tdiu Unique 100% question

[johnsoncm]

I'm trying to find out something that I have seen no info for on any VA or VA related website:

 

I am at a normally combined disability rating of 90%, however I am being paid at the 100% rate for TDIU P&T.

 

I was rated TDIU about 4 years ago and the award was permanent and total.  Since then, retirement has been difficult since I'm only 37.  I miss work.  That having been said, about a year ago I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis and last Friday I found I have a bulging disk in my lower back, both of which are ratable under VA disability - they are however not currently rated since I didn't put in a claim, why bother, right? I'm gettin paid at 100% and my care is all taken care of.

 

However, if I were to apply to service connect these as secondary to my existing service connected back injury - the only reason for the new stuff is the damage done to how I walk, move, etc from the old stuff - then I could possibly be rated from 90% combined to 100% combined anyway and retain the Permanent and Total aspect.  The difference is, if they drop the TDIU off of my rating, I might be able to get a job again and easy my financial worries and get something of my old self back in the process.

 

Is it worth it?  Can I even do that?  Or would the VA find some way to thwart me here and I end up losing the money I get and the benefits for my kids?

 

My biggest fears are:

The VA will find some reason to mess with me, somehow, someway.
I'll open myself up to more scrutiny and all of a sudden I'll be getting all kinds of people trying to figure out how they can save Uncle Sam a few pennies by taking my benefits and decreasing them.
And honestly, what happens if I do get a job and can't hack it? I was in the emergency room too many times from the last job I had and I am frankly a little worried by that.

Will my kids still get their coverage? Will they even drop the TDIU? Or will they try to accuse me of fraud or some crap and try to sue or fine or imprison me? That may sound paranoid, but I've read some horror stories on this and other sites......        
 

[johnsoncm]

yeah, I'd heard that too, but I've also heard the horror stories of those that tried to go that way.  The regs state you can work at marginal employment - earning below the poverty limit for one person per year.  But I'm saying if I did get up to a combined rating of 100% with out it being extraschedular, then I don't need the IU.  I'd still get the 100% pay, the benefits, the health care for my boys.  And that way, if it turns out that I was majestically wrong and go down like a lead balloon again, then I wouldn't have to reapply for the 100% like I would if I just said "Take away the TDIU now" and went back down to 90%

[Buck52]

Well I have to eat crow on this? However I am still undecided to give out advise to a veteran with TDIU P & T rather or not he should go back to work???

  check out these conversations we had last week.

click on the link.

check out Broncovet & Gastone Post.

Edited October 19, 2016 by Buck52

[johnsoncm]

4 hours ago, Berta said:

Someone posted almost the same question here sometime ago...I went to your profile to see if it was from you and what we replied with...but I guess it was a post from someone else....

Do you get SSDI? You can get SSDI as well as TDIU at the same time, if you fit into the SSA criteria available at the VA web site.

I commend you for hoping you can return to work but unpaid volunteer work can be a blessing for anyone used to a work schedule.

We are all unpaid volunteers here, and I am a civilian but many,if not most of the men and women veterans  here have TDIU or 100% ratings.

"something to make myself feel like I have a purpose beyond playing Suzie Homemaker all day. "

Your purpose and worth is tremendous if you are taking care of the children all day......

And every one here who volunteers is 'working' at these claims questions far harder than many VSOs would be.

Stick with us and you might find there is plenty to do right here....

I personally do not think anyone with TDIU should try to get back into the workplace. It is not easy to get as it is and the P & T insures the family CHAMPVA and Chap 35 DEA. That is a lot to think about possibly losing.

Can you tell us what your rating are for?

 

 

