Jim,
I’ve been reading more and more about Veterans on IU who are rated as permanent being called in for re-evaluations. Have you seen this trend? Being on IU P/T for a little over 10 years and over 55 years old and not planning on asking for an increase on any SC disability do you think I would have any reason to be concerned? I also have no earned income.
Reply:
Keep in mind that the following applies to 100% ratings.
The word "permanent" when used by VA doesn't mean permanent in the way that most people understand its definition. To your VA it only implies that the veteran is eligible to apply for a set of benefits that otherwise aren't available. The usual phrase that we look for to establish whether a claim is temporary or permanent is "no future exams are scheduled" or "future exams are scheduled". If there are no future exams scheduled, the veteran is rated as permanently disabled and eligible for his/her dependents to apply for CHAMPVA and Chapter 35 DEA benefits.
The language is intentionally tricky and deceptive. Just because no future exams are scheduled doesn't tell you that there never will be a future exam.
However, a veteran may be subjected to a C & P exam at any time no matter the rating. If VA has any reason to believe that there may have been an improvement in the veterans condition, they will call the veteran in for an exam. This can occur any time. The veteran does not become "protected" until the rating is held for 20 consecutive years. After that, the only reason for changing the rating is that some sort of fraud is proven to have happened during the history of the award.
VA will often subject a veteran to a C & P exam at about the 9th year of the rating. When a veteran has been rated as 100% permanently disabled for 10 years, there is a subtle change that occurs. Once that point is reached, the veterans dependent survivors become eligible for DIC benefits no matter the cause of the veterans death. Prior to that, the veteran must die of a service connected condition or the dependent survivors will not be eligible for DIC.
The exam that occurs just prior to the 10 year anniversary of the 100% rating is designed to lower the rating and ensure that the veterans dependents aren't eligible for the DIC benefit.
You're well past that 10 year mark so you have little to worry about. In general I like veterans to think of their relationship with VA as one that is always active and that can't be ignored. VA is on a constant quest to give veterans the lowest possible award and to lower that at any opportunity.