tdiu A Question On My Eed........am I Imagining Things

[LarryJ]

Timeline:

08/25/06

"This is an informal claim for bi-polar disorder or major depression steming from my left ankle service-connected arthritis, pain, unemployablity, left knee and right hip pain and arthritis."

04/10/07

Granted service-connection for depression @ 70%.

08/18/08

Granted TDIU, retro to 04/10/07, the date of grant of service connection for depression. Paid retro back to 04/10/07.

My question(s):

Shouldn't the retro pay for TDIU be back to 08/25/06, the date that I FILED for Major Depression, and not the date that I was GRANTED service-connection for MDD?

And, shouldn't my TDIU be dated the same.......meaning the Chap 35 benefits should be "back-dated" to 08/25/06?

[LarryJ]

Larry...

Yep..I agree you are entitled to an EED and should go for it. Leave your hat on at the hearing, and use it as evidence you are depressed. (Aw cmon..its been a while since I said anything about the 'copter) Do also consider this:

You may be another victim of shredded evidence.

Why did the VA not consider your evidence of an EED? One possible reason is that they shredded that evidence. Yes, if you are afraid of the VA cheating you, you are not paranoid..you are well-read and educated.

Dont forget to file a "Special Handling Request" (SHR) before NOV. 1. Cite that your evidence was not considered or else you would have been awarded benefits effective in 2006, so it must have been shredded or mishandled by the VA. Cite regulation. VA HATES SHR's...but has to act on them..if they dont, complain to the VAOIG. I finally got put to the top of the pile by filing a SHR..and by complaining to the VAOIG that my SHR was shredded also! They now know the VAOIG is following my claim, and they desperately want to make that problem (that is, me) go away.

DeltaJ, I don't know about all this CFR this and CFR that. Is there something in there that I am missing?

I'm a little "off key" right now, going through an "adjustment" of medication and my head feels like it is a block of stone (yeah, I guess you might say I'm "hard-headed" also).

All I know and all I can remember is as I originally stated. I don't know when the exams took place (without going back thru my stack of VA sh*t, which I don't have the mentality for at this time) but obviously they did take place, for I was granted my claim(s).

I hand-carried my NOD as to the Earlier Effective Date to the VARO in Waco, instead of relying on my VSO to "take care of it". Yup, I drove the 100+ miles, handed them the NOD, got a copy with the date they received it, drove the 100+ miles back home. I HAD to do that, just so I could relax. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, for yourself. Remember that, all those of you that tend to depend on these VSO's, or that tend to depend upon the VARO's as actually "receiving" something that you sent to them (it's easier for them to "spoiliate" your correspondence than it is for them to take care of business).

I just received a letter from them, acknowledging the fact that they DID receive my NOD, and wishing to know whether I did want a DRO review or a "traditional appeal". I, of course, chose the DRO review (it seems that Waco VARO does respond pretty well to DRO's). It should be a pretty cut-and-dried decision. All the dates and all the paperwork are as I originally stated and I sent them copies (just in case they........well, you know, SPOILIATED, anything!).

Edited August 28, 2009 by LarryJ

[john999]

Larry

Sometimes if you send in a new piece of evidence for the VA to review after an intial denial they will use the new evidence to give you that effective date. I think that is cheating, but maybe others know better. If your claim was made on a certain date and approved two years later your effective date should be the date the claim was filed.

[LarryJ]

Larry

Sometimes if you send in a new piece of evidence for the VA to review after an intial denial they will use the new evidence to give you that effective date. I think that is cheating, but maybe others know better. If your claim was made on a certain date and approved two years later your effective date should be the date the claim was filed.

Nope, didn't send in any new evidence.

When I filed, originally, my informal claim, and then, a couple months later I filed my formal claim, it was for:

08/25/06

"This is an informal claim for bi-polar disorder or major depression steming from my left ankle service-connected arthritis, pain, unemployablity, left knee and right hip pain and arthritis."

My FORMAL claim better pointed out what I was originally claiming in my INFORMAL claim, i.e.

1. major depression

2. chronic pain syndrome

3. TDIU

4. left knee arthritis/pain (due to anthalgic gait connected to my service-connected disability)

5. right hip arthritis/pain ( " )

but, no "new" evidence.

I hold that my TDIU should have been granted back to the same date of my award for MDD, the disability that gained me enough percentage disability to ALLOW for a TDIU rating.

Edited August 28, 2009 by LarryJ

[john999]

I agree as long as VA knew you were unemmployed and you had evidence of major depression. I think your ED should go back to the date you filed your claim.

[LarryJ]

I agree as long as VA knew you were unemmployed and you had evidence of major depression. I think your ED should go back to the date you filed your claim.

Yup, they knew I was unemployed. They had 4 copies (one of which I finally got them to admit that they had) of my SSA award, from 2003........for the same disability as my original service-connected VA disability. I guess that the original THREE copies that had been sent to them, over a period of 5 years, were "spoiliated" (gosh but I do love that word).

[deltaj]

DeltaJ, I don't know about all this CFR this and CFR that. Is there something in there that I am missing?

I'm a little "off key" right now, going through an "adjustment" of medication and my head feels like it is a block of stone (yeah, I guess you might say I'm "hard-headed" also).

All I know and all I can remember is as I originally stated. I don't know when the exams took place (without going back thru my stack of VA sh*t, which I don't have the mentality for at this time) but obviously they did take place, for I was granted my claim(s).

I hand-carried my NOD as to the Earlier Effective Date to the VARO in Waco, instead of relying on my VSO to "take care of it". Yup, I drove the 100+ miles, handed them the NOD, got a copy with the date they received it, drove the 100+ miles back home. I HAD to do that, just so I could relax. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, for yourself. Remember that, all those of you that tend to depend on these VSO's, or that tend to depend upon the VARO's as actually "receiving" something that you sent to them (it's easier for them to "spoiliate" your correspondence than it is for them to take care of business).

I just received a letter from them, acknowledging the fact that they DID receive my NOD, and wishing to know whether I did want a DRO review or a "traditional appeal". I, of course, chose the DRO review (it seems that Waco VARO does respond pretty well to DRO's). It should be a pretty cut-and-dried decision. All the dates and all the paperwork are as I originally stated and I sent them copies (just in case they........well, you know, SPOILIATED, anything!).

CFR is an abbreviation for code of federal regulations. Please go to the website and look up Title 38 Code of Federal Regulations part 3 subpart 400 which is 38 CFR 3.400