Employment In A Protected Environment
This is the other situation which the CFR allows. The specific examples from the regulation are family businesses or working in a sheltered workshop. The meaning is that there must be special considerations for the Veteran to allow them to work. In such an instance the CFR states Veterans may earn over National Poverty Level. Veterans must understand that if they begin to earn over the poverty rate, the VA will most likely investigate to determine if their particular situation meets the requirements.
How Much Am I Allowed To Earn If I Am Tdiu
This is a question that comes up often. The simple answer is, it depends. When you have extra-schedular 100% rating, the VA considers you disability to be a total disability that prevents you from working. There are two situations in which people on TDIU could earn money and probably not affect their VA compensation.
Can You Work And Collect Va Disability
Generally, VA disability benefits are awarded to veterans who havean illness or injury that was caused by or worsened during active militaryservice.
For many veterans who receive disability compensation, theirbenefits replace the income theyd be receiving from employment.
But is it possible to work and collect VA disability?
The short answer: in some cases. In this post, Tennessee veterans disabilityattorney Michael Hartup explains when you can work while receiving VAdisability benefits and when you cant.
If you need further help understanding your disability benefits, applying for VA disability, or appealing a claim, call The Law Offices of Michael Hartup at . You may also contact us by filling out an online form.
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Can I Still Work With 100% Va Disability Or Tdiu
Wondering if you can work without losing your VA disability benefits? Youre not alone. Part of the problem is that many of the veterans we work with dont understand the difference between Total Disability Individual Unemployability and 100% disability.
While both have similar eligibility standards, theyre not identical. Our VA disability lawyers in Kalamazoo, MI will be able to help you understand the difference so you can earn money without risking your VA benefits. Continue reading to learn whether you can work without losing your VA disability benefits.
If youd like legal advice regarding your specific circumstances, request a consultation with one of our VA disability lawyers in Kalamazoo, MI today.
How Does Having My Disabilities Recognized By The Va Help Me And My Family
Below are the reasons you should take the time to apply, even if you dont want deal with the red tape involved or don’t feel like you are disabled.
Regular Financial Support
Most veterans who have their applications approved receive additional monthly income. For Disability Compensation, this income is tax free. Even if a veteran is rated at only 10%, that is still an extra $115 every month, probably for life. If they live another 50 years, thats an extra $69,000 to help pay the mortgage, buy a car, or put kids through school.
Increased Access to VA Healthcare
Just as importantly, the VA provides free care for every service connected condition. If the veteran with a bad knee above needs to have knee replacement surgery, the VA pays for it. In many cases veterans receiving either Disability Compensation or Non-Service Connected Pension can also use the VA to receive care for conditions not related to their military service. This may not seem like a big benefit to a veteran who is currently working and has health insurance, but it can be a more significant benefit when they are between jobs or after they retire.
Access to More Robust VA Benefits
Many veteran benefits have been created to care specifically for disabled veterans, so having your service connected conditions recognized may grant eligibility to other more robust benefits, such as:
Access to VA Benefits for Survivors
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About The Va Disability Rating System
Veterans with a disability that developed or worsened while serving in the military or due to military service may be eligible for Service-Connected disability pay.
Conditions covered by these benefits typically include:
- Physical disabilities including hearing loss, chronic back pain, asthma and cancers caused by contact with toxic chemicals.
- Mental disabilities including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder , depression and traumatic brain injury .
Find a complete list of covered conditions here.
For every disability claim, the Department of Veterans Affairs assigns a severity rating ranging from 0-100%. This rating moves in 10% increments, is based on service treatment records, VA medical records, and private medical records directly relating to the disability.
For Veterans with more than one disability, the VA uses the combined rating table to calculate your disability percentage.
Fully Developed Disability Claims
The next fasted option is the Fully Developed Disability Claims program.
The primary difference between the FDDC program and filing a standard claim is the Veteran must provide all evidence upfront and certify there’s no additional evidence needed to make a claim decision.
At a minimum, the Veteran should provide:
- All military personnel records on the condition, and
- All service treatment records on the condition, and
- All private medical records on the condition, and
- All VA health records or supplementary information about related VA health records that the VA can request on your behalf
If the VA requires additional information, the claim typically gets removed from the FDDC program and is processed as a standard claim.
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Working With A Tdiu 100% Rating
Total disability based on individual unemployability is a benefit that allows veterans to be compensated at VAs 100 percent disability rate, even if their combined schedular disability rating does not equal 100 percent. TDIU is awarded when veterans are unable to maintain gainful employment as a result of their service-connected conditions. In this case, substantially gainful employment depends on whether a veterans annual income meets or exceeds the federal poverty threshold for a single person. Therefore, there are certain circumstances in which veterans may still be employed while receiving TDIU benefits.
