Collecting unemployment while applying for tdiu

[Newdisabledvet]

My unemployment compensation runs out in April. I am applying for tdiu. I am unable to find work because i failed a fitness for duty and was terminated. This has all been reported to the VA. 

Will collecting unemployment hurt my chances of tdiu? I have been ruled unable to work or unemployable by my doctors. This was also submitted to the VA.  i have to make ends meet i have continued to collect this money while going thru the process of applying for tdiu. 

[Newdisabledvet]

My unemployment has lapsed. 

[Lemuel]

Hang in there.  I received a April 14 decision granting me TDIU back to September 16, 1985 on a 1987 claim for extra-schedular TDIU that hadn't been developed and found by the BVA Judge which she remanded in my 2017 BVA decision.  Looking at it as forced savings.  Enough to buy a duplex rental property for cash.  My bid was accepted now hoping the check will get here by closing in June.  Will upgrade it with some of the money and hope to receive a little extra income over my TDIU for the rest of my life.  One unit rented.

[Buck52]

Click this link  it explains all about TDIU

(Total Disability Individual  Unemployability )

https://www.benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/serviceconnected/IU.pdf

[Lemuel]

2 hours ago, Buck52 said:

Click this link  it explains all about TDIU

(Total Disability Individual  Unemployability )

https://www.benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/factsheets/serviceconnected/IU.pdf

The link doesn't give the full story or I would only have TDIU back to July of 2009.  I applied for "extra-schedular" TDIU in 1987 and the application was ignored by the RO and never developed under 38 CFR 3.321 and 4.16 (b).  Dated under 3.400.

It is unclear to me, but appears that even if I had applied for extra-schedular in 2009 it would still have been taken back to the day after my last day of full time employment.  The reason I say that is the claim was dated October of 1987.  The award went back to the day after my last day of full time employment 2 years earlier and is dated 35 years after the fact by the date of the decision.

I'm attaching the process after the BVA found and remanded the "unadjudicated claim" on May 11, 2017.  I'm just waiting for the check now.

I also have an unadjudicated appeal of a 1992 Appeal for temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) that may take my seizures back to 1974 because they were claimed since the September of 1990 confirmation after EEGs from 1985 "with or without seizures" and 1969 nursing notes in Oakland Naval Hospital where I was hospitalized with my TBI that showed probable complex partial seizures as confirmed in 1990.  Though I was unconscious during the seizures and didn't become in any way aware until 1985 when I mentioned a freaky lost time incident to my wife.  She stated I had episodes of "staring at the wall" ever since she knew me.  We were married in 1972, 2.5 years before I got out of the Navy.  I'm reaching under 38 CFR 4.42 for an unadjudicated claim of "residuals" of related body systems.  No TBI follow-up was done by the Navy or the VA because a neurologist wasn't available on Guam at the time I was discharged from the Navy and continued to stay on Guam.  That may also come under 3.321.

I was finally correctly treated for TLE in 2015 and I am now more employable than I was in 1985.  I could probably keep that last job up now.  There is a condition called anosognosia which a lot of TBI victims, including myself, have.  We are just not aware that we are not functioning as well as we were before the TBI.  Especially if we have TLE residuals from the TBI. 

If anyone reading this has had a TBI and are not understanding why their world has changed with their performance no longer being accepted as well as it was before the TBI, they should ask for a TLE workup.  Best way would probably be to put in a claim for TLE residuals of their TBI or cerebral malaria.  The EEGs are pretty determinative with the 11/16/2010 Brain Study on TLE.  But will need some people who knew you before and after to give a statement about the difference to carry it back if it is not in the presumptive period.  Prior to the late 1980s the Neurologist knew it was possible but they weren't sure because the presentation of TLE is like being drifty, inattentive, absent minded, etc. that is not easily recognized in a short Doctor's office meeting.  It is the thing Moms or wives drag their husband to the VA and say "he is not right, not the same as before."  Vague symptoms, that as a Navy corpsman 60 years ago, I was dubious about.  Not dubious any more after walking that mile in those shoes for almost 46 years.

20200406 - Admin Decision_Redacted.pdf 20200408 - TDIU Review - Admin Opinion_Redacted.pdf 20200416 Narrative - TDIU Decision_Redacted.pdf

[Buck52]

Well the Link I put up is for the criteria and elgiblity for the IU  &Not early effective dates  that's a different subject matter.

for EED  (Early Effective Dates) check this link out

https://cck-law.com/veterans-law/earlier-va-effective-date-of-disability/

If you have succeeded with your IU  EED  congratulations to you.

you put up a good fight with them.  and way to go.

