The nature of military service makes veterans especially at-risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. One study suggested that as many as 23 percent of all veterans using VA facilities for care have experienced PTSD, compared with only six percent of people in the general population.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a recognized disability for which veterans can receive VA disability benefits. If you have been diagnosed with this condition as a result of your military service, your claim will likely be approved. The amount of benefits you receive, though, may not be what you are entitled to obtain.
Learn how the VA should award you benefits for your PTSD, and how they can try to shortchange you.
The VA Rating System: An Overview
With any claim for disability benefits, once the VA determines that you have a disability and are entitled to benefits, the next question they tackle is deciding how much in benefits you should receive. They do this by assigning your disability a rating ranging from zero to 100, in increments of ten. The higher the number, the more your disability impacts your daily life and employability.
How the VA Rates Mental Health Conditions
When considering any mental health condition such as PTSD, the VA should consider your individual symptoms and assign each of them a disability rating. One symptom may have a rating of 30, while another might have a rating of 70. The more a specific symptom impacts your day-to-day life, the higher the rating it should receive.
With a condition like PTSD, it is not uncommon to have numerous symptoms that each have different ratings assigned to them. When this happens, the VA is not supposed to take an average of your ratings. For instance, suppose you have five symptoms and they have ratings of 30, 70, 40, 70, and 50. Your total VA rating should not be 50, which is the approximate average of these numbers.
Instead, the VA should assign you benefits based on the most severe symptom you experience. In the example above, this would mean that the VA should give you a VA disability rating of 70. If they do not, you could be missing out on hundreds of dollars of benefits every month.
Make Sure You Get the Benefits You Deserve
When you receive your award letter after filing for benefits based on PTSD, make sure to check your disability rating. If it seems low, it could be that the CA did not accurately calculate your rating. If this happens, reach out to Centonzio Law immediate for help.
You can reach us by calling (727) 900-7290 or contacting us online. Remember that you only have a limited amount of time to appeal an incorrect VA disability rating. By contacting Centonzio Law as soon as you receive your award letter, you can rest assured that we will get to work getting you the benefits your PTSD deserves immediately. Speak to us today about your case.