Four Tips On How To Get The Highest Ptsd Rating
If you have been fortunate enough to have been granted service connection for PTSD, then you have probably been given a disappointingly low rating. This is a very common situation so you are not alone. The VA regularly underrates PTSD claims. In the information that follows you will be provided with tips to get the highest rating for PTSD.
To rate PTSD claims the VA uses a diagnostic code for assistance. Below is the diagnostic code for PTSD from 50% to 100% . It is important to note that you do not have to have all the symptoms in that rating. You simply need to have enough of them to demonstrate that that particular rating level best fits your symptoms.
What is the VAlooking for?
The VA looks at how PTSD affects both your personal and work life. On the social side, the VA looks for whether or not you have lasting relationships with friends, family, and significant others. Are you involved in social activities? For example, are you apart of a sports team, club, or religious organization?
If you dont have many lasting relationships or involvement in social groups, explain why. Does your PTSD cause you to act in a way that makes it difficult to have personal relationships? PTSD can cause a wide range of symptoms, how does it manifest with you? Think about what specifically you do because of your PTSD.
How can youprove it?
Discuss Alcohol And Drug Use
If you’ve used alcohol and drugs to cope with your PTSD symptoms, it’s ok to write about that. This is your chance to explain that you couldn’t handle having PTSD and that your alcohol or drug use began, or worsened, after the stressful events occurred. You can also talk about whether you are now clean and sober and how long you have been in treatment, if applicable.
If you still use alcohol and drugs, talk about why you do so, and how often. Again, this can be evidence of the impact PTSD is having on your life.
Finally, write about how you are now feeling about your present life, whether you are in treatment for PTSD, and if you aren’t, why not. Sign your statement, and if there are several pages, add page numbers and staple the packet together.
Understanding Your Va Disability Rating For Ptsd
VA disability ratings range from 0% to 100%, but for PTSD claims, the standard ratings are 0%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%. These ratings are meant to capture the severity of your condition, and how much it affects your ability to work and take care of everyday life stuff.
- A 0% rating indicates that your PTSD doesnt interfere with your work or school or family life. This is not a common rating, because it doesnt make much sense for someone with a PTSD diagnosis to not experience its disabling impacts.
- A 30% rating means you have mild symptoms that may come and go, depending on your stress level. At the 30% rating medication and therapy can be effective at mitigating symptoms.
- A 50% rating applies when your PTSD causes more pronounced problems at work and in your daily life.
- A 70% rating means PTSD causes significant and frequent difficulties in your daily life, such as near continuous panic attacks. At this rating you also have trouble working and maintaining healthy relationships.
- A 100% rating is rare, and applies to people who are not able to function in the workplace, and have become socially isolated. The technical term is complete occupational and social impairment.
The good news is that a denied PTSD claim or a too-low rating is not the end of the story. You can appeal the decision and submit more evidence to support your claim.
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Appeal The Decision Or File A New Claim
The most straightforward approach is to appeal VAs decision on the original claim. You have up to one year after the first rating has been assigned to do so. If its been past one year, you can simply file a new claim. In either case, its strongly recommended that you present more evidence to bolster your claim and improve your chances of a more favorable decision.
Contact A Lawyer Today To Determine How To Get A 70 Ptsd Rating
Understanding the VAs methods for rating disabled veterans and different mental health conditions can be confusing. However, a disability lawyer can explain how you can get a 70 PTSD rating.
An attorney will also identify measures you can take to get more benefits using a status like TDIU or increase your rating to 100%. If you need a disability lawyer to help you achieve a higher disability rate, call today for a case evaluation.
Call or text or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
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Understanding The Vas Automatic 50% Ptsd Rating
If you are a veteran that has recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder , you have probably heard that you will get an automatic 50% disability rating in order to receive disability benefits. There is technically an automatic 50% disability rating for PTSD. However, not every veteran that has PTSD will get a 50% disability rating automatically. Furthermore, the automatic 50% disability rating is only for a limited time and covers a very specific set of circumstances. Here is a look at the VAs somewhat confusing 50% PTSD rating.
What If A Veteran Exhibits Symptoms Of Two Ptsd Ratings
Where two evaluations may apply, the VA must grant the higher evaluation if the disability picture is closer to that higher rating. Otherwise, the VA will assign the lower rating. If a veteran fits criteria for both the 50% and 70% ratings, the VA should grant the 70 percent rating.
Similarly, there is the issue of IU and PTSD. If a veteran has a 70% PTSD rating and does not meet the 100% rating, his PTSD could cause IU. If that is the case, then the VA should grant 100% through IU for the PTSD.
