Category: Disability Compensation

A “total disability rating based on individual unemployability,” often referred to as TDIU, IU, or individual unemployability, is an avenue for the VA to compensate a veteran who can’t work due to service-connected disabilities at the 100% rate when the veteran’s disabilities do not actually combine to 100%.

The VA announced on Monday that it is beginning the process to amend its regulations and establish presumptive service connection for certain conditions from exposure to contaminated drinking water at U.S. Marine Corp Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. The VA already provides health care services to veterans who have any of 15 conditions and who were […]

A study published Monday in Brain, A Journal of Neurology, found that “blast exposure may negatively affect brain-aging trajectories at the microstructural tissue level,” even among service members who felt nothing from the blast. It’s especially disturbing the study found signs of brain degeneration and early aging even in veterans who reported they never experienced blast-related symptoms […]

VA’s requirement to use standardized forms to start claims and appeals has gone into effect as of March 25, 2015. In addition, the VA’s new “Intent to File a Claim” process replaced the old “informal claims” process. I’ve already discussed the details of the new standardized forms requirement here, as well as the intent to […]

In September 2014, the Federal Circuit decided Beraud v. McDonald, carving out an exception to the general rule that a “subsequent final adjudication of a claim which is identical to a pending claim that has not been finally adjudicated terminates the pending status of the earlier claim.” Now, under Beraud, when a veteran submits evidence to the VA within […]

It’s very common for veterans to suffer from tinnitus without accompanying hearing loss. Unfortunately, when a veteran submits a claim for service connection for tinnitus without hearing loss, VA examiners will often render a negative nexus opinion that goes something like this: “Although the veteran served in a high hazardous noise MOS, the veteran has bilaterally normal hearing indicating […]

In my last post, I briefly discussed VA’s new “intent to file a claim” process which replaces the current informal claim process on March 25, 2015. Now I take a closer look at the specifics of the new claims filing process and how it can determine the effective date of a claim.

The VA amended its regulations today introducing a uniform disability claims form that VA says will allow it to better service veterans. The new rule goes into effect beginning March 25, 2014, and includes three major changes: Requirement that all VA benefits claims (pension, compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, and monetary burial benefits) be filed on […]

A recent study has confirmed that the concussive blast wave from an explosion can be equally as damaging as an impact injury to the head when it comes to traumatic brain injuries. The study set out to determine whether there was any difference in the level of symptoms suffered by service members “with blast-related vs. non-blast-related concussive […]

After years of pressure from lawmakers in Congress, VA has finally rolled out an open burn pit registry by which veterans can document exposure to airborne hazards, including smoke from burn pits. The potential effects of open air burn pits were first raised in 2008, and since that time, hundreds of veterans have returned home with significant respiratory problems and […]