ptsd Help From The Senior Members Please...

[Plinky]

Hello,

I am a long time reader of this forum, first time poster. I filled a claim for PTSD a year ago this month and just saw that today my claim was completed. I was awarded 50% SC. I have not yet received the BBE detailing everything, just saw the basic info on ebenefits.

I plan to file an appeal. My question is this; I have read many times on this forum that if you are receiving SSDI for PTSD then the VA is supposed to acknowlegde that and take that into consideration when determining your disabalilty level. I am currently receiving SSDI soley for PTSD and both the IMO and VA C&P Examiner marked the 70% criteria: Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood. I also filed an application for IU with my original claim. I know they lowballed me on purpose so they wouldn't have to grant me the 100%.

Can someone please point me to the regulation that states if you are receiving SSDI then the VA should award 100%?

This will give me some ammo when I file my appeal.

This is my first claim ever so I am trying to do everything right the first time so as not to get caught up in a never ending battle.

Any help would be appreciated.

Carlie and Berta your info on this forum in invalubale. Thanks for all the great advice. It has helped me to keep my sanity over the last year.

[Mikemmlj]

Did they acknowledge your SSDI approval in the decision?

[carlie]

I filled a claim for PTSD a year ago this month and just saw that today my claim was completed.

I was awarded 50% SC. I have not yet received the BBE detailing everything, just saw the basic info on ebenefits.

I plan to file an appeal.

Pinky,

Personally I would not even allow my mind to consider an appeal for right now.

There is really no way to formulate your appeal prior to receipt of the actual decision.

You can actually allow yourself to first appreciate SC being granted with a compensable

evaluation. This itself is a huge success and you deserve to wallow with delight for

a little bit .

After the decision arrives and you read it over about 20 different times and acquire

a full understanding - then it might be time for appeal.

Enjoy the now for a bit if you can.

[Plinky]

Carlie - Yes, I plan to enjoy my current victory. Didn't mean to make it sound like I was filing an appeal RIGHT NOW. Have to get my ducks in a row first and like you also stated I do not have the BBE just yet. I am just thinking and preping for the future.

I am very happy that I accomplished what I did since I submitted the claim and did all the research myself. I did not use a VSO. The info on this forum helped me so much.

[FormerMember]

.

I find it disturbing to offer any Veteran advice in a total vacuum of knowledge. Legally (and morally), it's a Bozo No-No. The VA legal process is already a minefield. Add in bent brain syndrome and it allows the imagination to run amuck with endless possibilities all predicated on a very limited understanding of the award. Best to follow Carlie's advice. Take a vacation from it and bask in the sure glow of your success. You'll have 365 sunrises and sunsets to contemplate your navel and discuss it here. Congratulations on a battle well fought, sir. Although it wasn't mentioned, if you have additional ratings that bring your total up to 70% or more, you are still eligible for a TDIU rating. VA quite often defers this decisional process to assemble more data. Rarely do they throw in the towel without cutting down a few more trees for more paper to discuss it on. One thing you can bet on in this process is the guarantee of a low ball rating initially

clear prop.

[Berta]

"I have not yet received the BBE detailing everything, just saw the basic info on ebenefits."

That will tell us more as to how they handled the SSDI award.

The Key wording in M21-1MR is that, if the VA knows of a SSDI award solely for a SC disability, they must obtain the SSA records, and CONSIDER TDIU or 100%.

CONSIDER.... if they do not Consider the SSDI award and in your case it appears to be highly probative evidence, then they have committed a CUE.

But also the SSA can award a vet for PTSD that might have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with their military service.

I just mailed this to a former advocate member here who has a very difficult situation with a vet's claim

"Section D. Claims for Service Connection for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

M21-1MR Part IV Subpart II Chapter 1,Section D, under 13 D:"

The Under 13 part isnt relevant to you and I am sure this M21-1MR link and others I posted here in the past hold the key to your question.Just google the other part M21-1MR Part IV Subpart II Chapter 1,Section D,

Claims are a war of the words, but without seeing the actual words from VA, we are sort of pissing in the wind.

[Berta]

This will help too:

•

"When the VA has been put on notice that the veteran is in receipt of Social Security

Administration (SSA) disability benefits, it is obligated to obtain any relevant SSA

records, because SSA benefits, which are also based on a determination by SSA that the

veteran is unemployable, are

“

relevant to the determination of [the] appellants ability to

secure a substantially gainful occupation

under 38 C.F.R.

§

4.16