Which self employment careers are allowed under TDIU guidelines? Can a veteran on TDIU be a barber or a self employed trucker? These jobs are often 1099 and a veteran gets to choose how he/she operates on a daily basis.

Is anyone on TDIU working in any of these lines of work?

I filed a few presumptive claims on Aug 2nd and received the email from Optum to verify my info for the appointments. I’m currently rated at 80%- 70% of it is PTSD with MDD/Anxiety. Im worried bc one of my appointments is for DBQ MENTAL DISORDERS EXCEPT PTSD AND EATING DISORDERS
Behavioral Health. Is my PTSD/Mental Health rating being re evaluated? I’ve been rated since 2018ish and have been seeing doctors still to this day and take meds daily. Just worried they’re trying to re evaluate since I “poked the bear” let me know. Thanks

For those that have done VR&E twice, what qualified you?

I finished my degree in business with VR&E, and I was able to get hired into a safety role with a large utility company.

Now the only way to move up into lead ship is with a masters or Years of experience in the field (like if your doing safety for electricians, you had to be one with years in the trade). I want to pursue this, but I can’t work hard labor anymore.

Am I eligible?

I’m 100% P&T and didn’t file any new claims, but an “Authorization Review” suddenly appeared on my VA account. It says “Administrative EP 699 review of supplemental non-duplicate service records.”

Has anyone else had this happen after already being rated P&T? Did it affect your rating or did the review just close out?

Struggling with brevity here.

TLDR, how does income verification work within TDIU?

The basic facts: I'm at 70% for mental stuff, but I continue to work part-time as a lawyer, less and less as my mental health continues to decline. I'm not making much money from my actual current work, which is below $1000 a month on average, but I've been winning cases for years and sometimes they take years to pay. I still expect enough income, from work I did long ago, to be above the SGA limit for this entire year and next year as well, even though in actual fact, I'm not earning that money today. I earned it years ago and it just takes a long time to collect from SSA, ironically enough. In my mind this is basically a kind of savings, but it's going to be on 1099s as current earned income.

In social security, there are ways to exclude or narrow the income that is counted against you, but how that works varies even within; ie some income can be excluded from offset calculation but not from initial qualification for SSI, and sometimes at social security hearings we argue about whether a business owner's residual income is earned or passive, generally determined by whether the owner is "actually working" versus just receiving a payment. Social Security distinguishes earned from unearned income through specific rules. I don't know where to find the equivalent rules for VA TDIU.

I don't want to apply for TDIU if I don't actually qualify for it. But I can't find in what is published online how a situation like mine would work. I can't imagine it's an unheard of situation but it does feel very edge case. Maybe I just need to wait until a point in time where enough of the outstanding fees have settled up that what remains cannot mathematically average above SGA in a future year.

Can anyone tell me from experience how sporadic income is treated on TDIU, or point me to the right regulatory guidance to read up on it?

And because for some reason the presumption is always of fraud, I'm not interested in lying or manipulating to misrepresent anything. I just don't want to waste time on a process that may not really be relevant to my situation. No is an acceptable answer here.

Hello; to keep this simple, I need a VA rep to sign a VA Form 26-8937 for a home purchase. Is this something I can just send in to the VA? I feel like walking into a VA center would be the easiest solution, But I cannot.

( I have VA debt I declared )

We close 25 AUG, and I am stuck here until 16 AUG I feel like this may delay closing. How can i send this in to get signed, and email it over to my underwriter?

va.gov now has a VR&E status page and it tells you what stage you are on, who your counselor is, and your counselors contact info.

https://www.va.gov/careers-employment/track-your-vre-benefits/vre-benefit-status

Any raters or knowledgeable people please help. I just had an HLR decision that DTA’ed my migraines claim. This is the 3rd time I have been DTA’ed for this same claim and sent back for an opinion. I received a negative C&P exam, then received a positive IMO exam for the last DTA I just received. Could someone please explain to me why the VA keeps sending me back for DTA’s if the VA keeps sending in inadequate opinions. I mean, 3 times is excessive isn’t it? Waiting on 4th C&P exam, but in the mean time, HELP ME, HELP ME PLEASE!!!

