Jim.

Thank you for all your blog postings regarding VA disability questions. The information you provide is very helpful.

My question - I am 80% service connected. I have several other conditions for which I may be successful in getting ratings. Of course, it will still take sometime for me to reach 100% s/c. My DAV rep is recommending I apply for 100% IU and, if successful, cease pursuing additional service connected ratings. If I am successful in getting 100% IU, will I still be allowed to seek ratings for my s/c conditions or should I just give up doing so.

I sincerely believe long-term I can be successful in reaching 100% s/c.

Your advice will be sincerely appreciated.

Reply:

I have to caution you that you're making a common mistake. You're asking too many people for information. There's an old saying that too many cooks spoil the broth. That's true of getting advice about benefits from too many people. If you trust your representative, that should be your go-to source. If not, you should walk away and find another source of reliable data.

Having said all that...to chase a 100% schedular rating is an exercise in futility. I hear this once or twice weekly. Many vets have it in their mind that the 100% schedular rating is somehow superior to a 100% TDIU rating. The truth is that the TDIU rating is a superior classification. The money and benefits are the same as a 100% schedular rating and the benefit is almost impossible to lose. The only difference is that with a TDIU rating, you aren't allowed to pursue full time work.

At 80% you may spend the rest of your life trying to get to 100% and never make it. This is because of the Combined Ratings Table (CRT). Click http://veteransbenefitsatoz.com/Combined_Ratings.html

The CRT (or VA math as we call it here) makes it very difficult to reach 100% the way you're attempting it. While you're trying to get there, and you may spend many years in the effort, you'll be losing money and benefits that you could have had with a TDIU rating.

There's a lot more about TDIU here http://www.vawatchdog.org/tdiu-unemployability.html

 

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