When Can the Va cut a Veteran's Disability compensation Benefits?
Veterans fight for years to get disability recompense benefits for injuries or diseases that effect from the soldiery service. The fight isn't over when the Veteran receives compensation, however, as the Va can and will sell out disability recompense ratings. The purpose of this record is to communicate some of the more common scenarios when the Va can or cannot sell out a disability recompense rating.
When Can the Va cut a Veteran's Disability compensation Benefits?
Before discussing the more common scenarios, it is crucial for the Veteran to act swiftly when he or she gets the letter that the Va is proposing to sell out their compensation. First, do not miss the pre-reduction examination; if you do, the Va can sell out your monthly recompense on that basis alone. Second, find aggressive and competent help - a Veteran aid society or a zealous Veteran's attorney; allowance cases can be won or lost in the early stages of the pre-reduction process.
Having said that, here are some common scenarios that can lead to a allowance and the general rules that allow or don't allow the Va to sell out a Veteran's disability recompense benefits.
1) Incarceration. The Va can sell out recompense for any Veteran who is imprisoned in a local, state or federal jail or prison for more than 60 days. On the 61st day, the Va can sell out the compensation; generally, if the impairment rating was 20% or higher the Va is not required to pay any more than 10% (this estimate is the current law, and can be branch to change).
2) Unprotected Ratings. If the Veteran has an "unprotected rating" - ratings that are less than 100% or that have been in place for less than 5 years - the Va can sell out recompense when there is an actual turn in the Veteran's disability, in light of both the whole healing history of the disability and in light of the Veteran's ability to function under the ordinary conditions of life and work.
3) Stabilized Ratings. A Veteran has a "stabilized rating" if the disability, and the rating estimation assigned by the Va, have continued at the same level for 5 years or more. The Va may not sell out a stabilized rating unless it can show, after a communicate of all evidence in the Veterans' record (medical, employment, and otherwise) that there is a "sustained improvement" in the disability.
4) 100% Ratings. The Va often reduces 100% ratings because, after a periodic examination, it determines that the current symptoms match a lower rating level in the Va Diagnostic Code program of Ratings. This is a common Va error - Veterans who have their 100% rating reduced should be sure to challenge the Va. What the Va is supposed to do, before reducing a 100%, or total, disability rating, is correlate the exam granting the 100% estimation to the new exam, to resolve if there has been a "material improvement" in the disability, and a "material improvement" for the Veteran under the ordinary conditions of life, while working or seeking work. In other words, the Va has to not only correlate the two exams mentioned above, but they have to look at the whole history of the Veteran's health and resolve that there has been a material improvement in the healing condition.
5) Continuous Ratings. When a Veteran's disability has been rated at (or above) an impairment percentage for more than 20 years, the Va is not lawfully permitted to sell out the rating unless it can show that the rating was procured straight through fraud.
If you get a letter from the Va proposing to sell out your hard-earned Veteran Disability recompense Benefits, do two things:
1) Don't miss your re-examination appointment at the Va healing Center!
2) palpate a competent and aggressive Veteran aid society or Veterans' attorney immediately after you receive the letter proposing the reduction, or the letter scheduling you for a pre-reduction healing exam. Often, what is done between this time and the Va Regional Office allowance decision can make the discrepancy between victory and defeat in appeals down the path.
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