so
hi and welcome to cck live my name is michael estrido and i'm an attorney here at cck uh today
i'm joined by brandon piba and also bethany cook both are accredited claims agents with our firm
in this video today we're going to be breaking down three ways veterans can get
a tdiu va disability rating so bethany why don't we start with you can you
tell us a little bit about what tdiu is what does it stand for
yes so tdiu is the acronym we use to the short name for a very long benefit which is called
the total disability rating based on individual unemployability uh we'll call it tdiu for the
rest of this video but tdiu is essentially a benefit that allows for veterans to be
compensated at va's 100 disability rating even if their combined scheduler rating does not equal 100
so for example if your combined rating is 70 but you're awarded tdiu then you'll be compensated as
if you are rated at the 100 level tdiu is awarded in circumstances in which veterans are unable to
secure or follow substantially gainful employment due to their service-connected disabilities
uh and since it gets you compensated at the 100 rate if you're awarded tdiu right now uh
the current payment uh for a single veteran is three thousand three hundred thirty two dollars
and six cents uh and then there's additional uh compensation that can be added if you have
dependents which you can find more information about on our website if that applies to you
great yeah thank you bethany and so that is what tdiu is that's what the rate is but the question
is how do you get va to grant you an individual individual unemployability rating and so brandon
turning to you the first thing that we want to look at is understanding the eligibility
requirements specific to the benefit can you walk us through that absolutely so
va outlines two ways in which veterans can typically meet the eligibility requirements
for tdiu in order to qualify for tdiu under 38 cfr 4.16 a or scheduler tdiu a veteran must have
one service connected condition rated at 60 or more so that's assuming that you only are
service connected for one disability and that one disability needs to be rated like i'd said at 60
or higher in order to qualify for tdiu under 4.16 a if you do have more than one service
connected disability so essentially you have two or more service connected conditions
one of those service connected disabilities needs to be rated at least at 40 or higher and you must
have a combined rating of 70 percent or higher as well so one service connected disability with 60
or more rated for that one disability or if you have two or more one of those disabilities needs
to be rated at least at 40 percent and then your combined rating needs to be at least 70.
so that's what 4.16 a says now veterans who don't meet the schedule of requirements under
38 cfr 4.16 a may still be considered for tdiu but it will be considered under what's called
extra scheduler tdiu under what's called 4.16 b if you don't meet these criteria va will essentially
determine if their case should be referred to the director of compensation service for extra
scheduler consideration in order to be eligible for tdiu veterans must demonstrate that they
are unable to obtain or maintain substantially gainful employment due to their service-connected
conditions like my colleague bethany had sort of explained a few moments ago now substantially
gainful employment means that the person earns above the federal poverty threshold for one person
however two situations can exist and when veterans may be employed and still qualify for tdiu
so we're just going to unpack that just a little bit here the first is what's called marginal
employment so veterans who are employed can still apply for tdiu and will still be eligible for tdiu
if they have what's called marginal employment these veterans who are currently working but
earn below the poverty threshold may qualify for individual unemployability benefits so essentially
yes you are working but you are not earning that wage um that you know by federally speaking
um gets you to the poverty threshold so you can still apply even though you're working
the second scenario is what's called under a protected work environment
so say you're working but you have special accommodations that are made by your employer
that allows you the veteran to work there with no reduction in pay or benefits that is what we
classify as protected work environment essentially veterans who are employed in a protected work
environment may still qualify for individual unemployability benefits from va even though they
are still working and could still be potentially earning above that poverty threshold so although
you are working you could be working under what's called marginal employment or you could be working
under what's called a protected work environment and still be eligible to apply for tdiu
yeah thanks brandon that's critically important that multi-step process that we walk through and i
know when we analyze a case when va looks at cases hopefully they're analyzing it that way at least
and that really is the first step i think to understanding
whether tdiu applies in your situation and how you might go about advocating for it the second thing
is the submission of va form 21-8940 and so when seeking tdiu in most instances va will require
the veteran to submit this form again it's va form 21-89-40 and it's called the veterans application
based on individual unemployability this form is really just that it's an application for
an increase in the veterans rating and therefore increasing compensation based on the veteran being
unemployable due to service-connected conditions what's interesting about this is that this is not
technically speaking a claim in and of itself and so um the va you know 8940 form
doesn't technically need to be submitted in order for veterans to obtain the tdiu benefit
the trick though is that unfortunately va in most instances requires veterans to submit it
interestingly also the issue of tdiu can be what's known as reasonably raised by the
existing evidence in the veterans record meaning that you know you do not need to necessarily have
to submit any new evidence with the claim but you can point to evidence which shows that the
veterans service-connected conditions impact their ability to work in some way from evidence that's
in the record again though in most cases the forms should provide va with the information they
need to fully adjudicate the claim which is why va typically requires that the form 8940 be submitted
the 8940 can be helpful because it does contain
much of the information that va needs to determine whether the veteran is in fact eligible for tdiu
so this includes information on the form related to the veterans work history
the veterans level of educational attainment any skills that the veteran might have
when the veteran last worked both full time and when he or she became too disabled to work based
on his or her service connected conditions so it does include a lot of critical information
that va does rely upon when adjudicating these cases but i think it's just important to know
that technically speaking it's not a claim in and of itself tdiu can nevertheless be raised with a
veteran's underlying increased rating claim and va should adjudicate that issue that being said again
