(gentle music)
- Hello, this is Matthew Hill, here with Carol Ponton
for the Hill and Ponton Veterans' Video Blog,
and today we want to talk to you about PTSD,
proper ratings for PTSD to include unemployability.
We get a lot of vets asking us about this
as far as how they get the highest rating.
One of the things with the mental health diagnostic code,
what they use to rate PTSD and other mental health problems,
is that it's really hard to get 100%.
They very rarely give 100%,
so the max rating you typically see is 70%.
So we'll start there and go down,
but what do you see?
What does a veteran need to get unemployability from here?
- Well, first of all you have to realize
there is the regional office
and the rules that they follow,
and then there's the Board of Veterans' Appeals above
them in the court, which is the law,
and that's what we think the regional office
should be following, and that's also,
when we go to the Board of Veterans' Appeals or up,
that's what they follow.
- She's talking about the statutes
that are passed by Congress,
but then also the case law passed
by the Court of Appeals for Veterans' claims.
Once you get to the BVA, the Board of Veterans' Appeals,
your dealing with a judge.
- Right.
- Someone who's trained in the law,
somebody who listens to the law,
but at the regional offices,
they work off of a manual,
which, in our opinion,
doesn't quite follow how the law should be.
- For instance, the law says that
if you have a 70% rating for PTSD,
and they know you're not working,
they should automatically consider you for unemployability.
Regional office doesn't do that.
If you haven't filed the claim,
if you haven't asked them to do that,
they're not gonna do it.
So a lot of people have been sitting there
with 70%, 80%, 90% rating for years
because they didn't file the claim.
- And yet they can't work.
- And yet they can't work, and the VA knows it.
So it's really important that if you feel you can't work,
whether you have a 50%, or a 70%,
or a 30%, file an unemployability claim.
That's the form VA21-8940.
All it asks is why you can't work,
name and address, and where you worked,
and how long ago that was.
- And just put this in perspective,
we're talking about the difference
between I think $1,300 versus 70%,
and just about $3,000 for 100%.
- It's significant.
- Yeah. 70% rating does not equal 70% of 100% compensation.
- Exactly.
- If that makes more sense.
So it's really important to file that form.
It's also important, when you're at 70%,
to let the VA know symptoms
that would affect your ability to work,
and what I mean by that,
with PTSD in particular,
you find that the individuals
they do not like being around other people,
they get angry easily, and the biggest one I see is
they can't put up with bosses who are idiots.
(Carol chuckles)
You know, they can't just fall in line,
and keep their mouth shut when they're hearing something
they think is ridiculous,
and you know, maybe they can for a day,
for a week, for a month,
but pretty soon they just let that person have it,
let them know what they really think.
That doesn't do too well when you're trying
to stay in the work force.
- Right.
- So again, we'd say file that claim for unemployability,
if that's what's keeping you working,
let them know what parts, or how the PTSD in particular,
is affecting you at work,
meaning how is it interfering with your ability
to work with others, or just to do your job.
- And maybe people who worked with you
will do a letter for you,
and say, this person is a really nice person,
but I found that they didn't trust other people,
they didn't want to be around them,
and they became angry when other people would make mistakes,
they wouldn't put up with the boss
when the boss seemed to be asking them
to do something stupid.
It can really help you to have letters,
and if your boss, maybe your boss didn't really want
to let you go, but they had to.
If they'll do letters for you,
put those in the file.
That could help you enormously.
- Well thank you so much for tuning in
to the Hill and Ponton video blog,
and we hope to see you soon on this space.