Hey veterans, Travis Studdard, veterans disability attorney with another video helping you understand
how to get through your VA claim for TDIU or individual unemployability.
If you've seen my earlier videos you've seen me talk about nexus, meaning a connection
between your service connected disabilities and your inability to find substantial, gainful
employment.
I know a lot of you have other disabilities, right?
You have conditions that are affecting your body and your ability to function that are
not related to your military service.
Now, some of those maybe they should be and you could file on those, but you have others
that are clearly not related.
Do they matter in your TDIU claim?
Well, the answer is yes and no.
Right?
If you have to have a connection between a service connected disability and your inability
to work, then clearly that's the link you're trying to establish.
The one thing you don't want to do is establish a link between non-service connected disabilities
and your inability to work.
You don't want to show that the reason you can't work is because of some unrelated condition.
Again, as I said in an earlier video on VA's dirty secret in denying these types of claims,
that's one of the things they love to do.
"Well clearly he's unemployable, but we find that it's related to these conditions that
are not related to military service."
How do you overcome that?
You overcome that by trying to minimize the effects of your non-service connected disabilities.
As I've told you previously, you want to emphasize all affects of your service connected disabilities.
That's what you're trying to do on the one hand.
What are all the symptoms, what are all of the limitations of your service connected
disabilities?
Again, in an earlier video I walk you through how to think about that.
On the other hand, at the same time you need to be planning ahead for what VA may do.
How do I minimize the effects of all of my non-service connected disabilities?
If I have a heart condition that is not service connected in any way and I can't make it service
connected, then I need to probably show to VA that this is really not that limiting,
especially not in comparison to my say, service connected PTSD and low back injury.
Sure, I have diabetes.
Sure, I have heart disease, but I can still work.
Those don't limit what I can do in the workplace.
They're aggravating, I receive medical treatment, but again, they don't affect my ability to
perform any sort of work, and they didn't take me out of the workforce to begin with.
Again, be thinking about your non-service connected disabilities.
I'll talk to you in another video about strategy in how to approach that, but if it's already
an issue in your claim, if you've been denied on that basis, that the inability to work
is related to non-service connected disabilities, then you need to at that point get to work
on, again, minimizing the affects of those disabilities.
That can be, again, through you, through family, friends, or through medical evidence as well.
Much in the same way as you would show the full effects of your service connected disabilities.
I hope that's helpful.
If so, like this video.
Check out the others, and I'll do another video following up on this topic, again, as
part of the strategy on the front end of how to decide what to do with regard to your non-service
connected disabilities in your TDIU claim.
Good luck with it.
If you have any questions or need help, always feel free to reach out to us.
You can visit our website, winyourvetclaim.com and check out the other videos.