Hey veterans.
Back here, still doing my series of videos on the schedular requirements for TDIU and
some errors that VA may make in your case if you are pursuing these types of benefits.
Now, if you recall, to qualify for VA TDIU benefits, unemployability benefits, you must
have one disability rated at 60% or greater or a combined rating of 70% or more with one
of those at 40% or more by itself.
Now that one disability by itself, that gets a little bit tricky and that's what I'm here
talking to you about in this video and the others along these same lines.
There's five scenarios where VA actually must combine ratings together and consider multiple
disabilities as one disability for that 60% test or that 40% test.
We've already talked about when disabilities are from a common disease or from one disease
like Parkinson's with many different symptoms that are rated individually.
We've also talked about when you have ratings on your extremities, your arms, your legs,
and how those can be combined together.
And now, what I want to talk to you about is when you have multiple rated disabilities
from one accident in service, and if you have multiple disabilities originating from the
same single accident then all of those are considered as one for TDIU purposes for that
60% or 40% test.
So let me give you an example, let's say there was a service member who was involved in a
horrific vehicle accident, and as a result of that was rated at 50% for PTSD and also
in that same accident the vehicle actually caught fire and that service member sustained
permanent burn injuries to his or her body.
So if he has a 50% PTSD rating and a 10% burn rating, and those are the only ratings he
would have then VA may just look at that and say, "Well, you don't meet the 60% test there,
or the 70-40 test because again, you have one at 50, you've got one at 10, you don't
have a single one at 60, you don't have a combined 70 with one at 40."
But if VA were to deny you on that basis, you should appeal that, and here's why: That
50% and 10% would combine together to be 60%, and that 60% comes from one single accident.
Yes, they're totally distinct disabilities; one is physical in nature, one is psychiatric
in nature, but because they arose from the same single vehicular accident then VA, per
its own regulations, must treat those as one disability.
And if VA says you don't meet the schedular requirements and you have that type of situation,
then you need to appeal that and I think you will in fact win that case.
So again, look at the nature of those disabilities and where they arose from.
If it was one particular event, then again, they should be counted as one thing.
If you have any questions on that, reach out to us.
You can find us on our website, winyourvetclaim.com, you can get a free consultation there, you
can find other articles on this topic, other TDIU topics, other disability compensation
topics in general and again, check out our other videos.
If you're pursuing VA TDIU benefits, I'm going to talk about some other scenarios that may
apply as well to you, to where those ratings should be combined and considered as one disability.
So check those out here, coming out soon.
Thanks and have a good one.