To Summarize:
If you are a Veteran who believes they qualify for an increase in their VA disability rating, fill out the form below and one of our Claims Specialists will contact you.
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We Are With Those Who Need A Helping Hand
The Supplemental Security Income program is a program that provides income support to people with disabilities, people age 65 or older, or blind, who have low income and resources. U.S. Treasury general funds, not the Social Security trust funds, pay for SSI.
If you or someone you know may be eligible for SSI, visit to learn more and apply.
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Substantially Gainful Employment Vs Marginal Employment
To qualify for TDIU compensation, one of the conditions that you must meet is that you must be unable to maintain substantially gainful employment as a result of your service-connected disability . A decision that the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims issued in 2000, Faust v. West, provides a good definition of what substantially gainful employment means:
ne that provides annual income that exceeds the poverty threshold for one person, irrespective of the number of hours or days that the veteran actually works and without regard to the veterans earned annual income prior to his having been awarded a 100% rating based on individual unemployability
If you qualify for TDIU, you cannot do work that meets the definition of substantially gainful employment unless it falls within one exception. Well explain:
Under VA rules, you can still receive TDIU compensation and work as long as your work constitutes . The VA defines this as work that produces an earned annual income that:
Does not exceed the poverty threshold for one person, or Exceeds the poverty threshold but is still, under the circumstances, marginal, including working in a protected environment like a family business or sheltered workshop.
How To Get Tdiu
VA outlines TDIU regulations in 38 CFR § 4.16, which encompasses subsections and . Each subsection describes a way by which veterans may meet the requirements for TDIU. In order to qualify for TDIU under 38 CFR § 4.16, a veteran must have:
- One service-connected condition rated at 60% or more or
- Two or more service-connected conditions, one of which is rated at least 40% disabling, with a combined disability rating of at least 70%
Those who do not meet the schedular requirements under 38 CFR § 4.16 may still be considered for TDIU under 4.16. Under this subsection, VA must refer your entitlement to TDIU to the Director of Compensation Service for extraschedular consideration.
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Working While On Va Disability:
Since there is a lot of misinformation about the VA Disability Process many veterans arent aware of how certain aspects work. For instance, many Veterans assume that VA disability works just like Social Security Disability.
Social Security Disability is a program in place for individuals who cant work because of their disabilities.
VA Disability Compensation allows Veterans to work while still receiving the benefit, it means you can work and collect VA disability. If someone asks Can I work while on disability? The answer should be YES!!!
Lets examine how this works in more detail today.
First, a program like social security disability is one in which you are either granted or denied. So in other words, you either get it or you dont. Theres not really a gray area with social security.
This contrasts with VA Disability which is granted to Veterans on a scale from 0% to 100%. So, you can be granted VA Disability and not be compensated. This would be a 0% rating. Veterans are paid different amounts depending upon how high they are rated.
A rating of 10% might be $133.00, while a Veteran being paid at 100% might receive over $3,000 per month. There is some discrepancy on the amount a Veteran receives after he or she reaches 30% because they can file for dependents.
One of the biggest differences between social security and VA disability is the amount you can work after you are approved.
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How To Get A Disabled Veterans Id Card
Here is the reference to obtaining a military ID card for those disabled veterans who are rated at 100% disability. In addition to the provisions of the reference in this link you also need a letter from the VA stating that you are 100% disabled AND have a valid DD Form 214. Go to the link: www.dtic.mil/whs/directiv00013p.pdf
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What Is Total Disability Individual Unemployability
On the other hand, extra-schedular rating refers to Total Disability Individual Unemployability. The Veteran has a disability with a rating of less than 100%. However, the VA rater has decided that their Service-Connected disability or combination of disabilities means that the Veteran is unable to find or to maintain substantially gainful employment. If this is the case, the rater will assign the Veteran a TDIU rating. Their pay will be at the 100% rating, even if their disability is less than 100%.
What Disability Earns A 100 Percent Va Rating
This rating will be determined by the severity of your mental and physical conditions. Since the intent of VA disability is to make up for your ability to support yourself, the ratings rank what percentage you fall short of your full abilities. Thats why nobody can ever get more than a 100% rating, no matter how severe the combination of their disabilities.
This also means that if you are rated at a full 100%, the VA deems you completely 0% able to earn a living. If they gave you a 90% rating, then they are still thinking that you can earn 10% of your living expenses. We know this is a lot harder in real life than it looks on paper.
