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I have posted some of my experience here with the VA and am willing to share again. I was an army infantryman. I did two tours in Iraq, and one in Desert Shield/Storm. I was in the active army as well as the Army Guard. Yep, I am old and worn out. I am rated at 100% disabled from the VA (Individual Unemployable (IU)). I am also receiving disability from the Social Security Administration. I am only 39 years old and will never be able to gainfully be employed again. As I type this there is a ‘There is Strong, and then there is Army Strong’ commercial playing in the other room. Anyway, that is enough angst. I am rated 50% Traumatic Brain Injury (Migraine w Aura), 40% TBI Visual Loss, 10% Tinnitus, 70% PTSD, and Special Monthly Compensation. I used the American Legion as my Veteran’s Service Office. It has taken me over 3 years to receive IU status through a series of appeals and various exams. It took me less than two months to receive Social Security benefits, thanks to my completed VA paperwork. Overall my VA experience has been positive. Remember that there are two parts to the VA, the care portion and the benefits. The two are separate. My primary care is done through the local Traumatic Brain Injury clinic. The staff there is fantastic and very attentive. The TBI clinic has a dedicated social worker that coordinates my transportation (I am unable to drive), is working to get me a service dog, and facilitates my other clinical appointments. My experience with other clinics has been OK. It has been about what one would expect with any place really; there’s been some good and some not so great. There’s never been any clinic or doctor that I was not able to see someone else if I didn’t like the first doctor. As far as the benefits portion, I am now satisfied. I am not happy, who would be? I’d rather be healthy and productive. I recently found out I have colon cancer, and I am fairly certain it was environmentally caused; there’s no hereditary trace of it. The tinnitus rating is weird and a bit of a joke. It just came through and was backdated. It was weird, I originally claimed hearing loss, because, well I was infantry and a lot of things go boom. It was denied, the TBI was approved, no problems. I appealed, and the appeal was denied. So, the VA conceded that I was I blown up but it must have been silent explosions. All of a sudden, two weeks ago, tinnitus comes back approved. Thanks VA. Feel free to ask any questions, and I will answer if I can. A good resource is http://vets.yuku.com/directory
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Mar 8, 2011 04:35
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Isaac Asimov posted:And what's up with social security disability comp? It's for when you are totally unable to work anymore and can be combined with VA benefits. You do not have to be rated at 100% to be eligible, you just can not be gainfully employed or able to be work. It pays out based on what you put into it as well as percentage based on dependent children under the age of 18. There is an accelerated wounded warrior application process linked off the official SSA webpage. For me the process was amazingly simple, but judging from the number of daytime lawyer commercials, it may not always be that way.
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Mar 8, 2011 16:02
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