Myth of VA benefits maximum at 100%

[broncovet]

I hear it over and over, especially by VA employees and VSO's:  Once you get to 100%, that is the max and you can not get any higher.  It maxes out about $3000.00 per month.

False.  VA benefits can go over $8000 per month, tho, of course, this is for a very sick Vet.  Here are the compensation tables showing Vets can get more than 8000 per month.

 

With Children, SMC-N 1/2 through SMC-S

Dependent Status	N 1/2	O/P	R.1	R.2/T	S
Veteran with Spouse and One Child	$5,088.77	$5,356.37	$7,533.40	$8,599.72	$3,534.44
Veteran with One Child	$4,916.39	$5,183.99	$7,361.02	$8,427.34	$3,362.06
Veteran with Spouse, One Parent and One Child	$5,218.83	$5,486.43	$7,663.46	$8,729.78	$3664.50
Veteran with Spouse, Two Parents and One Child	$5,348.89	$5,616.49	$7,793.52	$8,859.84	$3,794.56
Veteran with One Parent and One Child	$5,046.45	$5,314.05	$7,491.08	$8,557.40	$3,492.12
Veteran with Two Parents and One Child	$5,348.89	$5,616.49	$7,793.52	$8,859.84	$3,794.56
Add for Each Additional Child Under Age 18. See footnote	$80.52	$80.52	$80.52	$80.52	$80.52
Each Additional Schoolchild Over Age 18. See footnote (a)	$260.13	$260.13	$260.13	$260.13	$260.13
Additional A/A spouse. See footnote (b)	$148.64	$148.64	$148.64	$148.64	$148.64

 

[brokensoldier244th]

The information is all right there- for a regular disabled vet, with no extenuating circumstances, the max is 100% and about 3000. All the SMC's etc are for specific exceptions that cover only a few cases. They have the basics of your file in front of them, and if you have a rep or do rudimentary research all of this information is plainly available- right on their website, even. They aren't hiding anything from anyone. All you have to do is ask or look. Sometimes I think a few vets take "duty to assist" to mean something to the effect of the whole claim is handled stem to stern with a completely hands off attitude and then onward to better pastures. 

Its no different than keeping up with whatever is in your 201 file, and looking at the promotion grade table. You want it, you have to do a little for it, too. To me this post is just stirring up resentment that doesn't need to be there. Its the same as not checking the sale papers before you go to the grocery. If you didn't know pork and beans are on sale who's fault is it when the store puts the information out there? 

 

[Buck52]

The only thing most veterans filing claims now are under age 50  not that age matters  but just saying unless the veteran is in very bad shape from head to toe  this is why they have these ratings.

Example  I am 64 and 100% with SMC -S H.B  With just my spouse as dependent.

Statutory ratings I meet the criteria for SMC S 1  based on the 100% original disability and a 70%r rating for second S.C. Disability.

Some times the VA don't catch this ''statutory ''rating   but the veteran him self can and NOD  the decision at the proper time and quote the CFR'S back to them about the SMC's Criteria and rate accordingly to the SMC Special rates table.

At age 50 I filed  my first claims, However If I filed  when I  started having these problems or had I known I could   I would meet the 20 year rule by now.

Hine sights 20/20

Anyway

I could qualify for an additional 50% rating for sleep apa...and  get that rating  but no more $$$ in it the only reason I would have to file for it is to get it S.C.  for DIC for the Spouse if that ended up getting me.

or get it to increase my rating % in-case a proposal to reduce

Ok thats all I can get  unless I lose a foot or arm, leg  and then its  Based on each limb that you lose and then it would need to put you bed ridden to qualify for more SMC $$  Especialty to the Max

Asknod as a good example of this on his blog as Mr Potato Head Drawing break down as the veteran begins  to come up with different  S.C contentions/disability's 

Edited September 15, 2016 by Buck52

[broncovet]

What is a "regular" disabled Vet?  One with PTSD?  Hearing loss?  An Amputee?  A Quadrapelegic? 100%?  0%? SMC R/2?   Each Veterans medical condition is unique to him or her.  Maybe it helps you to call us "regular" disabled or "unleaded" disabled, but squeezing all Vets into a 100 percent box, telling them that 100% is the max, does not help.  

We dont have a bunch of other Veterans medical records to compare ourselves to, and I dont particularly like you doing that either.   Im not sure I want to compare my self to other Vets, whether they are regular, unleaded, or high octane.  

[yellowrose]

I'm SUPPOSED to be eligible for SMC-K, but they are being shits about it.   Loss, or loss of use, of reproductive organ or function. They cannot get it through their thick skulls that PUDENDAL NEUROPATHY, and the fact that the only drug they knew how to prescribe back in the early 90s was Tegretol which causes shortened limbs in a lot of fetuses when a woman is treated with that drug, caused me to be told to not have children. I have a very renowned Anesthesiologist who wrote, on University Hospital letterhead, a letter to this effect and then I have two Social Worker Adoption Home Studies where we went to build a family through an alternative path that wrote the reason adoption was being sought was the same thing.  VA continuously ignores them.

