Help...

[Kadyrmacias]

How do you ask your va counselor to give u a letter that can help me get iu.

[rpowell01]

Is this legal under the FOIA?

[sambo808]

Very few VA doctors will write a letter but I have found that they are more willing to write a statement in your progress reports about your condition. Basically you really don't need a letter all you need is a statement from your treating doctor that you are unemployable due to your service connected conditions. They should give some type of medical rationale of why your conditions makes you unemployable and then you can file a claim.

Doc medical statement and progress reports are helpful evidence in support for a claim for Individual Unemployability, but Individual unemployability is not a medical determination it is a legal determination. Veteran may have a medical statement that he or she is unemployable due to IU, but all other evidence in the file must also conform with that statement, and if not VA rating board are legally bound to deny individual unemployability. There is a lot more to individual unemployability claim than a simple medical statement or progress notes. Veteran must legally and medically demonstrated that it is impossible for him to sustain or maintain gainful employment solely due to his service connected disability(ies), if there are other intercurrent condition in play (i.e. drug use, alcohol abuse, got hurt on the job, legal trouble, collecting workers comp, etc.) it gets harder and harder to overcome the threshold for IU.

[Guest]

Sambo,

Please read my statement again. If a treating VA doctor writes a statement that a veteran is unemployable due to his or her service connected disabilities and give a medical rationale, it would be very hard for the regional office to deny the claim for TDIU. A veteran can't be unemployable due to IU. He or she must be unemployable solely due to service connected disabilities. No VA or private doctor will write a statement if it is not true. Also I said a treating doctor, this is a doctor that has treated the veteran or a doctor that has reviewed the veterans medical history and then gives his or her medical opinion.

[sambo808]

Sambo,

Please read my statement again. If a treating VA doctor writes a statement that a veteran is unemployable due to his or her service connected disabilities and give a medical rationale, it would be very hard for the regional office to deny the claim for TDIU. A veteran can't be unemployable due to IU. He or she must be unemployable solely due to service connected disabilities. No VA or private doctor will write a statement if it is not true. Also I said a treating doctor, this is a doctor that has treated the veteran or a doctor that has reviewed the veterans medical history and then gives his or her medical opinion.

Pete, again doctor statement whether it came from a treating physician or counselor or during VA examination is a good evidence to include in the claim for IU, but as I stated ealier it is not the only determining factor. I guess, the cautionary statement that I want to emphasize is that we do not want to send the wrong message that - oh yeah just get a statement from your treating physician that you cannot work due to your service connected disabilities VA should grant you the individual unemployability. Entitlement to IU is never that simple I wish it is, but like I said earlier medical evidence is one thing but legal is another - and VA has a different and totally set of rules that must abide with when it comes to determining entitlement to individual unemployability.

[rpowell01]

pete992 you are correct but the RO will do what they want anyway. They don't get into trouble if they force you to take your case to the DRO or BVA level. That just delays everything and takes the red tape of the rater's hands. They are evil and I can't believe, a certain number of the raters are disabled vets themselves. How can they work like that and make such decisions is beyond me.

I had a "private" doctor write I was IU in his IMO, the regional office still denied it. So, its going to the DRO level like they wanted it to. Again, it takes the red tape off the rater's hands.

And, currently, they are rolling through these claims and making many CUE mistakes in many ways. They won't lose their jobs over it because as seen in the past they are doing what their supervisors are telling them.