- Hey guys, this is Neil Woods.
I'm an attorney with Woods and Woods attorneys, and today we're gonna talk about Individual
Unemployability benefits.
I think one of the best ways to start this is to explain to veterans there's a lot of
different names for Individual Unemployability benefits, and a lot of people don't realize
they're actually the same thing.
Total Disability Individual Unemployability is the formal name.
And it's also called TDIU
benefits, IU benefits, Individual Unemployability, VA Unemployability.
So you can see how a lot of veterans that are applying for these benefits get confused
just because there's so many different terms for the same thing.
So today we're gonna go through Individual Unemployability benefits and just kind of
cover a lot of the basic questions that clients ask us when they first call.
To start off, Individual Unemployability benefits are strictly for veterans that have employment
issues from their service-connected disabilities.
If you cannot work from non-service-connected disabilities, you're not gonna be eligible
for Individual Unemployability benefits.
Veterans with non-service-connected disabilities are only eligible for various forms of pension,
while veterans with service-connected disabilities are able to get compensation.
Individual Unemployability benefits fall under the compensation wing.
Let's kind of just start off, basically, these are a lot of the most common questions that
veterans ask us.
First one is; Do I need both mental and physical conditions to get IU benefits?
No, you don't.
Now, granted the large number of clients that we are able to get Individual Unemployability
benefits, do have a combination of mental and physical disabilities.
The reason being, let's just say you have really severe mental disabilities, that's
probably going to keep you out of a workplace, like an office.
And then if you also have the physical disability side, you're going to be kept out of workplaces
like a construction site, loading docks, things that require physical activity.
You can get Individual Unemployability benefits for either mental or physical conditions or
both.
The next one is: Will the VA consider all my conditions for IU benefits?
The VA is gonna really consider only two different types of conditions for Individual Unemployability
benefits.
The first one is direct service-connected disabilities.
Those are injuries that happen directly from your service, and the other type of benefit
that they're going to accept is secondary service-connected conditions.
What is the VA says I'm not eligible under the VA Unemployability Requirements?
This is pretty common.
The VA does not just like to hand out Individual Unemployability ratings, and so a very very
large number of veterans are forced to go into the appeals process.
If you received your denial on Individual Unemployability benefits within the last one
year, you can appeal.
You can look on your rating decision letter that you received from the VA, and it's going
to have a date on there by when you must file an appeal.
If you have let that appeal period collapse, you can file a new application and start the
whole process over.
Now.
that's kind of the long way to do it, but at least you're not gonna be completely barred
from getting Individual Unemployability benefits.
What if my disabilities have worsened since my last rating decision?
So if you received a rating decision more than a year ago, and since then your conditions
have worsened and you now cannot work, you can file an increased rating application and
you can notate on there that you cannot work, and then that's when you can go after your
Individual Unemployability benefits.
So, you know, just to kind of recap what happens there, a veteran, let's say in 2016 received
a decision for a back injury and they got a 40% rating.
Here we are a few years down the road, the back condition has worsened and it now is
preventing that veteran from working, and secondary to the back condition you know they
may have some other things that are popping up now that the condition's gotten worse.
So now what you can do is just file an increased rating application and go after IU benefits.
The next one is: Should I apply for Individual Unemployability benefits if I have a 100%
rating?
It doesn't really make sense to do it.
You're Individual Unemployability benefits pay veterans at the 100% rate.
So if you're already receiving a 100% rating, you're not gonna get any more compensation
monthly if you obtain an Individual Unemployability rating.
And the other thing is if you already have a 100% rating, and you reopen that to try
to get Individual Unemployability, the VA is going to re-review your medical documents.
And if you let them do that, then you're gonna give them a chance to where they could actually
decrease the amount of monthly benefits that you're receiving.
The next one is: Are IU benefits permanent?
No, they're not always permanent.
Now, you can get a permanent and total rating that says, basically, my conditions are not
going to improve.
Therefore, the VA should never re-examine my rating, but I'll warn you; permanent and
total ratings, that's not something the VA just likes to hand out again because a lot
of conditions the VA views as they could get better through time with treatment.
So, you know whether you have conditions that are permanent and total and whether you should
actually go after it, but just like I said, I warn you they're not handed out left and
right.
So can a veteran receive Individual Unemployability benefits if they're working?
Yes, veterans can actually receive Individual Unemployability benefits if they're working.
Now here's the problem with that; you're trying to argue to the VA that you cannot work and
you have a job.
So a lot of these claims are going to be denied.
If you're currently working, getting Individual Unemployability benefits can be pretty tough.
