TDIU

[Combat eng]

My attorney just filed my appeal claim for TDIU. The vocational expert submitted a 15 page report. I have never thought that the report would be so detailed. How much weight does the VA give to such reports? I feel that it can't hurt.

[brokensoldier244th]

As much as any other, though if your original 8940 lacked that level of detail it won’t hurt. 

[broncovet]

The voc rehab report can be particulary important "along with" your doctor stmt.  Your doc can provide a nexus, that its at least as likely as not you are unable to maintain SGE due to sc conditions.  

However, your doc can not opine you cant do ANY job, just your present job.  He is not a voc rehab specialist, and the idea is the voc rehab assesment demonstrates you are not a good candidate for retraining in an alternate field.  

Ex.  You have bad knees and work in a warehouse.  Your doc says he cant lift over 10 pounds, but warehouse works requires frequent 50 plus pound lifting.  Your doc can opine that he is unable to do this, due to his sc knees.  

However, its possible you could be retrained as, say a computer programmer.  Not EVERYONE has the skills and background to become a programmer.  So your voc rehab may opine that, due to your lack of math background, having only finished the 8th grade, you are not a candidate for programmer.  

Interestly, VA sometimes requires this even with 70 percent PTSD.  While it makes no sense, if you cant get along well and have violent outbursts, retraining to another field is unlikely to change that.  Still, its "possible" you could be retrained at a job "where you dont work with others", but I have no idea, really what on earth a job is that you dont work with others.  

Still, there could be potential jobs where your exposure to other people is nearly nil, but I dont really have a good example of a any job, that a 70 percent PTSD with voilent outbursts could do.  It would not matter, VA still often denies tdiu because you dont have a voc rehab assessment, that is, a favorable one.  

Voc rehab assesments are often "seal a deal" to tdiu, especially on a remand, if a previous voc rehab was not done.  

I had a voc rehab assessment, doc opined I could not work and it still got denied.  The reason is this was a VA voc rehab when I was "in denial" that I could not work, and was seeking work.  An IMO, after a remand, from a NEW voc rehab specialist "sealed the deal" for me and I was awarded tdiu.  

I did not find any, but looked diligently for years...and got retraining.  I was pretty much too old for retraining.  Mostly, they rarely do that for folks over 50 or 55, as it rarely works out that well for 55 year olds to retrain.  

Social security has "special rules" that are lenient toward disability appllicants over 50 or 55, for some good reasons.  

This explains it somewhat:

Quote

Generally, at step five you would need to prove your condition prevents you from performing any other work in the national economy. However, the medical-vocational guidelines, or GRID rules, may apply to social security disability reviews after age 50. These rules are quite complicated, with multiple exceptions. The general concept is that if you are age 50 to 54 and found to have a sedentary RFC, with an inability to perform the work you have done in the past fifteen years, you will be found disabled. This effectively means you can be found eligible for disability benefits, even though there are jobs available to you at the sit-down level. As mentioned in the beginning, this is because the SSA has determined that once you hit the age of 50 it is too difficult to retrain you to perform a sit-down type of position. Keep in mind that if your past work was performed at the sit-down level, and you are found to be able to perform your past work, you will NOT be found disabled using the GRID rules. (If you find this confusing, that is ok.

Source: https://www.labovick.com/blog/social-security-disability-reviews-after-age-50/

This said, VA does not consider age, per se, but still, if a voc rehab specialist explains at your age 55, you are not a good candidate for retrianing, it may well suffice and win for you.  

Edited June 16, 2021 by broncovet

[Buck52]

9 hours ago, Combat eng said:

My attorney just filed my appeal claim for TDIU. The vocational expert submitted a 15 page report. I have never thought that the report would be so detailed. How much weight does the VA give to such reports? I feel that it can't hurt.

If its to long they may not even read it .... raters hate to read anyway & some of them can't read, 

A letter from the vocational expert  or voc rehab counselor  should not be 15 pages long,  only one page is enough just get to the point is all is needed, something like this veteran has been in the VR/P   program FOR **-*** months  and its been determined  it is not feasible to retrain this veteran at this time due to his service connected disability, that's about all you need from  voc-rehab counselor.

 Also what most veterans need is a Dr Opinion that  this veteran can't do any sendmetry work due to his s.c. disability

some times less is better.

There not suppose to use education and age against the veteran making a decision for IU  rather or not you have a Masters or like broncovet mention 8 th grade education!

I agree with what broncovet said,   but overkill will hurt you instead of helping you. (15 pages)   seems like overkill in my opinion.

TDIU is one of the hardest claims to win  but medical evidence and Dr's opinions in your favor will certainly help. even a letter from your x employer  explaining in detail why they had to let you go & lay statement from you detailing why you can't work or why anyone won't hire you  due to your s.c. disability ect,,,ect,,

[john999]

It does not hurt to have SSDI before you file for TDIU, but I would not wait for that.  Your shrink's report really is the deal maker or breaker for PTSD or any mental health issue.  Have you filed for SSDI?  Does your employer have a disability retirement system? If your VA shrink says your PTSD makes you unemployable then that would help a heap.  When I claimed TDIU I had SSDI and disability retirement in the bag.  That made is easier but the VA still resisted.  They will pick your iMO's and Voc Rehab reports to pieces if they can and turn them against you.

[Combat eng]

John999 ,I have SSDI and I was granted it because of my Service connected disability. When I applied for TDIU before I sent in a copy of my award letter, I don't know if they considered it, it wasn't mentioned in the evidence section.

[broncovet]

I agree with Buck.  15 pages IS too long.  It may work, however, if they say it all in the first paragraph, then use 14 1/2 pages of stuff to "prove" their point, that isnt needed.  

If you can read a page in 5 minutes, thats expecting the rating specialist to spend 1 hour 15 minutes doing nothing but reading the voc rehab report.  

If the rating specialist read all the medical stuff, too, then its much worse.  

My cfile is 1400 pages, and it has taken me about a year to read it.  If it were possible to read it in one setting, at 5 minutes per page that is 116 hours of reading my file.  Given that I have "other stuff to do" rather than read my file, the year or so it took me was probably about right.  

Of course, no one read my entire file.  Not the rating specialist, not the VSO, not my lawyer.  They had to skim or skip probably hundreds of pages.  

With software, it may be possible to search for things like "at least as likely as not", but its not suprising to me they dont spend 116 hours (that is at least 3-4 weeks, with reasonable breaks) reading my file.  

I know in college, or even high school, some students did not read the assigned reading, and some got the "cliffs notes" version instead.  

I also know that, in regard to the contents of the book, it was easy for me to tell who read the book and who read the cliff notes or nothing.  

In a similar way, I can just about say with certainty not a single person at VA ever read my entire file.  

Its also obvious to me many/if not most have never read the CFR's, either.  They may have read the "cliffs notes" version, at best.  

Its not that suprising that of VARO decision which reach the BVA, about 35 percent are awarded, and another 50 percent or so are remanded.  

That means VARO decisions have errors 80 to 90 percent of the time..which go against the Vet, and he must appeal it to be vindicated.