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welcome to another episode of cck Live my name is Alex Gamache and today I'm joined with my
colleague Brandon paiva in this video we're going to be discussing how to increase your
VA benefits if your rating is too low to begin with why veterans might want a higher rating the
answer is simple a higher disability rating means a greater amount of monthly benefits
under circum under certain circumstances VA may increase a veteran's disability
rating in light of new evidence that their condition has deteriorated or gotten worse
veterans may also file a claim for an increased rating if they believe that their condition
has worsened since they were initially granted their original disability rating
however if your symptoms match the reading that you were given you might not have a strong case
for receiving an increase rating now there are many different ways veterans can go
about getting an increase rating so Brandon did you want to get into how veterans can do this
sure thing thanks Alex so VA may increase your rating in certain circumstances however
veterans themselves also have a few options when seeking a higher disability rating these
options can include filing an appeal within va's deadlines filing a new claim for an increased
rating filing for tdiu otherwise known as a total disability rating based on individual
offer secondary service connection to decrease in your VA disability rating now let's break these
down a little bit let's talk about filing an appeal if you think that disability rating that
VA had assigned you is too low or the effective date is incorrect you have three review options
to choose from under the appeals modernization Act three review options are the higher level review
Lane the supplemental claim Lane and the notice of disagreement claim now we're going to break those
down a little bit more detail as well so talking about the higher review Lane by choosing this
Lane veterans are requesting that the regional office otherwise known as the ro we're basically
requesting that they issue another decision based on a higher level of review in this higher level
review Lane veterans are not allowed to submit additional evidence in support of their claims
the RL will then issue a new decision based on the same evidence of record that was available at
the time of the prior decision basically a higher level Raider is going to render a decision if you
choose that higher level review Lane but as we had stated you cannot submit new evidence but you are
free to submit arguments in support of your high level review appeal Now sort of different than
the higher level review Lane is the supplemental claim Lane now in this supplemental claim Lane
this does allow you to submit new and relevant evidence in support of your appeal this is the
only Lane in which VA has the duty to assist the veterans in gathering evidence to support their
claims importantly in this Lane veterans will maintain the same effective dates for the claims
when submitting new and relevant evidence if the supplemental claim is submitted within one year of
the Ro's initial decision so make sure you look at that decision letter that you had received to make
sure that if you believe that the supplemental claim plan is going to be your option make sure
that you're still within that one year window to file your appeal with new and relevant evidence
and now last but not least talking about the notice of disagreement Lane this Lane otherwise
known as the nod Lane veterans can appeal their cases directly to the board of veterans appeals
following an unfavorable decision from the regional office again typically within that
one year window from va's notification of that decision here in this notice the disagreement Lane
where we're going to the board of veterans appeals you're able to skip sort of that second level
review at the regional office level and take your case essentially to the board of veterans appeals
so those are kind of the different options you can use to potentially appeal your case if you believe
that your rating is is too low awesome thanks Brandon it's good for veterans to kind of know
these different Lanes so when they're ready to appeal the decision they can pick the best option
based on the evidence of record or the evidence that needs to be submitted with their claim
um the next way to get an increase rating is just by filing a new claim in general
um the disability rating VA assigns its initial rating decision might be satisfactory at the
time but what happens later on if that rating is no longer sufficient or the
veteran thinks their condition has gotten worse a veteran can go ahead and just file
a new claim for benefits this would be a situation where the veteran is outside that
one-year appeal window to file an appeal with any of the lanes that Brandon had talked about
generally veterans submitting a claim for increased disability compensation would
use VA form 21-526ez which is the application for disability compensation and related compensation
benefits although the form can be submitted on its own a veteran can also submit any new and relevant
evidence they have supporting that the condition has worsened an example of new and relevant
evidence may include a medical opinion explaining how that condition has worsened over time
um we do have a blog post about new and relevant evidence so feel free to check
that out if you're interested in what new and relevant evidence actually is
lastly it's also important to note that filing a claim for a higher rating can also lead VA to
schedule VA examinations to assess the severity of the condition it's important that veterans
go to these exams because failure to attend might result in a denial for increased ratings
the next way to kind of get an increase rating is filing for tdiu although tdiu is not a specific
condition that you can get an increase rating for tdiu is a benefit that allows veterans to receive
disability compensation equal to the 100 rating even if their combined disability rating does not
meet the scheduler 100 percent basically veterans who are unable to obtain or maintain substantially
gainful employment because of their service connected conditions may be entitled to tdiu
and more information on tdiu again we have another blog post so feel free to check that out
one of the last ways we'll discuss today on how to get an increase rating is filing for
secondary service connection Brandon did you want to get into this benefit and why filing
for it may be beneficial for veterans absolutely so we're gonna provide a little bit information
about the increase rating for secondary service connection but we do have a number of blog posts
and a number of other videos that strictly go over secondary service connections we
would strongly advise you know kind of take a look at that stuff if you're looking for more
information about filing a claim for secondary service connection but generally speaking you
can file a new claim for a secondary service connected disability so technically this is not
an increased rating for an initial disability but it can still result in increased compensation for
you an example of a secondary service connection claim would be if the pain medication that veteran
takes for their service connected back condition causes gastrointestinal issues the veteran may be
compensated for the gastrointestinal issues but even though the gastrointestinal issues are not
directly related to service they are directly related to your service connected disability
and because of that service connect disability you have to take medication for it and that
medication causes sort of those intestinal problems you can file a claim for secondary
service connection for those gastrointestinal issues but like I had said If you're looking
for more information about filing for secondary service connection take a look at our other blog
posts in our other videos where you can get some more detailed information on how to file for these
or maybe even the process involved in initially starting your secondary service connecting plate
thanks Brandon so to kind of wrap up the topic of increase readings when you ask VA to take another
look at your disability rating VA will view your entire claims file meaning it doesn't only
look at just evidence that's supporting your claim they also may look at evidence that is
negative towards your claim if you feel that if you or the VA feels your condition has actually
improved or that the initial assigned rating you received is correct VA might not increase
your rating but in Reverse if VA does find that your condition has improved or the evidence is
negatives against your claim VA does have a right to decrease your disability rating
so before filing a claim or appealing an increased reading it's important to do your
research and confirm that the evidence of record is actually supportive for your increased rating
speaking with your doctor or attorney about how realistic your request is and making sure you
have the evidence to back up your claim can be helpful an accredited representative can
help you ensure that you're submitting the strongest claim or appeal that's possible
to learn more about increasing your VA rating and the types of different claims and appeals
you can file to accomplish this please check out our other videos also be sure to like
this video And subscribe to our channel to stay updated thank you for watching foreign
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