tdiu Work And Tdiu

[scythis]

Hi everyone :)

 

I'll get to the point with my question. My monthly income is now $2673 + SSDI. If I try to work part-time, will my VA income will be halved to $1228 or less? If my working didn't pan out, it would be a personal financial credit meltdown, with other fallout...that is a lot of money.

 

I currently receive 70% SC with payment at TDIU for severe depression. I was awarded 70% SC and was convinced that if I could work again, it would be far, far in the future. So, I filed for TDIU with the DAV and got it, several years ago - after a long battle. My depression and anxiety got much worse lately, before and after I dropped out of school due to anxiety. I want to try to work since I don't think that this lifestyle is for me but I haven't worked in over six years (as the resume gaps widen) and feel like if I fail, I'll get nailed. I'm really not sure if I can stay at home with horrible social anxiety every day like this and I can't go back to school for another year. VA therapy is going to take several months (optimistically) before I can restart it at my new VAMC. I've decided that I need to treat myself (I'm 33) by working toward getting a real job, but its a damned scary thought gambling over $12,000 a year. Is it set up to be a giant gamble or do I just lack information?

 

It may not sound like it, but I'm grateful, VERY grateful and I realize a lot of vets want or need TDIU and it has helped me in ways I know and in others that I can't even identify. However, am I the only grateful one that feels mired in it, now that I have it? Would the VA really cut a vet's income by over half just for trying to work with no offer of a 'probationary' or 'trial' work period to the veteran?

Edited January 15, 2016 by scythis

[Philip Rogers]

Close but I always say please and thank you! I am sometimes curtious to a fault, but that's before I shoot them. ;-)

pr

Yea right - I can just see you as a door greeter at Wally World.

Here's a clear description for the viewing audience.

As a customer walks in the door . . .

pr shoves a cart at the them and says

If that baby you're carrying pees or Shitz in the cart - you'd better clean and disinfect it

on the double . . .

Now get your azz in there - spend a bundle - then get the he77 out of here

put my cart back where it goes and don't throw your cigarette butt down in my parking lot !

[scythis]

Thanks for the great replies, about that one-year window that the VA gives, where can I get some documentation on that to protect myself?

[dav_marine72]

Hey great posts,

I am in a similar situation myself. I was awarded TDIU and SS in 2009-10. I became a drunk and was smoking two packs a day. I am a social butterfly and need not only the purpose of working but the social interaction. Thanks to a spinal stimulator, Fentyal patches, and Ativan I have been working for 11 months now. I did the ticket to work with SS and they just stopped paying me for that. The VA will be next. Luckily I am 90% and have some major screw-up appeals which should eventually put me at 100% schedular.

I am actually surprised the VA has not contacted me yet. I know they will at some point. The good part about SS is you get a five year probation period where if you can't work they start paying you from day 1. They do their normal disability investigation but as long as you have a doc stating you can't work they are supposed to award the benefits back. I'm in IT Security so the money was worth going back not to mention getting benefits for my wife and kids. I was in a really bad place staying home. I felt like I was letting my family down. I can't tell you how good it feels to work again despite being in severe pain with occasional daily panic attacks. I guess they will never take the Marine out of me.

Here is reference to the 12 months of work reg:

About 4-years ago, a Veteran was referred to me for assistance. He had been rated at 70% for many years but then eventually was “awarded” 100% TDIU which he had been collecting for a couple of years. He showed me a letter from the VA saying that records they received from the IRS and Social Security Administration reflected that the Veteran had been working for about 4-months during the period he applied for a “Total Disability Rating”, and therefore, the VA was going to revoke his 100% TDIU and return him to 70% service-connected compensation, unless he could site a legal reason why the VA should not. So I researched 38 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) and 38 USCS (United States Code Service) and found the legal reason why the VA could not revoke his “Total Disability Rating.”

The legal reason why the VA could not revoke his “Total Disability Rating”

lies in 38 USCS Section 1163, of which I paraphrase as follows: “The disability rating of a Veteran who begins to engage in a substantial gainful occupation after January 31, 1985, may not be reduced on the basis of the Veteran having secured and followed a substantially gainful occupation unless the Veteran maintains such an occupation for 12 consecutive months.

UNITED STATES CODE SERVICE (USCS)

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS (CFR)

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/cfr/

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/04/24/the-differences-between-being-%E2%80%9Crated%E2%80%9D-at-100-and-being-%E2%80%9Cassigned%E2%80%9D-100-tdiu/