I have applied for SSDI and was denied twice.  I now have a lawyer and we are going on a year plus.  I also applied for my state's disabled vet personal property tax exemption but that too is dragging on because someone misinterpreted the law.  Honestly that is one of the reasons I was considering going back to work.  I'm tired of all the fighting for what these people say I deserve.  It's like the old 'bait-and-switch'.  I make the requirements for SSDI based on their own, printed, regulations.  I make the requirements for the tax exemption.  But no matter what, someone is always trying to screw me out of this stuff.  And yes, eventually, I'm sure it will all be fixed, but that does nothing for me or my children in the mean time.  What good is it to say that it got fixed after 10 years, when that's 10 years of hardship?  My middle son is 11.  In 10 years he'll be 21 and out of the house, my youngest is 6 so he'd be 16 by the time it's all corrected.  What good does it say "yeah it took 10 years but I finally got it done" when those were 10 years of them not getting to do things, or as many clothes as I would have liked to get, or a more reliable car to go to games or school plays or dances, or Christmas and birthday gifts, or anything like that?  That's most of his childhood gone.  The government says they will take care of us, but we stay pretty much just this side of poverty, with our 'healthcare' being managed by overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and undereducated people who just want to farm out more pills on us.  So why wouldn't I work if I could?  Make the money the government is not willing to give me just to achieve a tolerable standard of living? And get rid of the social stigma that comes with my answer every time I get asked by some parent or another, "Oh, and what do you do for a living?"

As to my disabilities:

Generalized anxiety disorder with major depression - which comes with chronic insomnia and a memory like swiss cheese

PTSD (not service connected - ironically it came from my 15 marriage to my ex wife)

Severe Esophagitis

Hypertension

IBS

Chronic thoracic strain of the mid thoracic spine with minimal scoliosis

and now, though it's not service connected because I have not put in a claim:

Osteoarthritis in my hips and lower back

A bulging disk in my lower back

[jamescripps2]

First of all, the negative attitude will not earn you one dime and it is hard on your social and family life. Now, file the other claims and forget going back to work. if you are successful with the other claims you just might achieve the "S" award 100% TDIU + 60%. That would help the piggy bank more than a 100% P&T scheduler rating. Unless you just like the sound, the ring and bragging rights of that type of award.

Think about it. If you go back to work, you chance loosing the TDIU along with the chapter 35 benefits for the family. All that you are allowed to make and keep the TDIU is income that is not considered as gainful employment. Drawing compensation at the VA 100% rate is not peanuts and it is pretty good tax free income if you can manage to live within your means. Next, consider what insurance for those kids would cost you. If you go back to work, the cost of working in itself is not cheap, gas and automobile up keep in consideration of the increased mileage to work and back. Child care and education?

Tip, You say about 4 years. If you can wait until the fifth year is up to rock the VA boat it really makes it hard for the VA to decrease your compensation if you have been at the same rate for a continuous five year period. The burden of proof of substantial and sustained improvement would fall on the VA after the five year period is up.

Do you have any decisions that will become final where there is a substantial amount of back pay to be lost if you do wait until the five year period is up? That may enter into your decision and options.

Good luck. Thanks for your service and welcome home brother!

[johnsoncm]

I'll be totally honest here: I have no idea what the "s" award or SMC is.  My kids are the main reason I'm considering any of this really.

When I was married, things weren't good at all.  She was spending like crazy, even forged a couple of my checks - which double sucked because I worked for the bank that those checks were drawn from, so it could have gotten me fired too.  We were really poor for a long time, and it just got worse during the separation and divorce.  I don't want them to have to go through all that stuff again, you know?  I just bought a house, really banking on the state just following through with their tax exemption promise, and them trying to find a loophole to deny me.  My entire purpose right now is to better the lives of my kids, but with the bankruptcy my ex wife got us into, raising three kids on my own, making house and bill payments...yeah it's tax free but it's just not enough. It's just not, you know that as much as I do.  That's why I applied for SSDI.  You have to understand, it took me 10 + years to get here, and it's a huge step down from where I was as a bank manager and financial advisor, to selling plasma and pawning my possessions just to put food in my kids stomachs because the ex was not paying her rent or bills or buying food for the house when my boys were still living with her before I got custody.  The stress was so bad, I spent a semi "voluntary" week in Fayetteville in the ward upstairs, if you take my meaning.

If I worked again, I'd only be limited in what I can make by how good or how much I want to work...and yeah admittedly whether or not working would drop me again.  But if I have to sacrifice myself in order to give them the life they deserve, I've done it before and id do it a hundred times over.  I dig my attitude can be negative, but things have been rough, so please forgive me.

[johnsoncm]

As for any pending decisions, no. I have not put in for the arthritis or the bulging disk, but someone else said it might not be worth opening a "can of worms" for those to get service connected.  It might give the Va reason to decide that they remember how many times they tried to deny my benefits only to be embarrassed because I know where to find information that proved them wrong.