[Lemuel]

4 hours ago, Buck52 said:

Well the Link I put up is for the criteria and elgiblity for the IU  &Not early effective dates  that's a different subject matter.

for EED  (Early Effective Dates) check this link out

https://cck-law.com/veterans-law/earlier-va-effective-date-of-disability/

If you have succeeded with your IU  EED  congratulations to you.

you put up a good fight with them.  and way to go.

The criteria for IU is not being able to do substantially gainful employment.  The presumptive IU is 70% combined with one at least 40% or a 60% single rating.  If you don't meet the presumptive standards you can still apply which I did.  I didn't meet the presumptive standard because my TLE was diagnosed as "pseudo seizures" until 2015 except for the 1990 confirmation.  Difficult to get an attorney to take a non presumptive IU claim or one without significant back pay if it looks at all difficult.  It doesn't take much to do a presumptive claim other than writing out the claim and appealing to the BVA if necessary usually.  Wasn't the case with me on either the presumptive side or the extra-schedular side.

The two most common EED are not mentioned.  Unadjudicated claims and unadjudicated appeals.  Before I finish this I'll look for an attorney post I saw that covers these two. The unadjudicated claim is my 1987 claim which was never developed just laid in the file like one you responded to.  https://hadit.com/unadjudicated-claims-eed/  The unadjudicated appeal is my substantive appeal response to the SOC in 1994 on a 1992 appeal.  The 1987 claim is finished with this decision.  It was only for TDIU.  Probably the reason it got missed is because I put in for an increase at the same time and the clerk had me do the TDIU on a separate 21-4138.

I found this one that only mentions claims.  https://ptsdlawyers.com/veterans-disability-benefits/va-retroactive-disability-back-pay/  I previously received a link to one by email from a law firm that mentioned both claims and substantive appeals.  Seems to me that a 38 CFR 4.42 non compliant injury or condition additionally affected body system was not examined would also be an unadjudicated claim if "residuals of" were claimed as insisted by the 1974 DAV rep that filled out my first claim.

The substantive appeal was a stated response to the SOC.  But was not labeled as a substantive appeal.  But there are plenty of precedence at the BVA to get it reopened for the date of the claims because it was a timely response to the SOC.

What I don't know is how seizures are dealt with.  Seizures have to be "observed or confirmed."  Mine were confirmed. Usually they are observed in telemetry (video taped EEG over 5-21 days.).  TLE often doesn't show in telemetry because you are confined to a bed with a camera on you.  Physical exercise and sleep deprivation do not always precipitate a seizure.  Mental stress is usually the precipitating factor for TLE.  Since you have to wait for confirmation before laymen statements can be considered it would seem to me the date would go back to the first observed.  The first observed for me is by a corpsman in the TBI nursing notes.  The first observed for someone who had p. falciparum malaria would also be in the inpatient notes.  But preferably by the DR. in the Progress Notes.  If you have a grand mall seizure the Dr. would be called.  But partial or complex partial might be completely over before the Dr. would get there.  My TBI was during the Vietnam War.  The staff was overworked so the Drs. didn't always make notes of such observations by the medics.  Problem with TLE is the seizures are subtle and only noticed by others as such if they know what they are seeing.  The absent minded professor kind of thing.  Acting off.  We see it a lot in intoxication and alcoholics develop it a lot.  When we see it that way, we say, "You were so off." and the person doesn't usually remember it.  We just accept it as they were  drunk.

I abstained from alcohol from 1971 until I chose wine for my cholesterol medicine in 2001.  My confirmation of seizures was in 1990 and observed by my wife and friends all those years in between in addition to the nursing notes.  There is even a witness in the SSA CAVES report that got me SSDI from a job that I was fired from in 1984. So if the employer knew what they were seeing they would probably have told me to see a Dr. for it before I was aware of it in 1985.  Probably also true for earlier job terminations. 

What looks like procrastination needs to be looked at closer.  What is the person doing?  What happens when you interrupt the not working state?  Are they an employee that immediately turns to when the supervisor appears or do they seem to not care and seem off when interrupted.  Slow to come around to the situation at hand.