(pleasant music)
- Hello and welcome to the Hill and Ponton
Veterans' Video Blog.
My name is Matthew Hill.
- I'm Carol Ponton.
- And today we want to talk to you about
unemployability claims and C & P exams for those claims for
when a veteran has mutiple service-connected disabilities,
and the veteran is claiming that all of those disabilities
lead to unemployability,
I consider this scenario to be a crack in the system,
and here's what I mean by that.
When a veteran has, let's say, a back problem,
migraines, and a PTSD, okay,
and he says, "I can't work because of these three,"
and the combo rating there is 80%,
the VA will send the veteran to three different exams,
a psych exam for the PTSD, a neurological exam
for the migraines, and then an orthopedic exam for the back.
And each exam will talk about the veteran's--
- Single disability.
- Single disability, right,
and the functional impairment that has.
So, the back examiner will say, "Okay, the veteran
"can't stand at all or can't walk,
"but he could do sedentary work."
And then the migraine examiner might say,
"Well, he has to be prostrate and has to lie down
"at least once a week, so as long as a employer
"will give that benefit, then he could work."
And then the PTSD examiner will say,
"Well, he doesn't get along with people too well,
"so as long as he's working by himself off somewhere,
"he's fine." But what's the problem?
- You add it all together, and no one's gonna employ him.
But the VA never does that--
- Exactly.
- They never put it all together which is the rule,
is what they're supposed to do.
- Right. There's no opinion that reconciles all of those,
and a lot of times, we just see veterans get denied.
The rating decision will say, "Well, this doctor said
"you could work sitting down, this doctor said that
"as long as you could lay down every once in a while
"you're fine, and this other doctor said as long as you
"weren't with people, you're okay."
- I've seen veterans with a 90% combined rating
for 30 years trying to get 100%,
and they've been denied under this same system.
- Right. 'Cause the 90% veteran will have five or six
different disabilities--
- Right.
- And the VA, in a way, can divide and conquer.
Frankly, the irony is if a veteran only has one disability,
it's almost easier. Like PTSD, if they're at 70% and the
VA says, "Well, he does have anger problems and he can't
"really be around people," the VA has to answer
the question--
- Exactly.
- "Does that keep him from working?"
But having these multiple disabilities and
multiple exams, it gives them an out.
- Right. And that's why we find we get a doctor who can
put it all together. We either get a vocational rehab person
or we get a doctor who can say,
"Look, just based on the PTSD alone,
"this person can't work."
And then we're able to use the other problems for
special monthly compensation.
- Right.
- Additional benefits.
- Right, so we get a hundred for one,
and then with the other ones adding together,
we can get that additional, special monthly compensation.
Now, as Carol was saying, we actually look to use
vocational experts on these cases,
essentially doctors or professionals that can look
at an individual and discuss, "Okay, here's the background,
"here's what they were able to do,
"here's the limitations that were placed on them,"
and then look into the greater job force and say,
"Where could they work?"
And inevitably, in a case like this,
they'd say there's no job that's gonna give them the
accommodations they need,
I keep on saying that word--
- Accommodations.
- Accommodations they need to be able to work.
And, you know, we're professionals, we're able to find
other professionals, but getting a vocational expert
for your case might not be easy.
What I would suggest is going to the VA
Vocational Rehabilitation Center and say,
"I want a full assessment of me,
"if I'm able to work, if I'm able to go to school."
I've got great opinions from them,
where they come back and say,
"Look, we tried to put this veteran in school,
"and he couldn't do it because of his
"service-connected disabilities."
And so that would be, almost, the opinion that looks
at the totality of your disabilities that the VA
benefits section is unwilling to give.
- Two cautions. First of all, this report from the
vocational expert that you've gone to,
the rehabilitation person through the VA,
it's not gonna be in your VA file.
They wouldn't put it there.
- Right.
- It absolutely is not there, and it's not gonna be there
unless you put it in there.
Second thing that has been a real problem with
the ones I've had, I would say maybe 10 or 20 percent
helped me, because, unfortunately, a lot of times,
the vocational person will not limit
the inability to work
to only the service-connected problems.
They will leave the letter very vague,
and therefore, the VA's able to ignore it.
- Yeah, it's definitely not perfect.
- So you need to watch it.
I've had a lot of veterans say,
"I've got just what we need, they say I can't work,"
and when you look at it, the person will list a lot
of the problems that the veteran has,
and many of which are not service connected,
and say, "Because of these problems, you can't work."
And that's not gonna help you.
- It's not. I mean, again, in theory,
the VA's only supposed to consider the
service-connected disabilities from that letter,
but, as Carol said, they can screw that up, too.
So, this is just something to watch out for.
If you have multiple disabilities that are
service connected and you can't work because of them,
you know, they probably are going to send you to
a bunch of different doctors on this.
- For C & P exams and ...
- Yeah, and you just need to make sure,
if you don't get back what you feel the correct answer is,
you appeal, because the higher you get in the
appellate chain, the more likely you are to get
a decision maker who really understands how this
all comes together.
- If you're not working and you have a combined rating
or a single rating of 60% or more,
please, please don't give up.
Please get somebody who can help you with this,
because I see so many veterans, Matt,
that, literally, I mean 30, 20, 25 years,
they've had this combination, and they still don't get 100%,
and that's not fair, because if you know the difference
between 80%--
- Yep.
- and 100%, it's significant.
- It's a lot of money.
- It is.
- All right, well that's it for this edition to the
Veterans' Video Blog, thanks for joining us and
we will see you next time.