Ready To Make A Claim 3 Steps To Presenting A Strong Va Ptsd Claim
Now that you know how the VA rates PTSD, its important to understand some best practices for making a claim. Keep in mind that PTSD claims can complicate the already confusing and murky claims process. Even with the new regulations passed in 2010 that make it easier for veterans with PTSD to qualify for VA benefits, a veteran with a PTSD claim will face unique challenges.
There are three requirements that make up a claim for PTSD:
So, you can make a strong claim by presenting these three requirements.
How Does That Compare To A 50 Or 70 Percent Rating For Ptsd
While the criteria for a 50 or 70 percent rating is still pretty high, it is much less than the 100 percent rating. The 70 percent PTSD rating talks about occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas At the 50 percent level, the definition reads, occupational and social impairment, with reduced productivity and reliability due to such symptoms as
Both the 50 and 70 percent level go on to list examples of symptoms that might qualify you for these ratings. But, the big difference is that we go from total occupational and social impairment to essentially partial impairment.
How Can Ptsd Affect Your Life
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition caused by a traumatic event or a high-stress period in a persons life. There are several types of PTSD triggers, including:
- Witnessing death
PTSD is characterized by a heightened sense of danger and stress, even when youre going about the normal activities of your day.
You may also experience flashbacks, panic attacks, nightmares, and general anxiety. Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event develops PTSD. However, around 7% to 8% of people will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. PTSD is more likely to occur in people who experience assault and sexual assault. Women are more likely to experience PTSD than men, with 10% of women and 4% of men dealing with the disorder.
PTSD can interfere with many aspects of your life, including your job, relationships, health, and quality of life. One of the common symptoms of PTSD is avoidance, which is an aversion to places or activities that remind you of a traumatic event in your past.
People who experience avoidance may not want to return to locations or participate in activities because they fear it will trigger fear, anxiety, or panic. Avoidance is also a symptom of panic disorders. Panic attacks can occur in someone who has PTSD, increasing the risk of experiencing avoidance.
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About 100% Ptsd Disability Benefits Ratings
First, we want you to understand that obtaining a 100% VA disability rating for PTSD alone is very hard to do. We see very few veterans obtain a 100% rating for PTSD alone. Generally, the veterans we see obtain a 100% rating for PTSD alone spend large amounts of their time in mental hospitals. Many veterans with PTSD are paid at the 100% rate because of combined ratings or Individual Unemployability benefits, which we cover later in this article. Below are the VAs requirements to obtain a 100% rating for PTSD.
Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as:
- gross impairment in thought processes or communication
- persistent delusions or hallucinations
- persistent danger of hurting self or others
- intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living
- disorientation to time or place
- memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name
Generally, when we see clients obtain a 100% rating it is for a combination of both mental and physical conditions. When potential clients first contact us, our veterans disability benefits lawyers often see vets obtain ratings that are too low because they dont understand how to service-connect secondary conditions. PTSD is connected to lots of physical and other mental conditions. The way we generally help veterans obtain a 100% rating is by connecting all their impairments to their service, the same PTSD stressor, or the same injury.
Permanent And Total Va Disability Ratings For Ptsd
What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ?
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event. Symptoms of PTSD usually begin within three months of the traumatic incident, but sometimes begin years afterwards. In order to receive a diagnosis of PTSD, symptoms must last more than one month and be severe enough to interfere with relationships or work. Specific diagnostic criteria for PTSD is divided into different types of symptoms, including:
- Re-experiencing Symptoms. Includes flashbacks, nightmares, and intrusive thoughts.
- Avoidance Symptoms. Includes staying away from places, events, or objects that are reminders of the traumatic experience and avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the traumatic event.
- Arousal and Reactivity Symptoms. Includes being easily startled, feeling tense or on edge, having difficulty sleeping, and having angry outbursts.
- Cognition and Mood Symptoms. Includes trouble remembering key features of the traumatic event, negative thoughts about oneself or the world, distorted feelings like guilt or blame, and loss of interest in enjoyable activities.
PTSD can be short term or chronic depending on the individual and the circumstances. Regardless, the main treatments for people with PTSD are medications and psychotherapy, or both.
VA Disability Ratings for PTSD
What are Permanent and Total VA Disability Ratings?
Permanent
Total
How does this Apply to PTSD?
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You Have Had The Same Rating For 20 Years
If you have had the same disability rating for PTSD for 20 years, VA cannot lower your rating, except in the case of fraud. For example, if you received a disability rating of 50 percent in January 1997, starting in January 2017 your rating can never fall below that amount unless VA finds evidence that you obtained it fraudulently.