THEN, there are two different causes that I have for Sexual Dysfunction. I have Female Sexual Arousal Disorder. One should have been presumptive s/c just based on where my 34 years of chronic pain stems from: a fracture in the deepest part of my pelvis which damaged the pudendal nerve. Men have those nerves, too, but I don't know how to describe what the impact of pudendal neuropathy would be. For me, the urethra, all the way up the left side of the vaginal canal and  the left side of the cervix can flare up and make me feel like my crotch is on fire. It is s/c in my VA records. 0% for a number of years (that's tolerable to me) and then 10% a few years ago.  That obviously impacts a woman's body from being able to function sexually, but I keep losing the claim battle for that, for lack of them being able to see it in my treatment records--- to me, it's common sense.

The other cause of my Female Sexual Arousal Disorder is more newly approved by Regulations:  sexual abuse. I am 70% compensated for a PTSD -personal trauma through Section 1151 because a VA physician therapeutically deceived, exploited, molested, raped, and then stalked me for seven months across State lines. A true nutcase. He was in Texas' Impaired Provider Program on his suspended, but stay of suspension medical license for a few years stemming from my reporting him, until the VA allowed him to retire with flying colors!! and he went to the other side of the city and got hired at a different hospital and was observed by a colleague drugging and exploiting a different female patient, and with the knowledge that he'd been hired on that suspended license, turned around and reported him again. This time it resulted in a revocation of license and surrender of FDA prescribing privileges for life.  It was supposed to be a 5 year suspension, but he got caught only 14 months after he signed the Agreed Order for what he did to me.  Again, the VA will not log me in as "sexual dysfunction."   I saw

"0% ED/Sexual Dysfunction"

in your prior post on this topic.

Here is the bulletin information about the recent allowance of sexual assault being known to cause sexual dysfunction being compensable:  http://www.federalregister.com/Browse/Document/usa/na/fr/2015/2/27/2015-03851?search=Veterans%2BAffairs#84965044

Again, I think it is "common sense", but I suppose I'm going to keep losing until I get the psych people to put more complaints from me in my PCRS file?    "The 'mental disorders' we diagnose are no more than descriptions of what clinicians observe people do or say,— Statement of Allen Frances, Psychiatrist and former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman,  2015" " Unlike the rest of medicine, mental disorders are arrived at by a political, not medical process."     " While DSM has been described as a ‘Bible’ for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary…. The weakness is its lack of validity. — Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health "    " There are no objective tests in psychiatry-no X-ray, laboratory, or exam finding that says definitively that someone does or does not have a mental disorder. There is no definition of a mental disorder. It’s bull—. I mean, you just can’t define it.” — Allen Frances, Psychiatrist and former DSM-IV Task Force Chairman"   All of these quotes are from http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-disorders/psychiatristsphysicians-on-lack-of-any-medicalscientific-tests/  

So, I see your "0% ED/Sexual Dysfunction" but need your help in understanding if my Female Sexual Arousal Disorder is part of my building blocks for the SMC-K compensation?   And since you didn't include K in your chart, how much is it these days?

Thank you,

Julia

 

S

Quote

 

0% ED/Sexual Dysfunction

The information is all right there- for a regular disabled vet, with no extenuating circumstances, the max is 100% and about 3000. All the SMC's etc are for specific exceptions that cover only a few cases. They have the basics of your file in front of them, and if you have a rep or do rudimentary research all of this information is plainly available- right on their website, even. They aren't hiding anything from anyone. All you have to do is ask or look. Sometimes I think a few vets take "duty to assist" to mean something to the effect of the whole claim is handled stem to stern with a completely hands off attitude and then onward to better pastures. 

Its no different than keeping up with whatever is in your 201 file, and looking at the promotion grade table. You want it, you have to do a little for it, too. To me this post is just stirring up resentment that doesn't need to be there. Its the same as not checking the sale papers before you go to the grocery. If you didn't know pork and beans are on sale who's fault is it when the store puts the information out there? 

 

 

[broncovet]

Julia

   SMC K, is about $100 per month, I did not include the entire SMC chart, just enough to show that VA benefits maxing at 100% (about 3000 per month) is a myth.

There will be no COLA for 2016 so the rates are the same as last year.

SMC	Rate	Payment variation
K	$103.23	Usually added to other rate or paid as the rate when percentage is zero.
Q	$67	Paid in place of a rate.

 

    If you have been denied SMC K, within the past year, I recommend you file a NOD, citing what you posted.  

     If, however, VA never adjuticated SMC K, then you should file, and ask for an effective date way, way back.  Many times the vA simply ignores SMC K and SMC other stuff, too.  

[lotzaspotz]

Most of the disagreements we have had with VARO denials have either been granted at the Board or remanded numerous times by the Board or the CAVC, so we live to fight another day.  My point is you must appeal IF you have the evidence or can get additional evidence to back you up.  

The other thing is that at least in the case of SMC(s) (to my understanding), that award is supposed to be implied, in other words, you shouldn't have to prod the VA to give it to you.  However, the truth is many vets do, in fact, ask the VA for it proactively.  So, don't wait for the VA to figure out that your ratings line up under statutory authority for SMC(s), or you may be waiting a long time.