Rating Question

[Johhny_Drama]

I have a question on a rating question and how it would work backpay wise if you are awarded for a long overdue SC disability.

I have 2 disabilities that are considered service connected however 1 is rated at 0 and the other I am trying to obtain an increase on. At the time of appeal I was at 40 percent total rating. I am now at 70 percent however I plan on appealing the 2 again and this time I have several medical records including completed DMQs from the doctor and I pretty much followed what the BME was telling me. I was lacking enough information in order to get awarded so I made sure to do that that all said. Now as I plan on appealing and the total time is around 2 years or 2.5 years how will this all work? Basically IF they decided to finally rate me for the 2 or increase both disabilities would this go back to when I originally appealed? before I appealed? what rating will they look at? I am 70 now but was only rated 40 when it started (actually 20) but yea that is where i am confused. I heard they would treat this as the rating i had when i started this appeal and they would backpay from the 2 years or however many years. I just wanted  to know if anyone else has been in this situation.

 

Thank you all
!

[vetquest]

There are several considerations.  If the VA did it the way we would appreciate your rating would be backdated to your appeal date, or your original filing date.  The VA has a way around this though, they can claim that your condition rated the new rating as of your last C&P.  This is how they put us over a barrel and we need to appeal an EED.  I am currently doing this on an SMC claim.

I know you would like to plan this but we just need to wait for the BBE before we know.

[broncovet]

Many of us have been in that situation.  We cant tell without reading your file when your effective date will be.  

Your effective date is the later of "the date you applied" or the facts found, which is the date the doc said you became disabled.  There are some special considerations for an increase.  

Effective date rules are complex; they are below, and you can read your file and determine what your effective date is:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/5110#

[Buck52]

Most importantly  you need to file the EED Appeal as soon as you know Your EED!!

If you get a low ball rating with it....I would go by when I first filed...of course unless you have medical records from a qualified Dr stating when your condition/disability 1st arose ?

  ESPECIALLY if that date is the latter Date. then go by that date    if you have medical records as evidence to support this  use the 1st arose Date.

Don't let them horn-snaggle ya. and do not let your Appeal run out..so watch that too!

[Johhny_Drama]

I am confused on the EED date? Ok so my appeal went through RAMP process and the appeal items were from when I got out. They were considered service connected and just either low rating and 1 was a 0 rating. When I appealed, my overall rating was a 40 percent. So from the time I appealed it was around 16 -20 months of appeal and then RAMP process and denial. The denial came back September of this year or so. Since then I had claim that took a total of 4 months and was awarded and my rating is now 70.

I plan on submitting my new evidence as I had my doctor complete a DMQ that pretty much checks off all of the boxes from what the BBE was stating that I lacked and now I have that. I was told ( even though we are told several different things) that they would go back to when i first appealed/or filed for increase on the items. Even though my rating is 70, they would go back to what the rating was back then.

 

So based off the replies, do I just appeal with my new evidence? Do i need to submit additional docs ? I don't even know the term EED?

[vetquest]

EED is earlier effective date.  If you believe you were not given the correct effective date you can appeal this with more evidence.  If you have more evidence that is great or you can just appeal and hope the BVA decides that your EED claim is valid with the evidence available.

[Johhny_Drama]

1 hour ago, vetquest said:

EED is earlier effective date.  If you believe you were not given the correct effective date you can appeal this with more evidence.  If you have more evidence that is great or you can just appeal and hope the BVA decides that your EED claim is valid with the evidence available.

I would hope think that they would go back to the dates that I filled since that would be the effective date.. I mean if you file something now and it takes 3 years then they should see that this is 3 years old and go from there. I will have to work this with my VSO to insure I do all this right. I plan on filing a appeal in the next 3 weeks and attaching all of the updated records and DMQ from the doctor. Just guess this will be a wait and see thing but again, it would not make sense not going back to when I have started this journey especially if i haven't missed the year timeline on appeal etc.