Special Monthly Compensation At The Statutory Housebound Rate

[Philip Rogers]

WAC-Vet75 - I've never discussed my ratings w/them and, in fact, only found out about 6 months ago, I had all those ratings, when my attorney sent me a copy of the decision he'd received, which included the "blue sheet." I had always had ratings of 100%, 20% & 10% and found out on the "blue sheet" that I now had ratings of 100%, 100%, 20%, 10%, 10%, 10% & 10%, which was attached to an ED "k" award, retroactive 10yrs. They never notified me of my PN award, nor my hypertension award. The PN award was August 2010 and the hypertension award was 2002, I think. When I saw I had the added 60%, I immediately notified them that they failed to award the SMC "s" award, which they denied, quoting the combined ratings table, and sent the claim back to the BVA.

pr

[WAC-Vet75]

I would like to see where VA has inferred a potential right to SMC "S" for any 100% mentally disabled vet. Do they discuss in anyone's claim here that they considered "S" for 100% vet?

They didn't infer a potential to SMC for 100%TDIUs..... I am sure there are many who meet the requirement, yet aren't receiving SMC(s)! I have known many 100% mentally disabled Vets that ARE housebound... but never even heard of SMC.

[john999]

WAC

I never heard of TDIU until I posted on Hadit. No VSO or the VA ever discussed any of this with me and I have been SC for 40 years. Never have I heard a VA employee utter the word SMC. I think they are told to never volunteer any information a vet might use to get compensation. Big secret.

[sgmdae]

Thank you for all the comments,

I was told that the bilateral for my ankles would be combined in the rating forSMC (s)

So, if that not true, maybe that the reason they didn't award it

95% of all posts say that I'm elgible, hope there right

I'm told its in the Development stage,

that doesn't make sense, what do they have to develop,

all the rating are in my system

it seems to me, they should says opps, we missed this, lets award this and retro back to the effective date

what are they developing????

[WAC-Vet75]

I was told that the bilateral for my ankles would be combined in the rating forSMC (s)

So, if that not true, maybe that the reason they didn't award it

95% of all posts say that I'm elgible, hope there right

I'm told its in the Development stage,

that doesn't make sense, what do they have to develop,

all the rating are in my system

it seems to me, they should says opps, we missed this, lets award this and retro back to the effective date

what are they developing????

If, the VA added up, as oppose to using the combined rating evaluation, then they would not use the bilateral factor. Since they are apparently using the combined rating evaluation, they have to use the bilateral factor.

What are they developing? Veteran FRUSTRATION, of course!

[WAC-Vet75]

WAC

I never heard of TDIU until I posted on Hadit. No VSO or the VA ever discussed any of this with me and I have been SC for 40 years. Never have I heard a VA employee utter the word SMC. I think they are told to never volunteer any information a vet might use to get compensation. Big secret.

I've yet to hear a VSO or VA employee tell me about SMC either.... I learned about A&A when I was searching the internet seeing if there was any help I could get, due to my limitations from s-c disabilities. I've paid, out of pocket, for caregivers, since 2008. Couldn't afford trained ones, so I hired people that I knew to help me. During my search, I ran across military.com (I believe), and read about A&A. Since then, I started really reading over the laws/regulations, and all the BVA and CAVC cases I could find.

I was shocked to find out that the VA was using the combined evaluation rating, for ratings over 100%. I remember reading (decades ago) that a Veteran could not be paid in excess of 100%. With the language of 3.350, and knowing the highest disability rating a Veteran can get is 100%, you can imagine the shock finding out that they actually were combining the ratings for Special Monthly Compensation! So, you are paid for being 100%, then the SMC is the way of compensating a Veteran for additional injuries/diseases/conditions that causes a loss of quality of life, since you can not be more than 100% disabled, according to the basic rating schedule.

For SMC (L) the rate is $654.00, regardless of marriage, or number of dependents, whereas marriage, and number of dependents does matter for your basic rating! So, once you reach 100%, you are paid at the highest basic rate allowable by law. Why should they continue to combine the rating, other than to cheat Veterans out of SMC, that Congress intended them to have!