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What Does "totally And Permanently Disabled" Mean?

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Destia22

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I first want to say Thank You for the creator of this website. It almost feels like we are a huge family. Now getting back to my question. I heard through the grape vine that in order to permanently keep your 100% without it being lowered you have to have it for 20 yrs. Is this correct? I was granted 100% for PTSD/MST and 30% for Trigeminal Neuralgia back in Jan 2013. While I was reading my paper work it stated the I was totally and permanently disabled. Does this mean that I do not have to worry about it being down graded to a lower percentage? It also states that I am unemployable. Someone at DAV told me that they had never seen a person being 100% totally and permanent disable and also unemployable at the same time. Anyway if someone could just please tell me how the totally and permanently disabled works I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Caroline

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  • HadIt.com Elder

It means the VA has no future exams scheduled for you, and that you are entitled to Chapter 35 benefits. You can't be 100% scheduler and TDIU at the same time.

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§3.951 Preservation of disability ratings.

(a) A readjustment to the Schedule for Rating Disabilities shall not be grounds for reduction of a disability rating in effect on the date of the readjustment unless medical evidence establishes that the disability to be evaluated has actually improved.

(Authority: 38 U.S.C. 1155)

(b) A disability which has been continuously rated at or above any evaluation of disability for 20 or more years for compensation purposes under laws administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs will not be reduced to less than such evaluation except upon a showing that such rating was based on fraud. Likewise, a rating of permanent total disability for pension purposes which has been in force for 20 or more years will not be reduced except upon a showing that the rating was based on fraud. The 20-year period will be computed from the effective date of the evaluation to the effective date of reduction of evaluation.

(Authority: 38 U.S.C. 110)

[34 FR 11970, July 16, 1969, as amended at 57 FR 10426, Mar. 26, 1992]

§4.15 Total disability ratings.

The ability to overcome the handicap of disability varies widely among individuals. The rating, however, is based primarily upon the average impairment in earning capacity, that is, upon the economic or industrial handicap which must be overcome and not from individual success in overcoming it. However, full consideration must be given to unusual physical or mental effects in individual cases, to peculiar effects of occupational activities, to defects in physical or mental endowment preventing the usual amount of success in overcoming the handicap of disability and to the effect of combinations of disability. Total disability will be considered to exist when there is present any impairment of mind or body which is sufficient to render it impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation; Provided, That permanent total disability shall be taken to exist when the impairment is reasonably certain to continue throughout the life of the disabled person. The following will be considered to be permanent total disability: the permanent loss of the use of both hands, or of both feet, or of one hand and one foot, or of the sight of both eyes, or becoming permanently helpless or permanently bedridden. Other total disability ratings are scheduled in the various bodily systems of this schedule.

A veteran can be 100% Schedular or 100% Schedular P % T or 100% TDIU or 100% TDIU P & T they all pay the same but they cannot overlap. The P % T is for CH 35, Champ VA, Military ID Card and other benefits

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Once you have been service connected for 10 years the VA cannot sever your SC. They could reduce it, but not sever it except for fraud. I mean real fraud and not some invention by the VA.

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Once you have been service connected for 10 years the VA cannot sever your SC. They could reduce it, but not sever it except for fraud. I mean real fraud and not some invention by the VA.

Yes, John you are correct as usual, VA has changed the look of CFR 38 that it is hard to find anything now. A veteran ( meaning me) have to keep reading over what I found since my PC crashed.

3.957 Service connection.

Service connection for any disability or death granted or continued under title 38 U.S.C., which has been in effect for 10 or more years will not be severed except upon a showing that the original grant was based on fraud or it is clearly shown from military records that the person concerned did not have the requisite service or character of discharge. The 10-year period will be computed from the effective date of the Department of Veterans Affairs finding of service connection to the effective date of the rating decision severing service connection, after compliance with §3.105(d). The protection afforded in this section extends to claims for dependency and indemnity compensation or death compensation.

3.344 Stabilization of disability evaluations.

(a) Examination reports indicating improvement. Rating agencies will handle cases affected by change of medical findings or diagnosis, so as to produce the greatest degree of stability of disability evaluations consistent with the laws and Department of Veterans Affairs regulations governing disability compensation and pension. It is essential that the entire record of examinations and the medical-industrial history be reviewed to ascertain whether the recent examination is full and complete, including all special examinations indicated as a result of general examination and the entire case history. This applies to treatment of intercurrent diseases and exacerbations, including hospital reports, bedside examinations, examinations by designated physicians, and examinations in the absence of, or without taking full advantage of, laboratory facilities and the cooperation of specialists in related lines. Examinations less full and complete than those on which payments were authorized or continued will not be used as a basis of reduction. Ratings on account of diseases subject to temporary or episodic improvement, e.g., manic depressive or other psychotic reaction, epilepsy, psychoneurotic reaction, arteriosclerotic heart disease, bronchial asthma, gastric or duodenal ulcer, many skin diseases, etc., will not be reduced on any one examination, except in those instances where all the evidence of record clearly warrants the conclusion that sustained improvement has been demonstrated. Ratings on account of diseases which become comparatively symptom free (findings absent) after prolonged rest, e.g. residuals of phlebitis, arteriosclerotic heart disease, etc., will not be reduced on examinations reflecting the results of bed rest. Moreover, though material improvement in the physical or mental condition is clearly reflected the rating agency will consider whether the evidence makes it reasonably certain that the improvement will be maintained under the ordinary conditions of life. When syphilis of the central nervous system or alcoholic deterioration is diagnosed following a long prior history of psychosis, psychoneurosis, epilepsy, or the like, it is rarely possible to exclude persistence, in masked form, of the preceding innocently acquired manifestations. Rating boards encountering a change of diagnosis will exercise caution in the determination as to whether a change in diagnosis represents no more than a progression of an earlier diagnosis, an error in prior diagnosis or possibly a disease entity independent of the service-connected disability. When the new diagnosis reflects mental deficiency or personality disorder only, the possibility of only temporary remission of a super-imposed psychiatric disease will be borne in mind.

(b) Doubtful cases. If doubt remains, after according due consideration to all the evidence developed by the several items discussed in paragraph (a) of this section, the rating agency will continue the rating in effect, citing the former diagnosis with the new diagnosis in parentheses, and following the appropriate code there will be added the reference “Rating continued pending reexamination ___ months from this date, §3.344.” The rating agency will determine on the basis of the facts in each individual case whether 18, 24 or 30 months will be allowed to elapse before the reexamination will be made.

© Disabilities which are likely to improve. The provisions of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section apply to ratings which have continued for long periods at the same level (5 years or more). They do not apply to disabilities which have not become stabilized and are likely to improve. Reexaminations disclosing improvement, physical or mental, in these disabilities will warrant reduction in rating.

Edited by pete992
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I first want to say Thank You for the creator of this website. It almost feels like we are a huge family. Now getting back to my question. I heard through the grape vine that in order to permanently keep your 100% without it being lowered you have to have it for 20 yrs. Is this correct? I was granted 100% for PTSD/MST and 30% for Trigeminal Neuralgia back in Jan 2013. While I was reading my paper work it stated the I was totally and permanently disabled. Does this mean that I do not have to worry about it being down graded to a lower percentage? It also states that I am unemployable. Someone at DAV told me that they had never seen a person being 100% totally and permanent disable and also unemployable at the same time. Anyway if someone could just please tell me how the totally and permanently disabled works I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Caroline

After 20 continuos years - absent fraud - the rating is protected from severance (10 yrs) and reduction (20 yrs).

Are you positive you were awarded 100% SC and not IU, compensated at the 100% rate ?

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