If you have had VA disability for 20 years and your rating has gone up and down during that time, VA cannot reduce it any further than its lowest point during that period. For example, if you received your rating in January 1997 and it swung between 30 percent and 100 for two decades, then starting in January 2017 it cannot fall below 30 percent.
Myth #: If Your Application Is Denied You Dont Qualify For Benefits
The VA reports that 75% of initial disability benefit claims are denied. Often, this is due to missing information, incomplete paperwork, or an incorrect interpretation of the law.
Veterans have the right to appeal a denial of benefits, and there are several stages of the process you can go through. Between 40% and 45% of appeals are approved when the veteran is represented by an attorney.
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How To Qualify For Ptsd Disability Benefits
To see if you qualify for disability benefits from the VA for PTSD, you can apply online, visit a local VA office, or mail in a form. The first step to take after applying for benefits is to get an exam from your local VA center. The VA will use the results from this exam, called a Compensation and Pension exam, to determine your eligibility. However, if the VA denies you benefits based on your exam results, you can appeal their decision and submit an Independent Medical Examination to the VA and dispute their results.
A doctors professional assessment of your symptoms can play a key role in changing the VAs ruling on your eligibility for disability benefits. Your doctor can help you make a strong case to the VA that you should be eligible for benefits by providing an independent medical examination. The information provided by your doctor in an IME can help to give the VA substantial grounds to provide you with disability benefits for PTSD.
In addition to help from your doctor in your case for disability benefits eligibility, your friends can help, too. The VA takes buddy statements, testimonials from trusted friends who know you well and can attest to your condition, seriously. If your fellow servicemen or other close friends who have seen the impact your PTSD has had on you can provide statements to the VA, you can have a better chance at a more accurate disability rating.
How Do You Know If Youve Been Given A Proper Va Disability Rating For Ptsd
As a Veteran in the United States, you might be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is one of the most difficult service-related disabilities to diagnose and classify.
Contrary to popular myth, PTSD is not a processing disorder that occurs because the victim cant take it. Instead, PTSD is a chemical imbalance in the brain. Exposure to extreme stress, such as combat stress, enlarges the amygdala. This part of the brain controls emotional responses. The resulting imbalance explains symptoms you may be experiencing like depression, anxiety, hypervigilance, and flashbacks.
As you may know, the brain is adept at hiding its own injuries. As a result, many PTSD victims are unaware of the full extent of their injuries.
Your VA disability attorney will use medical and lay evidence to address these issues. Solid medical evidence reveals the true nature of the injury. Buddy statements and other lay testimony from your friends and family set forth the full extent of your PTSD and how your brain injury affects your daily life.
A VA disability rating for PTSD is based on statutes that outline what symptoms meet which level of disability. PTSD is only rated at 10%, 30%, 50%, 70% or 100%. Its important to be as honest as you can with the VA examiners about the severity of your symptoms. Please note you dont have to meet all the symptoms in the rating level in order to be rated at that level.
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File For A Secondary Service Connection
Secondary service connections refer to conditions that have been caused or exacerbated by a condition for which a veteran has been awarded a VA disability rating. If a 100% rating or TDIU are not realistic options for you, and claims or appeals have done nothing to sway VAs original rating for your PTSD, consider if your PTSD has caused any other psychological or physical ailments for which you can prove the connection. You can submit a new claim for benefits with proof of your diagnosis and a nexus statement to connect the two conditions.
Myth #: Ptsd Is Just A Fancy Name For A Panic Attack
It is vital that you be completely honest with your healthcare provider about the type and severity of symptoms you are experiencing with your condition. In some cases, what you assume is related to PTSD could actually be a secondary condition that may be eligible for additional compensation.
PTSD and panic disorder have similar symptoms, but the cause is different. PTSD is triggered by trauma, while panic disorder is triggered by the experience of a severe panic attack that causes the sufferer to feel as though theyre having a heart attack or spinning out of control. Panic disorder can sometimes be a secondary service-connected disability for a veteran with PTSDwhich might make them eligible for Total Disability Individual Unemployability benefits.
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Ssas Purpose Is Different From Va
SSA is looking for problems with your capacity to work. It follows a five-step process to decide if you cannot work, and therefore would qualify for disability benefits.
SSA does not require a veterans PTSD or other impairment to be linked to military service or discharge status.
There are no rating percentages of disability. Basically, under SSAs all-or-nothing definition of disability, you no longer have the capacity to work for at least one year, or until death.
Conversely, the objective of VA compensation is to pay veterans who suffered disabling physical and mental health conditions while serving in the military, on a graduated scale, based on the degree of the veterans disability. You can be partially disabled and still receive disability under the VA.