Symptoms that the VA considers when rating PTSD include, but are not limited to:
- impairment in thought processes or communication
- grossly inappropriate behavior
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How Do You Get A 70% Ptsd Va Rating
For any VA disability claim, you need to provide, to the VA, a diagnosis along with proof that the disorder is related to your time in the service. The diagnosis may be documented during a C& P exam with a VA-appointed mental health expert or your own mental health expert.
You should start by honestly relaying all your symptoms at your C& P exam. Its important to express the severity of your symptoms and not hold back on any details, even if they are embarrassing or bizarre. Some symptoms that may seem irrelevant might help your case. Please call if you would like to review the criteria of the symptoms with us.
During this evaluation, you will need to recall stressors, which are specific incidents or events from your time in service that caused to your PTSD. If you do not present evidence of a stressor, the VA will not service connect your PTSD and will most likely consider it as another mental health disorder. A veteran without an in-service stressor does not prevent future service-connection for a similar mental health condition.
You will also need to provide a medical nexus letter, which is a certified statement from your doctor that describes the connection between your condition and your military service. Your doctor must confirm that your condition was at least as likely as not caused by your military service.
Va Combined Ratings Table
The math can be a bit confusing if you try to do it manually thats where this combined ratings table may be helpful.
Lets try the same example with the table below.
We start with the 30% disability. Look at the combined ratings table and scroll down the left column until you find the number 30.
Then go to the right column until you find the 20. The 30 and 20 combine for 44. If those are your only two ratings, you would have a 44% VA service-connected disability rating, which would round down to 40%. But, were not done. We still have to add two 10% ratings.
Start on the left column again. This time, you will look for the 44 in the left column. Then find the intersection point with the 44 and 10. Your new rating is 50%.
Repeat this one more time, starting with 50, and meeting up with 10. Your new combined rating is 55%, which rounds up to 60%.
Table Instructions: List all disabilities in descending order. Start with the highest disability rating, find it in the left column, and find the intersecting point with the next highest disability rating. This is your combined rating for these two disabilities. If these are your only two disabilities, you can round to the nearest number divisible by 10 .
Repeat this process until you have run the numbers for all disability ratings.
Source: 38 CFR 4.25 Combined ratings table. Downloadable PDF: You can download this table here .
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Potential Impact Of The Brave Act On Di
Our findings definitively show that the BRAVE Act would increase DI program costs by allowing benefits to be paid to disabled veterans with VA ratings of 100% or IU whose impairments do not meet SSA’s current disability standards. The BRAVE Act could create a bifurcated DI program by establishing different medical eligibility standards for disabled veterans and the general population. The allowance rate for veterans with a total-disability rating would increase from its current level of 69 percent to 100 percent. Moreover, if disabled veterans with a VA rating of 100% or IU were automatically eligible for DI, an induced entry effect would likely ensue. That is, some disabled veterans who have not applied for DI would be encouraged to do so, and all of those new applications filed by insured workers not engaging in SGA would result in entitlement to DI benefits. Of the disabled veterans with a VA rating of 100% or IU, the 47 percent who had never before been entitled to DI would now be entitled if they were insured for disability at the point of disability onset and were not working above the SGA level.
The BRAVE Act could also affect the VA disability compensation program. Automatic entitlement to DI disabled-worker benefits could induce more veterans to file an initial benefit claim with VA or to seek a higher disability rating, increasing VA administrative and program costs.
Va Disability Ratings For Ptsd
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder can be the result of occurrences such as combat, personal trauma, or other extremely stressful events, and can have negative impacts on a veterans personal and professional life. In 2018, there were nearly 65,000 new VA disability claims for PTSD, and over 800,000 veterans receive compensation from the VA due to some level of PTSD symptoms.
In order to be assigned a disability rating from the VA for PTSD, a veteran must be able to show that their condition is connected to an event that occurred during their military service. The disability rating will be assigned based on the severity of the condition, as well as the amount of earnings the veteran has lost as a result of their condition.
In order for a veteran to receive VA disability benefits for PTSD, all of the following criteria must be met:
- The stressor or traumatic event must have happened during the veterans military service
- The veteran has been diagnosed with PTSD by a medical professional who is qualified to make a PTSD diagnosis
- The PTSD symptoms that the veteran experiences makes them unable to function as well as they were able to prior to the traumatic event
Heather Maxey works at a non-profit that addresses military ineligibility. She is an Army spouse, and met her husband while working as a Health Educator at Fort Bragg.
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Tdiu Is Commonly Granted When A Veteran Has A 70 Percent Disability Rating For Ptsd
Another distinctive feature of the 70 percent VA disability rating is that it is typically the stepping stone to a TDIU rating.
Why?
