SSD & permant and total and/or IU

[lacyben]

Are Vets that are disabled under SSD more likely to be given a permanent and total and or IU or does it have no bearing? This also assumes the rating will rise to the minimum required.

[TinCanMan]

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) only requires you be totally disabled and unable to work. Compensation for a Service Connected (SC) disability has entirely different requirements as follows:

There are three things every successful claim has:

1. Military Service
2. A diagnosis of a compensable disease or condition
3. A nexus or connection between 1 & 2

You must prove each of them.

1 is satisfied by your DD-214
2 is satisfied by either a physician or C&P examiners statement that you have the compensable condition.
3 is satisfied by either a physician or C&P examiners statement that he has examined you and your Service Medical Records and your Service Personnel Record and finds "at least as likely as not" that your condition is a result of your service.

He must support his claim by a rationale that is scientifically acceptable. IOW, he can't just make it up and he can't rely on your testimony exclusively to support his opinion.

Also, PTSD claims require a verifiable stressor letter describing the event that caused the problem.

SSDI has no IU only total and it doesn't matter why.

Being totally disabled based on the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) requires you meet certain criteria for SC conditions as defined in 38 CFR. To be granted 100% on the basis of IU requires you be unemployable and have SC conditions that rise to a certain level. VA compensation disregards any disabling condition not Service Connected.

The VA will examine your SSDI claim but only service connected conditions count and only to the level defined in the VASRD.

[stevedenesha]

I think he meant if SSDI approval was based on the same service connected disabilities as the unemployability, will that help on deciding va P&T?

[TinCanMan]

The decision for P&T will be determined by the evidence of record. If the SSDI claim presents information supporting the permanency of the service connected conditions, it will be added to the other evidence presented. The SSA has different requirements for what is considered 100% disabled and what is considered unemployable. SSA decisions can help but aren't usually a deciding factor unless their decision was based on conditions the VA decides on. An SSA decision is not a stepping stone to a VA decision.

[Cavman]

You do not have to be 60% or higher to get IU. Vets rated at 50% have applied and been moved up to 70% and IU in the same decision.


Cavman

[TinCanMan]

Cavman:

The requirements for IU qualification are:

You must be 40% Service Connected from a single etiology plus have a combined rating of 70%.

.OR.

You must be 60% Service Connected from a single etiology

See 38CFR § 4.16 (a)

FWIW, any time the VA receives a claim for unemployability and the claimant is not eligible based on current rating, he will be re-examined for his current disabilities to see if they can be raised to where he can be awarded UI, if not, his UI will be disapproved.