The first thing that the Veteran’s Administration (VA) will do is review your application to determine if you qualify for benefits. This is far from a given, and the VA can and does turn down applications.

TYPES OF INJURIES THAT COULD QUALIFY FOR DISABILITY BENEFITS

You can qualify for veterans’ disability benefits through a wide variety of injuries.

Here are some injuries that could make you eligible for veterans’ benefits:

• Loss of a limb
• Permanent neck or back injuries
• Hearing loss
• Illness from exposure to a substance
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Loss of range of motion

PTSD has become a common ground for a disability application since this country has been at war for 20 years. Before you file a claim, you must have a diagnosis from a doctor who meets certain qualifications. In addition, six months need to have elapsed from when you first noticed symptoms. PTSD diagnoses will start at a 50 percent disability rating and can increase to 100 percent.

HOW DISABILITY RATINGS WORK

To receive disability benefits, you must have served on active duty and received a rating for a disability. Ratings are put in terms of percentages.Ratings describe how incapacitated you are from your injury. They go in increments of ten percent, and the higher your disability rating, the more money that you can receive.

The VA will give you the disability rating. That is not something that your own physician will do. They will review your medical file and doctor’s statement in making that decision. Your disability rating is supposed to represent the “detriment” to your earnings capacity from your disability. Some veterans may have multiple disabilities, making their rating even more complicated. If your rating is not what you think it should be, you can file an appeal or claim to possibly get a higher rating.

WHAT HAPPENS ONCE YOU RECEIVE YOUR RATING

Once you receive a disability rating, it is not necessarily the final and permanent rating.

Here are some rules about what the VA can do to change your disability rating:

• The VA could require medical examinations in the future to verify that the veteran still suffers from the disability.
• The VA cannot lower a rating for a 100 percent disability unless there were 12 straight months of “material improvement.”
• If you have had a certain rating for 20 years, you have protections from reductions.
• The VA must give you notice if it intends to examine you to reevaluate your rating.
• You have the right to appeal any decision that reduces your rating.
• You can also get reevaluated if you believe that your disability rating has increased.

The VA is often not easy when it comes to veterans’ disability claims and benefits. Federal law tries to make the process easy for veterans because the entire system aims to ensure that those who sacrificed their health and well-being in service of their country receive compensation for their injuries. However, the VA often makes the process needlessly hard. In their defense, they believe that they are protecting taxpayer dollars. Unfortunately, countless veterans have their benefits or disability payments wrongly denied.

WHEN YOU CAN QUALIFY FOR VA DISABILITY

The VA does not get the final say when it comes to your benefits. The law gives you the right to appeal any denial of benefits. This is often what veterans have to do to get what they deserve. The VA has an entire legal apparatus whose job it is to defend the agency when it says that you do not deserve a check. This is why you need one strong lawyer who is unafraid to take on the federal bureaucracy.

WHY THE VA WILL DENY BENEFITS

Veterans are often shocked to find that the VA has denied their claim.

Frequent reasons that the VA gives for denial include:

• The VA claims that there is a lack of medical evidence that backs your claim.
• They disagree with the doctor’s statement that accompanies your claim.
• The VA says that your injury is not service-related.
• Your injury appears to be a pre-existing condition.
• Your symptoms are not enough to merit compensation.
• The agency claims that you did not follow the proper process or timelines.

HOW TO APPEAL A BENEFITS DENIAL

The VA’s denial is not the end of the story. You have the legal right to pursue multiple levels of review of your denied claim. Before you begin to think about an appeal, you should hire a disability appeal attorney to help you state your case. This is invaluable when you are facing the VA’s legal machinery.

Your attorney will work with you to figure out the best way to appeal your denial. The VA offers appeal options, and you will want our help to figure out the right one for your case.

Here are your appeal choices:

• Supplemental claim – You have a year after you receive a claim denial to file a supplemental claim. This has the same reviewer.You can either add new evidence of your own, or ask the VA to retrieve additional evidence for your file, such as medical records. Here, your thought is that the VA did not have enough evidence when it rejected your claim.
• Higher-level review – When you do not have any more evidence to add, but you still think that the VA got it wrong when they rejected your claim, you can seek a higher-level review. While you cannot submit additional evidence, your attorney could speak with the reviewer over the phone and explain where the VA got it wrong. The reviewer would go over your file and decide whether the previous reviewer made an error.
• Board level appeal – If you receive a denial of your initial claim, you have the option to seek the above two levels of review. You can also go to the Board of Veterans Appeals to have a judge decide your case. You can go straight to the Board following a denial, or you could seek additional review first. Here, you may have a hearing in front of a judge, and you have the option to submit more evidence on your behalf. The hearing part of your appeal is optional. You could still file an appeal without requesting a hearing in your case.