We generally prefer when a client comes to us for Individual Unemployability benefits,
that they are not working.
And the reason for that is the VA just does not, once again, hand out Individual Unemployability
ratings to people who are working.
Now there's a couple situations that you can get these IU benefits if you are working.
The first thing is you have to be under the Individual Unemployability income limits.
So there's a cap on what you can get, and it varies from year to year, it's based upon
the poverty level.
If you're currently employed and you want IU benefits, there's two different types of
jobs that, really, you can have.
One is called marginal.
Marginal means that you earn at or below the poverty level in the same year as your effective
date.
Remember that: on the same year as your effective date.
That's kind of the important thing on marginal.
Sheltered; these are the other types of jobs that you can get Individual Unemployability
benefits with.
So basically what sheltered means is you have accommodations at your job.
Accommodations have to be pretty severe too.
So what we see a lot of times on veterans that are working and get IU benefits, or where
they're working for a family member, they're allowed to come and go as they please.
They're given freedom that they wouldn't be given at any other job.
That employer allows them to basically just leave when they want, sometimes they're not
good with clients because of PTSD.
So you see in a lot of family businesses, they allow veterans to do this, to work there.
Those veterans can get IU benefits because they're basically unemployable except for
the fact that a family member or friend likes them and let them work there.
I just want to stress, it is very, very hard to get IU benefits if you are working.
So will the VA consider my assets for Individual Unemployability?
No, they're not going to look at your assets.
The only thing that they're going to look at monetary-wise is they're going to look
at your income level.
Particularly the year of your effective date.
And some people ask, you know, I have a lot of disabled veterans relying on their support
systems while they're applying for IU benefits.
So, you know, they'll be living with a, you know, a cousin and maybe have an aunt that,
you know, pays to drive them somewhere all the time and someone else that buys them food
and things.
If you're receiving help from a network of folks, that is not going to be considered
income under the VA's rules.
So if you're receiving assistance, friends, family, organizations out there, that's not
going to be counted as income.
Can I get Social Security Disability and Individual Unemployability Yes, you actually can.
You can get both benefits at the same time.
And that's something that we do here at the firm for a lot of clients.
I want to warn you: Individual Unemployability and Social Security Disability Insurance are
two totally separate programs.
And remember, in Social Security, there's two different types.
There's Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and then there's SSDI, which is for people
who have worked.
SSI is for people who have not worked.
SSI is going to look at your income limits, so if you have veterans disability benefits,
you could be getting enough, it knocks you out.
So today we're just going to talk about Social Security Disability Insurance.
Now that is for people who have worked, you have to gain work credits.
So it goes on, but there's some big differences between Social Security and Individual Unemployability.
The first one is they have different regulations, and the VA and the Social Security Administration
their rules are totally separate.
Their guidelines are totally separate.
They each get to set their own eligibility guidelines.
There's not really much overlap, so you can be eligible for one and be denied for the
other.
That does happen pretty regularly.
Just so if you get one, there's no guarantee that you're going to get the other.
The other thing is both the Social Security Administration and the VA process claims really
differently.
Most veterans are going to find their Social Security claim is settled well before their
VA claim ever is.
The Social Security Administration really got their stuff together over the last couple
years.
And they're moving claims through a lot faster.
Now that's not a guarantee.
You may be at an office where they're deciding Social Security claims that don't move as
fast but expect a Social Security decision first.
And then sometimes years later, the VA disability decision, they're both gonna look at different
evidence.
One of the other things is they're gonna look at conditions differently.
Let's just say, for example, veterans disability.
You're not knocked out of it if you self-medicate through drugs and alcohol.
Let's just say you're a veteran who has severe mental and physical conditions.
One of them being PTSD, and you're applying for IUU benefits.
You're not going to be knocked out of the VA disability game because you use drugs and
alcohol to self-medicate for PTSD.
Now, when it comes to Social Security Disability if you have drugs and alcohol problems that
can hurt your claim.
So that's kind of, you know, each system is going to be looking at the same set of facts,
but in a different light.
Oh, one thing I want to point out, you do get work credits for your time serving in
the military.
So if you're trying to get Social Security Disability along with Individual Unemployability,
your time in the military, if it was within the last so many years, you're going to get
work credits from that.
And that's gonna count towards your eligibility for Social Security.
One of the questions we get a lot is how much Individual Unemployability back pay should
I get.
This really, really varies.
For example, right now, if you're missing 12 months of Individual Unemployability back
pay, that's just under $35,000.
I mean, that's a lot of money.
So if you apply for Individual Unemployability and the day you filed a claim, potentially
is your effective date.
