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Hi and welcome to another edition of CCK Live
Today we're going to be discussing how to get the highest rating for your PTSD so the highest possible rating for post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is 100 a 100 rating means that a veteran's symptoms are so severe that they are
totally impaired and unable to function in their daily life the Department of Veterans Affairs uses
the general rating formula for mental disorders or 38 CFR 4.130 to rate all service-connected
mental health conditions including PTSD with the exception of Eating Disorders VA assigns
PTSD either a 0 10 30 50 70 or 100 disability rating now these ratings are based on the level
of Social and occupational impairment as well as the frequency duration and severity of symptoms
to qualify for the highest rating veterans must meet va's criteria for a 100 rating by showing
total occupational and social impairment due to such symptoms as gross impairment in thought
processes or communication persistent delusions or hallucinations grossly inappropriate behavior
persistent danger of hurting self or others an intermittent inability to perform activities of
daily living including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene disorientation to time or
place and memory loss for close names of close relatives own occupation or your own name now
symptoms listed in this rating criteria and in our video are not exhaustive they are meant instead to
serve as a general framework for the type and degree of symptoms a veteran may experience
if your PTSD presents in a different way you can still qualify for a 100 disability rating for PTSD
in general if you believe that your VA rating for PTSD is too low or if your symptoms have worsened
since the initial rating decision that granted you service connection for PTSD you can request
an increased rating in a few different ways so first if you're within the deadline for a rating
decision that addressed uh that adjudicated the rating for your PTSD you can if you can file an
appeal of that decision seeking an increase rating as long as you do so within the deadline to appeal
that decision which is typically going to be one year if you're not within the deadline for
a decision that addressed your PTSD you can also file a new claim of seeking an increase rating for
the PTSD and lastly if you believe that your PTSD itself is appropriately rated you can still file
a claim seeking secondary service connection if you have symptoms or conditions resulting
from the PTSD that isn't contemplated by the reading criteria for PTSD that Matt discussed
so for example you can develop sleep apnea hypertension gerd irritable irritable bowel
bowel syndrome migraines erectile dysfunction and many other conditions secondary to PTSD and
if you do have a condition that you believe is due to PTSD you can file a claim seeking service
connection for that condition which could help increase your overall combined rating
so we're going to go over three helpful tips for getting a high VA rating for your PTSD the first
tip we're gonna go over is highlighting specific symptoms so if you're looking for 100 for your
PTSD or looking for an increase rating for your PTSD in general you should show that you are
experiencing symptoms at the severity of va's 100 rating criteria while you don't need to show every
symptom in order to qualify for the 100 rating criteria or even for a 70 or a 50 you can point
to the relevant symptoms that you're experiencing and how they negatively affect your daily life
you can do this through a late statement or even providing VA with some additional medical evidence
the second tip we're going to provide is using lay statements as mentioned before veterans can use
lay statements to directly attest to symptoms that they experience on a regular basis how severe the
symptoms are and how they may hinder your ability to function in Social and occupational settings
statements from friends family or co-workers who are familiar with your situation can also
help to indicate the severity of your symptoms and also provide VA with a
clearer disability picture for what exactly you're experiencing because of your PTSD
and the last tip we're going to go over is preparing for your compensation and pension exam
whether you're requesting an increase rating for your PTSD or you're being evaluated for
your initial disability rating VA often and more frequently uses compensation and pension
exams to help determine your disability rating veterans should be honest and forthcoming about
how their PTSD affects their everyday life in order to ensure that they are going to receive
the most accurate rating if and when they do get granted service connection for that condition
this is essential to attend all scheduled compensation and pension examinations as VA may
use the failure to report to a CMP exam to deny your claim if you're unable to attend one of these
CMP exams we would advise that you inform VA as soon as possible to hopefully get this rescheduled
now sometimes a scheduler 100 rating for tdiu can be difficult to obtain now tdiu or total
disability based on individual unemployability is another Avenue to secure the highest rating
for PTSD if your PTSD impairs your ability to work you may be eligible for this benefit
tdiu is a VA benefit that pays veterans at the 100 rate if their service connected
conditions prevent them from securing and maintaining substantially gainful employment
tdiu offers compensation at the 100 rating level without needing a scheduler 100 combined rating
in order to qualify your PTSD must be rated at 60 or higher on its own or you must have a combined
rating of 70 or higher and at least one of those disabilities must be rated at 40 percent or higher
if you do not meet the eligibility requirements listed above but you cannot work due to your PTSD
you may still qualify for tdiu on an extra scheduler basis employment records and or
lay statements can be helpful to prove your unemployability due to your PTSD
so that's the that concludes our video for today if you're interested in learning more
about service connection and readings through PTSD you can check out our
extensive video on PTSD ratings which we'll link to and be sure to like the
video and subscribe for more veteran related content in the future thank you for watching
thank you
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