Today we're going to talk about how to get TDIU for PTSD in VA compensation claims.
My name is Zachary Evans, I work with Woods & Woods Attorneys.
I'm an attorney here and I represent veterans who are fighting against the VA for their
compensation benefits.
Now this discussion applies, not only to PTSD, but to other service connected mental illnesses
as well.
TDIU refers to total disability individual unemployability.
That's the full rating that is the same as if you were being paid out 100% for a particular
condition.
And what that means simply is you're unable to follow a substantially gainful occupation
due to your service-connected disabilities.
This video is for those who have already had their mental illnesses service connected.
They've already proven that their mental illness is related to service.
And now we just get to the question of severity.
It's a fight over the rating itself, and your inability to work.
The overarching question here or theme, as we try to develop evidence to prove TDIU based
on mental health, is why, or how, does your mental illness prevent you from working?
We're looking to tell your personal story about how psychological impairments related
to service have impacted your life, and taken you out of the workforce.
As you gather evidence, revisit this idea and ask yourself, "Does this help answer the
question?"
The question why, or how, does your mental illness prevent you from working?
Let's briefly revisit TDIU eligibility.
We have some other videos that do a great job of breaking some of these different nuances down
and proving TDIU claims.
A great example is extra schedular cases in under 38 CFR 4.16(b).
This particular video is more geared towards subsection A instead of B. It means your rating
qualifies.
So if you are under 38 CFR 4.16(a), you have one rating at, at least 60% or above, ostensibly
mental health rating in this scenario.
Or you have a combined rating of 70% with one underlying rating at 40%.
And generally when you're making a mental health TDIU argument, that underlying 40%
rating ... at least 40% rating is going to be your mental health rating.
That's someone that falls at about a 50% rating for mental health.
Let's get to the ratings themselves.
The mental health ratings are at 0, 10, 30, 50, 70, and 100.
So the authority for those rating percentiles is at 38 CFR 4.12(a).
That's a listing of your ratings and your symptoms.
It's really important to note here that those symptoms are not exhaustive.
They're a very good list of examples of what veterans commonly deal with in terms of their
mental illnesses.
But every case file is unique.
Every individual is dealing with unique situations.
Your symptoms sometimes can be outside the listings that you see in 4.12(a). So make sure
that you're taking a holistic approach to developing what your story is and what you're
dealing with, rather than just trying to fit them very uniformly into the lists that you
see under that section of the CFR.
Essentially, the first thing we want to cover here is that the TDIU proof stage in advancing
your mental health claim is, it goes hand-in-hand with your severity over your mental health
ratings.
So those things should be developed lock step.
As you develop evidence for an increased rating on your mental health, you are essentially
developing evidence for your individual unemployability claim.
The most important thing to do is to bring out high-value symptoms, and tell the veteran's
story to help you win.
These high-value symptoms, we have some examples that we commonly see in our successful TDIU
cases.
Those are suicidal ideation, hallucinations and delusions, angry outbursts and periods
of violence.
Even if they're just intermittent periods of violence, are excellent symptoms that we
can work with.
We're looking for symptoms that impact social functioning.
So anything that makes it difficult for you to function in a social setting.
Often times in the workplace you have to interact with people, whether it's coworkers, customers,
supervisors.
So anything that affects social functioning is going to be important.
Close relatives or friends, coworkers, supervisors, can offer insight with written statements
about how they see your mental illness impacting you.
Make sure that these are crafted with your employability in mind.
And that's why I really suggest if you have any contacts from previous work that you reach
out to that buddy, that coworker that you still talk to.
If you had a confidant at the factory, or at the store where you used to work, reach
out to that person.
Ask them if they'd be willing to help you tell your story.
Think back to all these past jobs, reasons why you left, and if any of them were due
to mental health symptoms.
Examples, constant interpersonal conflict, or unpredictable panic attacks.
These are the kinds of mental health symptoms that have a significant impact on occupational
functioning, because they affect your ability to be efficient throughout the work day, and
to stay on task.
I would advise you talk to your psychiatrist or counselor.
See if they'll write a statement from their perspective, especially if they can discuss
how stress impacts you.
Most importantly, if you're represented by an attorney or a veterans service organization,
keep them up to date on this information.
A representative will use this evidence to win the fight by incorporating it into their
own strategy.
So your veteran service organization, your attorney if you're represented, they have
some idea of how they're going to move your case through the VA's byzantine of adjudication.
And if you are developing all of this evidence on your own, and you're trying to gather all
this stuff to win your TDIU fight, you got to share that with them because that's just
more ammunition on your side.
So we get some questions about TDIU back pay, and how that relates to effective dates.
So how is your TDIU back pay determined or calculated?
We have some great videos on effective dates that really bring out some of the nuances
in effective date rules.
But the overarching rule, the baseline rule if you will, is that your effective date is
determined by your date of your claim, or the date entitlement arose.
Whichever is later.
If your TDIU claim is 2010, or your mental health increasing rating claim is 2010 because
your IU claim can piggyback on an increased rating claim.
Let's say that's 2010, you haven't been working the whole time, your mental health symptoms
are very pronounced and severe for that entire period.
An appropriate TDIU award would go back to 2010, your claim date.
Now if your claim date for an increased rating on mental health, to include individual unemployability,
is in the year 2010, and then in 2013 things got a lot worse for you and you stopped working,
then an appropriate TDIU grant would be in 2013.
The first of the month after the month in which you stopped working.
And the reason for that is because although your claim date's older, your entitlement
arose later.
So it's the later of the two.
Even if you have a relatively low mental health rating, say a 10, or a 30%, you should still
look to develop your employability limitations with examples and principals, like I have
discussed here.
Even if you can't hit it out of the park on a mental health rating alone to win your TDIU
claim, a base hit will do it until you can get some other conditions connected, rated
appropriately.
Sometimes it's a long tug-of-war with the VA to get those ratings where you need them.
But just because you're not at 70% for mental health or you believe you're entitled to
100% for mental health.
Even if you're on the low-end of the spectrum around 30% or so, you still want to bring
out that part of the story because it's going to be the entirety of what you're dealing
with.
Let's say you have a back problem or knee problems, or shoulder issues, you combine
those with mental health limitations.
And the way that those limitations add together and comorbidly interact with one another can
render someone unemployable, but you have to be able to bring that out in your evidence.
If you have any questions about winning your claim, and you want to close the gap between
your mental health claim and TDIU, give us a call at Woods & Woods.