prior decision also with my new evidence for iu? thanks again for your advice.