Appeal Remanded, How Is Back Pay Calculated

[brokensoldier244th]

Is retro based only on total percentage NOW? I had a claim close last week, that bumped me to 90%. (actual percentage is 85.something%) The remanded claim is for radiculopathy in the lleft extremity. Im currently rated 10% in the right leg for this. Based on the notes, etc, im figuring 10%, maybe 20% tops for the left leg.

My appeal was from 4 years ago, when I was only 50% overall. If I'm rated for moderate radiculopathy in the left leg, bilateral, back that far, would there be retro involved?

Is it only based on if it increases my current rating of 90% overall now or do they go back to what I was rated then at the appealed claim started (7/21/2010) and start figuring forward?

[Vync]

The combined rating is what matters. If you win new/increase claims, you would only get retro if your recalculated combined ratings increase to the next 10%. Yes, they do round up. 85.something% rounds up to 90%. The SC calculators are great, but I like to double-check against the chart/table.

If you went from 50% in 2010 to 80% or 90% now, the retro you would receive could buy a lot of pizzas. The award letter I received said I would receive retro, but never actually calculated how much I would get. They just listed the %, date range, and designated monthly amount. I had to do the math and double-check for myself.

Retro is based on the difference between the amount you actually received vs. what you would have received back to the effective date for the appropriate combined rating %. It is adjusted for +/- changes from month to month in combined rating %, COLA, dependents, SMC, etc...

These are just pretend dollar amounts: If your new rate is $1800/month at 90%, but previously received $900/month at 40% for a previous given month, they would pay you the difference of $900 of retro for that month. If the rating was solid 40% back to the effective date, $900 x 48 months = $32,400. Remember, pretend dollar amounts here because I am pretty tired. If you check your bank account and see a magical deposit from Uncle Sammy, you know what it was.

[brokensoldier244th]

Thanks Vync. That clears it up. So, if I go back far enough to where my depression wasn't rated at all, yet, I was at a point where a 10 or 20% rating change would have made a difference (I know this because I had had something rated at 10%, it bumped me up, then it was taken away at a later point due to CUE). I would then calculate this forward probably to where my depression was first rated because at that point a 10% or 20% change would not have changed the overall rating.

Basically you answered my question, but I wanted to confirm because I was looking at my total now and saying "well, 10 or 20% now would not change anything."