| Matthew Hill: |
Hello, and welcome to the Hill and Ponton VA video blog. I’m Matthew Hill.
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| Carol Ponton: |
I’m Carol Ponton.
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| Matthew Hill: |
Today we want to talk about a question we get all the time, and it doesn’t seem there’s much information out there about it, and that is, “What is the difference between 100% and individual unemployability?”
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| Carol Ponton: |
The 100% is when you add all of your VA ratings up, and using VA math you get to 100%. Just so you know how VA math works, VA math says if you have a 60% rating, only 40% of your body is left, so the next time you get a rating, say it’s 20%, instead of adding 20 to 60 you say it’s 20% of the 40% left, which is 8%, which gives you a 10% additional rating, not the 20%.
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| Matthew Hill: |
It goes on and on like that. Essentially the closer you get to 100%, the harder it is to get 100%.
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| Carol Ponton: |
If you have 90%, you have to get another 50% rating to get 100%, so it’s really hard to get that knock, but you can, but it is. The VA- Go ahead.
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| Matthew Hill: |
I was going to say, as a side note, if you’re trying to put together your ratings, we have a disability rating calculator now on our website on the homepage under the VA Law. Check that out, because I spent the first five years of my career being utterly confused on how they put one thing and another together. Back to what you’re saying.
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| Carol Ponton: |
The VA realized it’s very hard to get 100%, and there are many veterans who cannot work because of their service-connected problems, so they have unemployability. This is identical to the 100% except for the veteran is not working and their rating doesn’t reach 100%. In order to qualify for unemployability, you have to be not working because of a service-connected problem and have one rating of 60% or more or a combined rating of 70% or more.
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| Matthew Hill: |
With one of those combined ratings being 40%.
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| Carol Ponton: |
Right. If you have that, then the VA should consider whether you are 100% disabled because of your service-connected problems. If they find that, they give you unemployability. You get the same benefits, everything is identical, except one thing: You can’t work. Every year they’re going to send you a form, “I find you 100%, permanently, and totally disabled under unemployability,” but there’s a catch. Every year you have to fill out the form they send you that says, “I haven’t worked.” If you don’t fill the form out-
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| Matthew Hill: |
Well, it asks if you’ve worked or not, and another thing people don’t realize sometimes is you can work. You can work and make up to the poverty line.
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| Carol Ponton: |
Well, the closer you get to the poverty line, the more I’d be concerned.
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| Matthew Hill: |
This is theory. I’m speaking in theory.
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| Carol Ponton: |
In theory, because remember, there’s no firm law as to exactly what working means as far as dollars. They say the poverty line, but I’ve seen people brought back in and questioned when it’s significantly less than that. I’m just saying, you can’t work, you make 2, 3, 4 thousand, I don’t think you’re going to have a problem, but if you get close to $12,000 a year, I would be concerned.
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Regardless, every year you have to report to the VA. When they send you the form, send it back showing whether you’ve worked, how much you’ve worked. If you do that, your benefits continue if you haven’t worked. If you don’t, you’re going to get a letter saying, “We are proposing to reduce your benefits because you didn’t complete the form.” You don’t want to do that, because sometimes it takes two or three months for the VA to get the evidence that you’re sending in, and they’re going to go ahead and reduce you while they’re waiting, so send the form in.
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| Matthew Hill: |
Yeah, and this applies for the rest of your life if you never work again. You need to fill that out, say, “I’m not working.” You either do this online on their system, or you send it in certified mail, because as Carol said, this is terribly inconvenient.
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| Carol Ponton: |
It’s a real easy form. You pretty much just have to give them, if you haven’t worked, sign your name, and send it back, but the two types of … 100% and unemployability are utterly the same except for that.
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| Matthew Hill: |
As long as you’re permanent and total. Thank you for joining us today, and we look forward to seeing you on this space again soon.
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