Can You Still Work Full Time If You Have 100% Service-connected Military

Many of our VA inability blog posts on this website have discussed the difficulties of getting a 100% VA Disability rating through combined percent ratings. The closer you get to 100%, the more than difficult it becomes to get in that location through combined ratings. You see, ii + 2 does not equal iv in the optics of the VA. They take percentages of percentages. Check out our VA disability calculator here! Nosotros've also gone over the concept of Total Disability Due to Private Unemployability (TDIU) or IU, and the criteria for obtaining these VA disability benefits. As these pages have hopefully fabricated clear, there are many different ways to obtain a schedular rating of 100% VA disability bounty: the one we advocate for often is TDIU benefits.

Schedular 100% VA Disability and Your Working Condition

1 outcome that ofttimes arises in this context is whether a veteran who is working is able to obtain a 100% VA Inability compensation, peculiarly when their current disabilities do not meet the rating criteria for 100. VA Unemployability, also known every bit TDIU or IU covers veterans in this catchy predicament. Even nether a schedular TDIU rating or IU, the question still remains, can you work and receive Unemployability? The name itself references existence unemployable subsequently all.

Now, while this may seem like an obvious "yes or no" reply when you're dealing with the Department of Veterans Diplomacy, in that location rarely is a clear-cutting "yes or no.". The best reply to this question is that it depends on the specific TDIU claim and the veterans' total disability rating. If yous have time, experience free to check out below our video on VA unemployability and working. Past the video, we break down working and VA benefits farther!

TDIU is not Social Security Disability

It is easy to equate the VA'south version of total disability with the Social Security Assistants's version. The important thing to call back is that veteran'south claims and TDIU veterans' benefits are non structured in the same way as Social Security Disability (SSDI). In many ways, the requirements to obtain IU benefits (being paid at the 100% rate) are more lenient than those of Social Security. In order to qualify for SSD, you must be found to be completely unable to work, under whatsoever atmospheric condition or circumstances. Typically, this finding is backed past the opinion of a vocational proficient and/or a medical professional person.

100% va disability and working (unemployability TDIU)

VA Claims for Disabled Veterans VA Unemployability

If a veteran is working and also filing a disability claim for total disability individual unemployability past filling out VA form 21-8940, the VA volition look at the veteran's earnings from the work. Specifically, the VA is looking to see if the veteran ismaintaining substantial gainful employment. The VA defines "gainful employment" equally any earnings from work that are in a higher place the annual poverty level every bit determined past the Census Agency. This means that by definition, piece of work beneath the poverty threshold isnon considered to be gainful employment. In fact, the VA defines work below the poverty threshold as "marginal" employment. The VA regulation farther provides that fifty-fifty if annual income exceeds the poverty threshold, if the veteran is working in a "sheltered" environs (protected work surround) or for a family concern, he or she may still have eligibility for IU benefits. Now, permit'due south wait at each of these situations individually.

100% VA Disability and Working vs. TDIU and Working

Under VA regulations, withal, the criterion for IU claims is not whether or not the veteran iscapable of working; it is whether or not the veteran can appoint insubstantially gainful occupation. Co-ordinate to the VA'southward procedural manual, substantially gainful occupation refers to "an occupation that is usually followed by the non-disabled with earnings common to the particular occupation in the community where the veteran resides".

In other words, a substantially gainful occupation is a job that a non-disabled person can perform, with earnings above the poverty threshold. For instance, "substantially gainful" might include a chore every bit an office clerk, a bookkeeper, a flying attendant, or a sales associate. A substantially gainful occupation would crave the employee to be competent, efficient, able to maintain a customer relationship, and reliable.

This is important, considering "substantially gainful" is not the standard that the regional office raters employ. Instead, they tend to drift toward the Social Security mindset, where the veteran has to evidence that he or she is completely unable to work.

Marginal Employment and VA TDIU Approval Rate

If a veteran's earnings arebelow the poverty level, that job cannot be considered substantially gainful. Instead, information technology is consideredmarginal employment. Marginal employment can too include employment in which the veteran is making more than the poverty level, merely is working in a sheltered environment, such every bit a workshop or family business organisation. Under the regulations, if a veteran is engaging in marginal employment, the RO cannot automatically deny a claim for IU on that basis.

sheltered employment TDIU 100% VA Disability rating

Sheltered Employment and VA Unemployability Benefits?

In its endeavor to be sympathetic toward veterans, the government realizes that family members or friends might engage a veteran in employment that accommodates his or her service-connected disabilities. For example, a family friend might rent a veteran to assist with the payroll in his company, allowing the veteran to work in a dissever part, away from other coworkers, so as not to exacerbate his PTSD. Equally some other example, the employer might allow the veteran to have as much fourth dimension off equally needed when he has attacks of a migraine headache.

The important thing to remember is that, in the VA's definition of "sheltered employment," there is no budgetary cap on how much a veteran tin can earn if he or she is employed in a sheltered surround. Therefore, a veteran can be making to a higher place—even significantly beyond—the poverty level and still be eligible for IU while only working odd jobs or other sheltered jobs. While this might non seem exactly off-white, it must exist remembered that these vets are being accommodated, and they would non exist able to function as effectively in a competitive environment.

Oftentimes we find that the VA—and their medical experts—have a poor understanding of the concept of marginal employment when information technology comes to determining whether or not a veteran can appoint in essentially gainful occupation. Considering this is where the ultimate question of whether or not you can go dorsum to work comes into play. If you are working part-time to make ends encounter, and your earnings are under the poverty level, the RO has no ground to deny your merits on that alone.

If you do decide to get back to work, and the RO denies your VA disability merits for IU, do not be disheartened. The regional offices oftentimes deny IU claims for even the very all-time of cases. Your best course of activity is to appeal that decision. We accept plant that the Board of Veterans Appeals renders more favorable decisions in Individual Unemployability cases.

working and TDIU benefits 100% va disability

Can You Work and Receive Individual Unemployability (100% VA Disability)?

So, what does all of this mean on a practical level? Yes, it's possible; start, information technology means that VA law does allow for some veterans who work to also receive VA unemployability benefits at the aforementioned time, depending on the circumstances. Second, it means that disabled veterans who are working should not foreclose the idea of obtaining individual unemployability benefits based on erroneous information they may take received from others that they are not eligible for IU simply considering they still accept a recent work history.

In these cases, it is important for the earnings to exist examined in club to assess if the veteran is above or below the poverty threshold. A veteran tin can produce noun proof earnings through pay stubs, taxation returns, employer messages, and/or a Social Security Earnings Record. If the earnings are higher up the poverty threshold, an evaluation needs to have place to decide if the veteran is working in a "sheltered" environs. For example, if a veteran is provided accommodations or leniencies past his or her employer on account of service-connected disabilities, such as excessive time off, the ability to leave work at will, etc., this may exist a "sheltered" work situation. Still, it goes without maxim that the veteran would take to have corroborating medical show to prove that the workplace is sheltered, for case, an employer letter verifying the excessive accommodations, etc.

The bottom line when it comes to IU is that veterans and veterans' advocates have to know the VA's rules on veterans' inability and rating requirements better than the VA itself. The VA is non going to willingly concede that a working veteran may be eligible for IU inability bounty in a rating decision. In order to prove your case, you may need a top-ranked VA law firm that is used to dealing with disability law, a law house such as Hill and Ponton

To acquire more, please review our VA Unemployability Guide written by our disability attorneys or schedule a free consultation today.