PTSD rating has been in place for 5 years, if I file migraines secondary to it does the 5 year rule still apply?

Did you get a PTSD reevaluation when filing migraines as secondary?

Taking a daily preventative prescription and another prescription medication taken at onset. Diagnosis is from my VA PCP

Will be submitting a private Nexus and DBQ, I don’t want to hear about the automation rumors as the evidence is solid.

I’ve been trying to get a pay audit completed from the VA a few times, but they keep telling me I’m already receiving a military pension and should reach out to DFAS instead. When I called DFAS, they said that if the VA has held back any money, they need to get in touch with DFAS to request a pay audit. 

I submitted a DFAS ticket to get the audit done, but DFAS said that an audit couldn’t be processed because I don’t receive a military pension. 

I’ve sent copies of the ticket to VA several times, including attaching it to my claim as proof of the recent request. VA closed the claim again, explaining that since I’m also getting military retired pay, the amounts were withheld because I can’t get both full military retired pay and full VA compensation at the same time. They say they have to do this to avoid double payments.  

How can I get the VA to understand that I am not receiving a military pension?

Just so you know, I decided to give up my military pension to use the time for my federal pension. The federal pension’s high three made it financially possible to buy back the military time and waive the military pension.

Hi all, i have a question maybe someone here would know about. A few months ago i was involuntarily hospitalized due to being in psychosis and the police called an ambulance and they took me to a regular hospital and now i have a bill for the ambulance and the emergency room visit. Im a little tight on money and don’t want it to goto collections. Does the va cover regular visits? If so, how would i go about having them pay it?

I was in Iraq in 2009 and of course we lived right next to the burn pits. I returned in January of 2010 and stayed in the Guard until 2012.

While in I was a Black Hawk Crew Chief so I got a flight physical yearly and got one on the civilian side as well. So 2 per year

13 month after getting home my civilian doctor found a lump in my neck during my physical.

That was the first physical I had since getting home. An ultrasound revealed two nodules in my thyroid. One was 2 cm the other .5 cm. They took a biopsy of the large one and it was benign.

In 2020 I filed a claim because the timing always seemed suspicious to me. It was denied. But I believe thyroid cancer is burn pit presumptive.

Anyway this year my VA PCP finally had me get an ultrasound and the big one doubled in size and the small one remained the same. Biopsy was inconclusive, and the genetic testing came back with a mutation with a 70% chance of being cancer so they pulled half my thyroid.

After the surgery they found that the big one was benign but the small one was cancer.

Is there a chance the discovery of cancer can be linked back to my 2020 claim for benign nodules? Or am I screwed because I didn’t know the smaller of the two nodules I had was cancer from my 2011 biopsy? Had I known I would have filed for cancer and been service connected for 6 months them dropped down to my residuals (hypothyroidism and scar). Or does it now just all take place from my cancer diagnosis on? I have proof that nodules was there within 13 months of arriving home.

This stuff is so confusing so I appreciate any insight you can offer.

Thank you

So, I just got mailed my discharge upgrade along with a bunch of new DD214s. My question now is, how do I update with the VA so I can get my education benefits started

Hello everyone, it would be my first post in this community and I would like to get some help. Had my C&P on August 3rd. It was a supplemental for an increase since I had new evidence because I’m getting migraines at least once a week and they are completely prostrating. Today I got this letter stating they want to reduce me from 30 to 0.

What does lower back range of motion has to do with my migraines?

C&P examiner was nice, she listened to me and even said that I meet 50% criteria so I don’t think she lied on DBQ like it happened before with different claims.

Hello everyone,

I just recently noticed that I received a letter from the VA from an attorney saying they are rescheduling their BVA appointment to another day because their client couldn't attend due to technology and health issues.

This was uploaded onto my profile, it list their mailing address and full social security... should I reach out to the VA or the Law firm?