How To Use The Tables To Find Your Monthly Payment
Find your basic rate
Go to the compensation rates for your disability rating. On the Basic monthly rates table, find the amount for your disability rating and dependent status. This is your basic monthly rate.
Example :If youre a Veteran with a 30% disability rating, and you have a dependent spouse , your basic monthly rate would be $522.39 each month.
Find your added amounts, if any apply
If your spouse receives Aid and Attendance benefits or you have more than one child, you may qualify for additional monthly payment amounts as listed in the Added amounts table.
First, determine your basic rate.
Example :If youre a Veteran with a 70% disability rating, and you have a spouse, plus 3 dependent children under the age of 18, you would start with the basic rate of $1,754.95 .
Next, look at the Added amounts table. Find the amount for children under age 18 .
Since your basic rate already provides payment for 1 child, you would add the rate of $64.00 for each additional child .
If your spouse receives Aid and Attendance, you would also add $119 .
In our example of a Veteran with 70% disability rating, your total monthly payment amount would be:
$1,754.95 basic rate + $64 +$64 +$119 Total $2,001.95
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Va Classified You As Permanently And Totally Disabled
Permanent and total disability is a special classification used by VA when it believes that a veterans condition results in a total disability that is reasonably certain to continue throughout the life of the disabled veteran.
Once you receive this classification, your rating is mostly safe. Only in very rare situations, such as fraud, can VA lower the rating of a veteran who has a permanent and total disability.
Is Ptsd Easy To Claim For Va Disability
According to the top 3 easiest VA claims to win data, PTSD is an easy thing to claim for VA disability.
The VAs own internal data reported to congress,describes veterans as having the following ratings for PTSD:
- 2.2% of all VAdisability recipients for PTSD have a 0 PTSD rating.
- 7.1% of all VAdisability compensation claim recipients for PTSD have a 10 PTSD rating.
- 23.7% of all VAcompensation claim recipients for PTSD have a 30 PTSD rating.
- 25.9% of all VAdisability recipients for PTSD have a 50 PTSD rating.
- 28.0% of all VA claimrecipients for PTSD have a 70 PTSD rating.
- 13.1% of all VAdisability claim recipients have a 100 PTSD rating.
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With Dependents Including Children
Find the dependent status in the left column that best describes you. Then look for your disability rating in the top row. Your basic monthly rate is where your dependent status and disability rating meet.
If you have more than one child or your spouse receives Aid and Attendance benefits, be sure to also look at the Added amounts table, and add these to your amount from the Basic monthly rates table.
| Dependent status | 30% disability rating | 40% disability rating | 50% disability rating | 60% disability rating | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dependent status | Veteran with 1 child only | 30% disability rating | 504.39 | 40% disability rating | 722.28 | 50% disability rating | 1020.44 | 60% disability rating | 1,288.03 |
| With 1 child and spouse | 30% disability rating | 563.39 | 40% disability rating | 801.28 | 50% disability rating | 1,118.44 | 60% disability rating | 1,407.03 | |
| With 1 child, spouse, and 1 parent | 30% disability rating | 607.39 | 40% disability rating | 860.28 | 50% disability rating | 1,192.44 | 60% disability rating | 1,496.03 | |
| With 1 child, spouse, and 2 parents | 30% disability rating | 651.39 | 40% disability rating | 919.28 | 50% disability rating | 1,266.44 | 60% disability rating | 1,585.03 | |
| With 1 child and 1 parent | 30% disability rating | 548.39 | 40% disability rating | 781.28 | 50% disability rating | 1,094.44 | 60% disability rating | 1,377.03 | |
| With 1 child and 2 parents | 30% disability rating | 592.39 | 40% disability rating | 840.28 | 50% disability rating | 1,168.44 | 60% disability rating | 1,466.03 |
How To Increase A 70% Ptsd Disability Rating To 100%
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a common mental health disorder among veterans, and its symptoms can vary from mild to severe depending on the individual and the traumatic events they have experienced. Flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, and uncontrollable thoughts are just some of the symptoms veterans with PTSD must deal with, and because of this, VA offers disability compensation to those who can prove a service connection.
As common as PTSD is, however, it may not always be rewarded with the appropriate VA disability rating. Ratings assigned for PTSD are 10, 30, 50, 70, and 100%, and are largely based on a veterans social and occupational impairment. For most veterans, it may not be easy to get a higher rating on a first claim, much less 100% disability based off it. For that to happen, your condition must be severe enough, and you must build a strong claim supported by medical records and nexus statements, buddy statements, and perhaps even employment and financial history to prove diminished earning potential.
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