Your retirement plans . . .

[RHINOWSO]

While not related to retirement / pension, this is something that might help people here.

When I separated from AD back in the 2010s, I did the VA thing and received 60% rating by their funky chicken math (how 80% = 60% I'll never know.). A portion of it was my lower back and my neck from flying. I really didn't give it much thought and went on with reserve and civilian life.

Over the years my neck and lower back have gotten worse, tolerable but worse. A friend who was USAF worked with this organization to get a re-evaluation and it worked great for him. It took some convincing but eventually I did their re-evaluation / assessment program as well, which resulted in a significantly increased rating. It runs about $3K but you'll recoup that with a better rating and the initial phone consult is free.

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[Brett327]

While not related to retirement / pension, this is something that might help people here.

When I separated from AD back in the 2010s, I did the VA thing and received 60% rating by their funky chicken math (how 80% = 60% I'll never know.). A portion of it was my lower back and my neck from flying. I really didn't give it much thought and went on with reserve and civilian life.

Over the years my neck and lower back have gotten worse, tolerable but worse. A friend who was USAF worked with this organization to get a re-evaluation and it worked great for him. It took some convincing but eventually I did their re-evaluation / assessment program as well, which resulted in a significantly increased rating. It runs about $3K but you'll recoup that with a better rating and the initial phone consult is free.

Disabled Veteran Benefits - Patriot Benefit Consulting

Get the most out of your disabled veteran benefits with our disability benefit questionnaire, Nexus Letters for veterans, & our free consulting services.

patriotbenefitconsulting.com

VSOs should also be able to assist with this. Most are free.

 

[RHINOWSO]

Agreed, VSOs are free but mine (DAV) basically spent 10 min and listed the 4 things I already knew I could claim. Not really helpful other than that. Did the VA DR consult which was slanted in their favor; as opposed to having a paid consultant team on your side.

Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick 2.

Just saying if you are rated at 50-70% already and separated long ago, more than likely a consult and potentially re-file can get you a large difference in decisions.

Best of luck.

 

[Gatordev]

Just saying if you are rated at 50-70% already and separated long ago, more than likely a consult and potentially re-file can get you a large difference in decisions.

Any idea if that opens you up to also losing a decision if you're currently asymptomatic? I have one issue that most certainly could come back since it can be a genetic ortho condition, but thanks to PT was "cured" after retirement.

 

[Angry]

Any idea if that opens you up to also losing a decision if you're currently asymptomatic? I have one issue that most certainly could come back since it can be a genetic ortho condition, but thanks to PT was "cured" after retirement.

Obviously without knowing your specifics the answer is “it depends” or “42% chance of reversal.”

But the general rule as described to me by an attorney who handles VA claims cases is that they can and will re-evaluate all your existing claims if you ask for anything to be re-rated. So make sure the juice is worth the squeeze before you let that toothpaste out of the tube.

 

[Brett327]

Any idea if that opens you up to also losing a decision if you're currently asymptomatic? I have one issue that most certainly could come back since it can be a genetic ortho condition, but thanks to PT was "cured" after retirement.

Generally, yes. Any request for a rating change will subject your entire rating to scrutiny.

 

[RHINOWSO]

While it supposedly can, this didn’t happen in my situation. It was something I was potentially concerned about as well but it’s a rarity from what I was told.

I have 4 issues. I made a claim to have two, which have become more severe in the intervening years, re-assessed / rated.

We provided evidence for those two issues only and the VA assessed the evidence & agreed; increasing the ratings for those and they did nothing for the other two.

We didn’t mention them and nothing was done with them - ie, we didn’t mention them, nor did the VA ask about them.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I have been dealing with VSO's the past year in my volunteer role, of which several have been VSO's for many years and one has trained VSO's, they all have been trained by the VA on the various rules. The VA can only reduce your percentage in certain circumstances, the biggest mistake is people go to make a claim for issue B and are asked if they want to revisit issue A, that now opens up issue A for a re-evaluation which unless you have evidence has become worse you don't want to do. If you make a claim for issue B and that is it then only issue B will be looked at, the caveat is if issue B is related to issue A. A good VSO will look at your existing percentages and let you know if you should or should not have it re-evaluated, unfortunately an uneducated VSO that isn't familiar with the rating schedule could recommend a re-evaluation when the threshold to increase the rating is not realistic. The other thing to remember is the 10 year rule https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-...bject-group-ECFRb3a446cfa51526c/section-3.957