Some veterans, their effective dates, we can go back further for some various reasons.
So let's just say it takes the VA a full year to decide your application.
They finalize your application.
They award you benefits.
You're going to get that whole last year back pay.
Now, if you have to go into the appeals process, which a large number of people who want IU
benefits have to do, that whole time you're going to be accruing back pay.
So, you know, right now, veterans' disability appeals are taking four years and that's not
from the date you filed the claim.
That's from the date you started the appeal process, but just remember at the end of it,
when you're approved, you're going to get all those back benefits.
A lot of veterans find that their back pay is well over a hundred grand, because if you
look at the payment amounts, you know, over $2,900 a month for IU benefits, and then you
take four years, man I mean, you're up to 120, 130, somewhere in there.
Back pay is just gonna vary for every case.
Every case is really different.
Every veteran is going to have a different effective date, and they're going to process
claims differently.
So there's no set amount of money that you're going to receive.
Let's go through one of the things that a lot of people that call the misconceptions
about Individual Unemployability.
For some reason, a lot of veterans that call us think if you have a college degree that
you are not eligible for Individual Unemployability benefits, that's not true.
If you have a college degree, you can get Individual Unemployability benefits.
I'm not really sure where this rumor came from, but we hear it a lot from veterans that
have worked with service organizations.
And I don't know if this is just a rumor that they're teaching out there somewhere, but
it's not true.
If you have a college degree, you can still get IU benefits.
Previous denials, that's kind of a, a lot of people think if they were denied years
ago for IU benefits, and they let their, they didn't appeal, they didn't fight the appeal.
Or even if you fought the appeal, doesn't matter.
If you have a claim from years ago that's closed, it's over with, and you were not awarded
IU benefits, that is not necessarily the end of the road for your fight.
You can file as many Individual Unemployability applications as you want.
That's kind of a VA disability law secret that a lot of people don't know.
They think you have one shot and it's over with, and that's not true.
So if you were denied a couple of years back, and you still can't work from your service-connected
disabilities, you may still be eligible.
Don't think that was the end of the road for your chance of getting benefits.
This is one of the other misconceptions: people believe that National Guard and Reservists
are not eligible for Individual Unemployability benefits.
Well, they are if they were activated by the Federal government.
Now here's where this gets tricky.
If you were activated by the state government, that doesn't count.
So let's just say your state, I'll use Texas.
Let's just say Houston.
They recently had a lot of flooding.
A very large portion of the city was underwater.
The governor called in the National Guard and the Reservists.
Those veterans, if they were injured will not be eligible because they were activated
by the state government.
Now let's go back a few years back and look at when New Orleans was hit by hurricane Katrina.
At that time, the Federal Government did activate the, it was actually George W. Bush that activated
the National Guard.
So, well not all units, some were activated by the state government.
But, if you were actually in a unit that was activated by the Federal Government, by the
President, and you went in there and you were injured and you can't work from that, you're
going to be eligible for Individual Unemployability benefits.
A lot of National Guard and Reservists may not remember exactly who activated them.
And that's fine.
You can give us a call.
That's something that we can look into and if it was the Federal Government, then we
maybe have something we can help you with.
Now there's a couple of things here.
Just kind of in with this, you must be a veteran.
That's the first one, obviously.
The second one is you must have at least one service-connected disability rated at 60%,
or two or more service-connected disabilities with at least one disability ratable at 40%
with a combined rating of 70% or more.
Okay.
That's a lot of words.
What exactly does that mean?
Here's what it means.
If you have one service-connected disability that is rated at least 60%, you may be eligible
to get IU benefits one day.
Here's the other way to get it.
If you have two or more service-connected disabilities, one of them needs to equal 40%
and then all of them together equal 70.
It's like a two-tiered system on how to be eligible for IU benefits.
And for some reason, those two sentences confuse a lot of people.
So once again, if you're confused by that and you just, you kind of want to talk about
your eligibility on that, feel free to give us a call.
You know, if you're out there and you're watching this and you have more questions at the end
of this video than you did before you started it, I'm sorry, but you can always call us.
Anytime, you know, there's never a charge for legal consultations here.
Our law firm focuses solely on Individual Unemployability benefits.
That's all we do here.
Our staff of almost 90 people are dedicated to nothing but Individual Unemployability
claims and the processing of them.
And you know, at any given time we're helping thousands of clients here.
So if you just want to talk about your eligibility for IU benefits, we're here.
You can always check our website if you'd like to learn some more information, and that's
woodslawyers.com.
Thanks a lot.