TDIU- Food for thought

[FormerMember]

Here's a conversation starter (or not)... https://asknod.org/2017/06/14/tdiu-shulkins-new-albatross/

[john999]

If a 30 year old vet or a 70 year old  vet is unable to work and support themselves solely due to a SC disorder they should be 100% because the 100% rating is based mostly on the expected wages of non-disabled persons in the same settings.  I think that when disability ratings for enlisted were first developed it was based on what a enlisted guy who usually did not have a college education.  Officers who were mostly college graduates (ROTC) in WW11 get more if they are 100% than enlisted.  Why?   If a guy 30 years old is unable to work and must survive on this actual 70% plus SSDI he will be living in poverty and so will his family.  Call it IU or 100% a vet who can't work due to SC conditions should get 100% and probably twice as much as we get now.  If I had to live off just my VA compensation and SSA I would be hurting as it is, but fortunately I don't. Reagan did the same thing to those on SSDI back in the 80's when he kicked most off their benefits because he thought they were all frauds.  I guess there are those who think IU vets or retired military who get SSA or SSDI are frauds or double dipping.  If this proposed 2018 budget goes through then I will have to get my tired, 68 year old ass back into my fighting armor and go forth to do battle once more.  I thought I could just fade away but maybe not.

                         John

 

 

[Buck52]

Alex ,I apologize to you , I do understand what you meant....I just read your post the wrong way & I was  to hard on you buddy & no reason to be that way with you ..No Hard Feelings.

Actually your one of the very few that knows the VA up at the BVA with a Fine tooth Comb and I Respect your comments.

Again please accept my Apology.

Buck

[FormerMember]

Buck, one of my first and oldest laws of war was to ascertain the enemy before I pulled the trigger or announced "Misty 21 is cleared in hot on heading 272. Weapons are free, over". I would hate to see this site get the same reputation of Peggy's Pink Site and see a bunch of Vets arguing with each other. If I say something that even seems offensive to you, and this goes for all Hadit members, I would hope you would ask for clarification or illumination of my comments before sounding off. Hadit is one of the premiere sites for quality information with no slant to it. No one prejudges another here or, at least, should not do so. I now find myself able to represent any Vet who is eligible. I have to pick and choose because a hemorrhoid is not as lethal as IHD and a heart attack as I mentioned before above.

As for TDIU, it appears the subject is mute again (unfortunately). It needs resolution and Vets need more security in their ratings. Imagine some "undocumented visitor" from another country getting your SSN and using it illegally to hand to an employer. Bingo. VA gets a report you're working due to activity on you SSI earnings. You get pole-axed by VA on your TDIU until you get it cleared up. I want change and I see a lot of problems here. 

Not all of us are pure as the driven snow regarding VA claims. There are always a few who want a paycheck for life who haven't earned it or are not quite as disabled as they seem. As an agent, and even before over the last 25 years of this, I have encountered a few who carefully built up their ratings to get into that magic window of 70% combined with a 40% or better rating to qualify for TDIU. I helped them in spite of my misgivings but I find I can no longer do that now. These Vets give us a bad name. Fortunately, they are few and far between. I work closely with DROs and raters and they expect me to be a professional- even if they are not.

Please do not allow your emotions to rule you words. This site is valued by all for it's easy, helpful info with no "opinion" attached to it. You will notice I do not censor comments on asknod.org unless there are 4-letter expletives used. I consider it a family-oriented site just like Hadit. Our sites are designed to help Vets. If, in the process, we find VA has been unethical or disobeyed the law, I have no problem calling them out. However, I cannot in good conscience represent someone who claims to be totally disabled by a bad back who owns an off road dirt bike and rides in poker runs cross country every weekend. 

You and I share a sacred brotherhood of having served in Vietnam. There are 850,000 of us left and we're falling like flies. VSOs are little use to us and shunned us when we returned home. 99% of the reason I decided to become accredited was because of Vets like you and me. Nobody offered to help us when we came home. VFW turned down my application because Vietnam was a "conflict", not a war. Our friendship is more important than our differences ever will be. Remember that. 

 

Edited June 17, 2017 by asknod

[john999]

Alex

 

            You remember the old CCR song "Fortunate Son"?  When the cannons are pointed directly at you it does color your judgement. I also think that if you are too disabled to work you should be 100% scheduler and skip TDIU.  However, since I have been TDIU since 2001,  I could feel the heat coming off that proposed budget deal to cut my TDIU because I get SSA now that I am 67.5 years old. If VA used normal math I would be 190% disabled.    I get your point about a vet claiming he is totally disabled and then able to ride a dirt bike every weekend.  There are always those who will attempt to game the system.   There are only 850,000 RVN vets left and we will soon be as rare as buffalo past 2025 and beyond. I remember the VFW guy telling me I was just a crybaby because I was not in a real war like him a crusty old WW11 vet who hated me on site because my hair was too long.  We as a group of vets were&^%$$$ over beyond belief.  Who ever called RVN vets heroes? I knew vets I considered heroes.  They did not feel that way.

[Buck52]

Roger that Alex & John999

I hope they don't treat the young veterans like us Nam Vets was treated.

I'll never for get Nam and I'll never forget the way most of us were treated.

And I'll never forget the Nam Vets That never made it Back.

[Carl the Engineer]

Asknod,

I smell what your cooking, and like the conversation.  You sure write different than you sound on the Hadit audio shows.  LOL.

I would add one thing, and I think Buck has mentioned this before.  The gap between 90% and 100% disabled in pay.  Makes no sense to me.  And then all the add ons, etc.

When the difference between 70 and 80 percent is around $250 and the difference betweeen 90 and 100 is around $1200.  The differences between the 10 percentages should be the same or on a sliding scale.

A Veteran (like me) with arthritis in most if not all limbs, some heart issues and of course hearing, will nickel and dime (heard that by Asknod on the audio) themselves to maybe get a 90, but never a 100.  Just too hard to get to by 10% or 20% at a time.  As an example, I will need two bilateral 10's to get to 85 rounded up to 90.  After that I would need a 75% to get to 100.  Never going to happen.  All crippled up with no place to go, LOL.

When they made the VA schedule they must have borrowed the guy from the IRS who wrote the tax codes..

So, my thought would be to take the highest amount paid out to a current Veteran, lets just say with all the extras, $8500.00.  That should be 100%, and with simple math 10% would be $850.00.

And get rid of all the extras and IU, etc.  And make it more realistic.  As an example, and not picking on anyone, but 50% for sleep apnea, while appropriate, in my mind does not stack up as being half a person when applied to work.  My boss works full time, teaches school at night at the college and is a volunteer fire-fighter and has sleep apnea and uses a cpac, etc.

And screw the VA math BS.  Just fricken add.  So, in my world, you get less for each disability (like my exampe above), but it counts as a whole number.

Anyway, too simple, I know,

Hamslice