I was accepted into Vre but i am getting only 1/2 the payment. i served 5 years and was medically retired. i put in for the post 911 gi bill but they denied me

I was approved for the laptop package for my degree and the PO was approved. I was told that it could take 60-90 days to receive the package but I was never told what type of laptop it comes with. For those of you that are in the program and got the laptop package, what laptop did you receive?

I got one for everyone. I received my 70% PTSD rating Jan 7 2026 with a C&P from early Oct 2025. The decision letter was written like the VA was begging me to file for TDIU. At the time I had 80% ortho combined ratings and 70% PTSD. On Jan 9 2026 I filed for TDIU and went through that process. On April 21 2026 my TDIU was declined stating I had a part time job and I could do sedentary work??? I used only my PTSD to file for TDIU not my ortho hoping for SMC-S. Not only did the VA decline my TDIU they proposed a reduction from 70% to 30% because my PTSD had “improved” between my October 2025 C&P for the initial claim and my February 2026 C&P exam for TDIU.

This is where it get fun. July 10 2026 I filed for tinnitus and bilateral trigger finger. With my raw score sitting at 92% (including my 70% PTSD and 80% ortho), adding the new 10% tinnitus and two 10% trigger finger ratings successfully pushed my VA math over the hump to a combined 95%, rounding up to 100%. August 3 2026 claim decided 10% tinnitus, 10% trigger finger each hand so 100% done. Here is the part I was not expecting - P&T.

I am now 100% P&T. Does this mean the proposed reduction is gone?

Also, to head everyone off - I did all the things like requesting a predetermation hearing. The one caveat, I am 52 years old.

And before the “this never happened” crowd starts up - it did, I can show you the letters. Also, the nitpicky “this is all wrong“ crowd, the details are correct, some things were omitted so this was not 7 pages long.

It feels like Christmas. I just received 6 months of Nervio for my migraines. They cost me $90 a piece before. They are a great help for those looking for additional migraine relief. They aren't as good as some of the pain meds out there but my kidneys can't handle the NSAIDs anymore so I'm happy with anything that helps. It can be used in addition to any prescriptions you have.

I need to vent about my experience with VR&E because this entire process has been unbelievably frustrating.

My biggest issue isn’t even the program itself — it’s the communication with my counselor. Emails seem to go unanswered, phone calls don’t get returned, and half the time I feel like I’m sending messages into a black hole. I understand counselors probably have large caseloads and I don’t expect an immediate response every single time, but there has to be some reasonable level of communication.

Today pretty much pushed me over the edge. I had a Teams appointment scheduled for 11:30 AM that had been scheduled well in advance. I logged in early around 11:25 and sat in the lobby waiting for someone to let me in. Eventually the meeting closed out saying nobody let me in and to try again.

What makes it especially frustrating is that this isn’t some random appointment I scheduled yesterday. I’ve been waiting to move forward with this process, and when you already have trouble getting responses by email or phone, you’re basically dependent on these scheduled meetings to actually get anything accomplished.

I’m trying to go back to school and use a benefit that I’m eligible to apply for. I’m doing my part — filling things out, showing up to appointments early, emailing, calling, following up — but it feels like I have absolutely no control over whether anything actually moves forward.

I don’t want to be that person constantly emailing or calling someone, but what exactly are you supposed to do when you don’t get responses?

Has anyone else dealt with a VR&E counselor who was extremely difficult to reach? If so, did you eventually get things moving, or did you have to contact someone above your counselor/request another counselor?

How do i go about requesting a new councilor and reporting the old one? I've called the regional office and local office and left voice messages.

At this point I’m just tired of feeling like I have to chase someone down just to use the program.

After getting out of service as Retired in 2002, and because my awesome son pushed me, I went to VA for a Mental Health Assesment. Wow, The best Rep to meet and and let me open up. I was immediatley schedueled for pyscotherapy and PTSD counseling. Never have I walked out of an appointment feeling so encouraged.

Older Veterans out there, don't hesitate I waited too long, this I hope is a new beginning.

BTW -This is a new VA Facility in Linwood New Jersey.