tdiu Need Advice Weird Va Status

[dav_marine72]

Hi Everyone,

I'm preparing for the house to fall down and I want to be ready to fire back ASAP if needed. Long story short. I have 12 service connections. I am 94.3 on the schedule as of right now (90%). I was awarded TDIU back to July 2009 in 2010. I was drinking heavily, taking opiates and benzos because I was unable to go back to work after a L3-S1 fusion gone wrong. I was able to start working from home in July 2011.

Please don't preach. I was in a bad place and thought going back to work would get my head straight. I worked from July 2011 to January 2014. My performance at work started going downhill quick in January of 2013. Mentally and physically I never should have gone back to work. So I was given a bad review in June 2013, written up in November 2013, and fired in January 2014. Mind you I was receiving SSDI (2009-2011) and notified them I was working. I did the trial work program from July 2011 to July 2012. Then my SSDI stopped.

I had VA lawyers because my case was at the U.S. Court for 4 increases back to 2000. I never received a form from the VA about reporting income until July 2013. My lawyer advised against telling them because she believed I would get 100% on the schedule back before TDIU in 2009. I sent the income form in soon after receiving it. I was making well over the minimum $$$$. Just before I was fired in January I received a notice from the VA stating they never received my income form and were proposing a reduction. I re-submitted the form and by then had been fired and began receiving SSDI again because I was still under their probation period. My then lawyers said they asked for a hearing for my reduction. Soon after this my primary lawyer got into a car accident and was indisposed. My secondary attorney took the case over and was not well informed and dropped the ball in my opinion. So based on that and my primary lawyer being unavailable I asked for them to let me go and all claims to my back pay. They obliged. Sorry for the long story but I feel the background was needed.

I never received a letter for a hearing on my proposed reduction. Mind you since my TDIU decision my remand from the USCAVC came back to the RO and they bumped up my lower extremity rating from 10% combined to 40% for my right leg, 20% for my left and granted P&T. So now I have a status of my reduction being in the rating phase. Mind you I never had the hearing. To complicate matters further I filed for two new service connections in April (Last month) and I'm being told a decision was made and is in the mail (28 days later). I have since gone from 300MG + a day of OXY to subuxone. I am in all kinds of mental health programs and groups now. I'm freaking out about the possible reduction and loss of P&T as that is my family's only insurance now that I can't work. Not sure if I should be asking for TDIU again? Can they reduce without a hearing? I still have 7 issues on appeal from the remand between the BVA and USCAVC and they are supposedly at the RO.

Edited May 22, 2014 by dav_marine72

[dav_marine72]

Thank you Berta.