Youll get a 100% VA disability rating for:
- Active Tuberculosis affecting multiple parts of your body
- Totally incapacitating arthritis
- One year after shoulder, elbow, hip, or knee replacement surgery
- Complete loss of a hand or a foot
- Loss of use of a hand or a foot
- Unfavorable ankylosis of the entire spine
- several other severe conditions
You can see that a 100% total rating would be very severe. For many conditions not listed above, it falls into the regularity of the symptoms showing up. Less frequent flare-ups of depression, anxiety, and pain bring in lower ratings while more often and harder-hitting episodes increase your rating.
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% Va Disability And Your Working Status
One issue that frequently arises in this context is whether a veteran who is working is able to obtain a 100% VA Disability compensation, especially when their current disabilities do not meet the criteria for 100. VA Unemployability, also known as TDIU or IU covers veterans in this tricky predicament. Even under TDUI or IU, the question still remains, can you work and receive Unemployability? The name itself references being unemployable after all.
Now, while this may seem like an obvious yes or no answer when youre dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs, there rarely is a clear-cut yes or no.. The best answer to this question is that it depends on the specific TDIU claim and the veterans total disability rating. If you have time, feel free to check out below our video on VA unemployability and working. Past the video, we break down working and VA benefits further!
Combined Rating System For Veterans With Multiple Disabilities
Veterans with multiple disabilities use the combined rating system.
To use the combined rating system, arrange the disabilities in order by severity and locate the intersect of the two numbers on the table below.
The VA rounds the final figure to the nearest to 10 percent.
If the Veteran has more than two disabilities, find the combined value for the first two, without rounding, and repeat with the third disability. Once you have a final number, round to the nearest 10%.
For example, if disability 1’s rating is 40% and disability 2’s is 20%, the combined rating is 52%. That figure gets rounded to the nearest 10%, making the disability rating 50%.
For a three-disability example, if disability 1’s rating is 60%, disability 2’s rating is 30%, and disability 3’s rating is 20%, we first find the rating of 1 and 2. The rating of 1 and 2 comes out to be 72. We then take the first combined rating and find the intersect with disability 3. The final number comes out at an even 80% rating.
| 10 |
|---|
| $160.89 |
FOOTNOTES:
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How Do I Get A 100% Va Disability Rating
To receive a 100% VA disability rating, your disabilities must reach a total rating of 100%. Our VA disability attorneys can help you prove the severity of your disabilities so you can receive the VA benefits you deserve. We understand that you depend on your VA disability benefits to support your household, which is why we offer our legal services for veterans.
Contact Us For A Free Initial Consultation
To learn more about our experience and success in the area of veterans service connected disability claims, contact our downtown Atlanta office at to schedule a free initial consultation.
Rogers, Hofrichter & Karrh, LLC has received the AV rating under Martindale-Hubbells peer review rating system.*
* Martindale-Hubbell is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and the Judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell ratings fall into two categorieslegal ability and general ethical standards.
IN THIS SECTION
- Handled more than 5,000 Social Security disability hearings
- High success rate for obtaining benefits
- Exclusive focus on SSDI and workers compensation
- Frequent instructors and speakers at disability law seminars
- AV-Rated under Martindale- Hubbells peer review rating system
- Selected as Super Lawyers
- Handled more than 5,000 Social Security disability hearings
- High success rate for obtaining benefits
- Exclusive focus on SSDI and workers’ compensation
- Frequent instructors and speakers at disability law seminars
- AV-Rated under Martindale- Hubbell’s peer review rating system
- Selected as Super Lawyers
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How To Determine Your Monthly Va Disability Payment
To determine your monthly disability payment, navigate to the table below that fits your disability rating, marital and dependent status. Once you’re on the correct table, follow your rating across to your specific marital and dependent status.
If you have additional children or a spouse receiving Aid and Attendance benefits, you should include these figures from the added amounts table.
Jump directly to the tables here:
| $3,802.99 | $3,952.08 |
You may qualify for more depending on if your spouse receives Aid and Attendance benefits and the number of children you have. View the added amounts table here and how to calculate.
The Best Way To Get 100 Percent Va Disability Rating
Berry LawIncrease Rating
There are two different ways to get disability benefits for a VA 100 percent rating. The first is by having one or more disabilities that add up to a 100% disability rating. The other way to get 100% rating is through TDIU.
TDIU stands for Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability. Because the VA rating schedule is based on impairment of earning capacity, a veteran who cannot work should be entitled to 100% disability.
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