Finally

[SLEDGE]

After all of the crazy crap that the VA idiots wrote about me in the 80's, today I got service connection for Briquet's Syndrome at 30.

Back to 1984 when I first filed.

It pays to keep claims continuously active.

Last year they admitted that fibromyalgia and Briquet's are separate conditions and have to be rated separately according to the criteria for each.

I wonder if 10+10+30+30+70 comes out higher than 80?

I think I'll sleep better tonight.

sledge

[Pete53]

Congrats!!!!!

[sharon]

Looks like 90% to me. Good hanging in there.

[Berta]

Tom -that is GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this proves that we HAVE to continue the fight as long as we can-

you are SO right-

be continuously proactive-

FABULOUS NEWS!

and it was "crazy crap" they wrote about you-but you overcame it!

[broncovet]

Congratulations..It sounds like you will have to wait a little longer for your money, tho, it probably will be worth it since it sounds like your retro will be six figures

[deltaj]

Looks like 90% to me. Good hanging in there.

Using a combined ratings table online I get the following:

70% + 30% = 79%

79% + 30% = 85% (which is rounded up to 90% because of the final 5)

90% + 10% = 91%

91% + 10% = 92%

I wish to explain that V.A. goes by residual earning capacity, the amount left after the disability (ies) are subtracted from 100%. Disabilities are combined in descending order from highest to lowest ratings. When you subtract 70% for the primary disability from 100% you get 30% residual earning capacity. You then multiply the remaining 30% residual earning capacity by .3 for the 30% second disability and you get 9%. You add that 9% back onto the 70% primary disability and you get 79% for the combined first two disabilities. You then subtract 79% from 100% and you get a residual earning capacity of 21% after the first two disabilities. Multiple that 21% by .3 for the other 30% disability and you get 6.3%. Add that 6.3% back onto the 79% and you get 85% which is rounded up to to 90% combined rating for the first three disabilites because of the final 5 in 85%. You then take the 90% and subtract that from 100% and you get a residual earning capacity of 10%. Multiple that 10% residual earning capacity by .1 for the 10% fourth disability and you get 91% combined rating for the first four disabilities according to the V.A. rating table. Then if take that 91% combined rating and subtract if from 100% you get a residual earning capacity of 9% after the first 4 disabilities. Multiply that 9% residual earning capacity by .1 for the 5th disability and you get 92% combined rating for the first 5 disabilities according to the V.A. combined rating table.

Don't forget that somewhere you have to consider whether a 10% bilateral factor must be added for any paired extremities. You can see I really don't understand whether any of your conditions involved paired extremities.

Now V.A. may possibly try to use the date of your TDIU claim as the effective date of a 100% rating. This would be wrong if you have been unemployable and totally disabled since the date of receipt of the claim, you have provided evidence of this, and you have kept your claim in continuous prosecution by timely appeals. If so, you'll have to argue for an earlier effective date of 100% rating based on CUE under 38 CFR 3.400 (q) because of the continuous prosecution and new and material evidence received during each of the appeal periods. Also if you began receiving SSD in the one year before the date of receipt of the claim then you don't want to overlook 38 CFR 3.400 (o). Also don't forget about 38 CFR 3.157 ( (b)and 38 CFR 3.155 when V.A. determines your effective date.

Now for the fun part. (I'm being sarcastic). You need to find all of your old rating award letters and arrange them chronologically by date. You then want to find V.A. compensation rating tables online for each year involved in your award. You need this so you can subtract what you have been previously paid for your prior awards from your new ratings award for each month included so you can make sure your lump sum V.A. check is correct.

Congratulations, Sledge on your win. All of us here at hadit hope here you can perhaps prevent V.A. from putting them through the torture you went through. My family went through a lot of V.A. torture. That is one of the reasons I volunteer at hadit. Although volunteering here started out for me as revenge on V.A., it has become very gratifying for me to help veterans and their families here. Good luck in spending your money. Be careful in spending your award. I suggest you buy a house in a state with a disabled veteran property tax exemption and either low sales tax or no sales tax. Our family bought a small economical motor home as our first purchase after my husband won and we searched through 5 states for a house we could buy on my husband's award. I suggest you consider moving to somewhere where you can live on a fixed income.

By the way, this post is part of the legacy of Jesse Brown, the former Secretary of Veteran's Affairs. When he was part of DAV he taught my husband's service officer at DAV how to do combined ratings and that service officer taught me. It is a talent I've kept hidden for along time because it's confusing and time consuming.

Edited July 22, 2009 by deltaj

[jsdwd]

After all of the crazy crap that the VA idiots wrote about me in the 80's, today I got service connection for Briquet's Syndrome at 30.

Back to 1984 when I first filed.

It pays to keep claims continuously active.

Last year they admitted that fibromyalgia and Briquet's are separate conditions and have to be rated separately according to the criteria for each.

I wonder if 10+10+30+30+70 comes out higher than 80?

I think I'll sleep better tonight.

sledge

Congratulations!

I admire your patience and tenacity.