i think it's best practice to submit the form uh to trigger va to act in these cases
um bethany turning back to you can you walk us through kind of the third critical piece
to securing a tdiu grant um really it comes down to supporting your claim with sufficient evidence
to show that the benefit is warranted right yeah so once you've raised the issue of tdiu
uh va in order for va to award it they have to make a finding that you're unable to secure
and follow substantially gainful employment due to your service connected disabilities
and in order for va to make that finding they're going to need evidence so there's
a lot of different types of evidence that can be helpful for you to submit in support of your claim
i'll go through a few of those types of evidence um the first type of evidence evidence that uh
you can submit very easily is lay evidence uh so if you as a veteran think that you're unable to
secure and follow substantially gainful employment due to your service-connected disabilities
you can submit late testimony describing your functional limitations
it's helpful if you submit late evidence for it to be very specific so in talking about
your service connected limitations make sure to provide details about how often they happen
how severe they are examples of tasks that you're unable to perform because that will
be very helpful and it doesn't just have to be light evidence from yourself uh submitting late
evidence from friends family even co-workers or former supervisors can also be really beneficial
another type of evidence that is very important is medical evidence either your private treatment
information or your va medical center treatment treatment records will often contain important
information regarding your functional limitations if for example you're service connected for ptsd
your psychological treatment will have information from your medical provider which va often relies
on to kind of determine what whether you are prevented from securing and falling substantially
gainful employment or not other things that are helpful are employment records especially if
you had any accommodations and work at the past or if there are any issues in your performance
that is obviously evidence that you had difficulty working in the past
due to your service connected disabilities so if you do have that definitely submit it
and kind of on the same note social security determinations can also be really helpful
often times if you are applying for tdiu you might have also applied or be getting a social security
disability benefits so if you have done that try to get those records sometimes va will even try to
get them themselves if they're where they exist because social security is ultimately trying to
make a similar finding that you're unable to work due to your service connected disabilities so
they'll have information regarding your specific limitations and then a final type of evidence that
cck often obtains ourselves as expert vocational reports so these are basically examinations or
evaluations conducted by vocational experts who are experienced and knowledgeable in the subject
so they have training they have degrees and they have experience talking about service connected or
generally disabilities and how they impact a person's ability to to work
vocational experts are particularly qualified to examine your work history your educational
background and your conditions and kind of talk about how they all go together um you might have
work experience in the past that you can no longer perform due to your service connected disabilities
and having a vocational expert make that assessment can be extremely beneficial
now brandon a question that we often receive here from our clients um and others um is
whether tdiu in and of itself by its very nature is a permanent benefit can you tackle that for us
sure thing that's a great question so in short tdiu is not necessarily considered permanent
and it's not really a guaranteed benefit va can basically propose to take it away
for a few reasons one of which you know as an example to provide if we have a veteran who is
working and they're earning you know substantially gainful earnings substantially gainful employment
and they're working in a position that is not considered a protected work environment
and they're doing so for more than one year va can then propose to take away that tdiu benefit
another instance in which va can basically propose to take away tdiu is if a veteran sends to
filmed in uh fails to send in what is called the employment questionnaire otherwise known as the
va form 21-4140 this is something that va sends out usually every single year and asks questions
for a better uh to the to the veteran who is receiving tdiu benefits basically to confirm their
employment status it's very important for veterans to fill out this form and send about to be gay
as oftentimes failure to do so can and often will result in va revoking the veterans tdiu benefits
when we've seen these forms get sent to our clients oftentimes it's just simply checking
off a box saying yes or no that you continue to be employed or you're not employed or anything like
that and then you just mail it back to the va oftentimes they may or may not issue a decision
they'll just continue the benefits unchanged but va tends to send these things out more and more as
we've seen the years go on especially in ama we've seen more and more of these 4140s get sent out to
our clients and other veterans who receive tdiu so it's very very important that if you receive this
letter oftentimes the va will give you a deadline fill that form out and send it back to the va soon
as possible to hopefully ensure that your benefits will continue unchanged yeah that's terrific
advice and and so you can see that although tdiu when granted pays out at the maximum 100 rate
and therefore it would be considered total in that sense it's not necessarily permanent so
for veterans who come to us and say that they need to submit a form
to their local county clerk or something to to verify that they are permanent in total
you know it's important for them to consider the fact that yes they have tdiu yes they may
be considered being totally compensated but it may or may not be permanent in nature so
good things to consider brandon so as you can see this is a really complex topic
the eligibility requirements are lengthy and there's a lot that goes into determining
whether a veteran actually qualifies for the tdiu benefit and as bethany laid out you know there are
numerous pieces of evidence potentially that a veteran or a veteran's advocate might want
to submit in support of this case or his or her case and so really before applying
you may want to discuss your case with a va disability attorney or accredited representative
having a representative can help ensure you build the strongest possible case for tdiu
an accredited representative can also assist with a potential appeal if va denies your initial claim
for the benefit and so that's all we have for you today we hope that you have found the discussion
helpful for more information on va individual unemployability and other benefits please check
out our blog or our other tdiu or i'm sorry or other youtube videos about tdiu or other benefits
please be sure to subscribe to our channel thanks for joining
you