If you look at the picture of the veteran painted by the 70% rating criteria, you see a veteran who is likely struggling to get or keep substantially gainful employment. Think about it though. If you are experiencing intermittent, illogical speech patterns, are driven to act inappropriately due to panic attacks or depression, and are plagued by thoughts of suicide, it is going to be hard to get a job. And when those symptoms appear at work, it is going to be hard to keep that job.
Now, this post is not about proving entitlement to TDIU, so I wont go into detail about it here. If you are trying to prove entitlement to TDIU, here is a good post to start with.
Reasons For Di Allowances And Denials
Chart 14 shows medical denials of postaward first DI applications for veterans receiving a VA rating of 100% or IU, by reason. We again exclude 6,559 technical denials, or cases denied for nonmedical reasons from our sample. The greatest number of medical denials were for applicants deemed capable of work other than their previous work , followed by step-4 denials and step-2 denials .18 Over one-quarter of the DI denials involved impairments that SSA judged to be nonsevere in cases that VA rated 100% or IU. Among those rated IUindicating that VA found the individual unable to engage in SGE27 percent of those denied DI benefits were found by SSA to have a nonsevere impairment. Furthermore, over 60 percent of the veterans rated IU by VA and denied by SSA were judged to be capable of SGA, providing one measure of the extent to which the two programs’ evaluation criteria indicate their different purposes.
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Who Receives An Automatic 50 Ptsd Rating
To qualify for the automatic 50% PTSD rating a veteran must be discharged from active service as a result of their PTSD. The veteran must be experiencing enough symptoms that they cannot carry out their military duties, AND those symptoms must have been caused or worsened by a stressor or event during active service.
The 50 PTSD rating will only last until the scheduled evaluation, which takes place no longer than six months after discharge. At this time a VA-approved mental health professional will assess the severity of a veterans PTSD and likely determine a new rating. While an individual can still receive a 50% rating for PTSD, its certainly not automatic. Without the help of policy 38 CFR 4.129, the 50 PTSD rating criteria has many more requirements.
Can You Qualify For Total Disability Individual Unemployability With A 70% Ptsd Rating
PTSD can severely impact your life and make it challenging to find or maintain a job. It may also trigger emotional instability and affect your socializing capacity with other people.
If PTSD renders you unemployable, you may qualify for total disability individual unemployability . This category will qualify you for the maximum monthly compensation, even with a 70% rating.
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Assistance With Your Claims And Appeals
PTSD is an all-too-common condition suffered by veterans, and no matter how mild or severe it may be, it warrants compensation from VA. Build the strongest case you can to file a claim or an appeal with us today. You can contact us at 844-VET-LAWS to ensure that you receive the appropriate compensation for your PTSD.
Characteristics Of Va Awards For Veterans Rated 100% Or Iu
Before we delved into the data, we expected to find that MC/WW service membersthat is, those serving in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflictswould dominate the count of VA disability compensation awards with 100% and IU ratings. However, the analysis revealed something quite different: More than two-thirds of the individuals awarded compensation based on VA ratings of 100% or IU during fiscal years 20002006 were Vietnam-era veterans . Veterans who served during the Gulf War era, which VA defines as including not only the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts but also the 1990 Gulf War and the intervening period, accounted for only about one in seven awards.15 Only 13 percent of awards based on ratings of 100% or IU represented the veteran’s first VA benefit award. Within that group, Vietnam-era veterans constituted 72 percent of the awards and Gulf War-era veterans represented 21 percent. Progressive conditions and policy changes acknowledging the health effects of exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange likely contributed to the large share of initial VA awards for Vietnam-era veterans.
As one might expect, the predominance of Vietnam-era veterans among the awardees is reflected in the concentration of awards in older age groups . Claimants aged 5064 represented 52 percent of awards based on ratings of 100% or IU. Less than 4 percent of awards based on those ratings went to individuals aged 1834.
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Va Ptsd Increase From 50 To 70
In this post, Ill show you how to get a VA PTSD increase from 50% to 70%, even if youve already filed your VA disability claim increase or have been denied in the past.
PTSD is rated on a scale from 0% to 100%, with breaks at 10%, 30%, 50%, and 70%.
The average VA rating for PTSD is 70% and a total of 91.5% of veterans with a PTSD rating are If youre wondering how to get a 70% PTSD rating, youre not alone. The average VA rating for PTSD is 70%, and 91.5% of veterans with a PTSD rating are rated at 30% or higher.
VA disability ratings for PTSD depend upon the Frequency, Severity, and Duration of your symptoms over time.
At VA Claims Insider, we call this Severity of Symptoms.
The more severe your mental health symptoms are, the higher the VA rating youll receive for PTSD.
If youre trying to increase your PTSD rating from 50% to 70%, you need to submit evidence that shows your symptoms meet the higher rating criteria under the law.