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Can the Veterans Affairs take away 100% permanent and total disability?
Permanent and Total Disability denotes a service-connected ailment that is completely hindering and not likely to get better.
VA provides benefits for disability ratings that have been in force for a specified amount of time. Furthermore, your VA disability rating may become permanent in select instances. VA may terminate or modify a veteran’s disability rating based on particular findings unless these regulatory safeguards kick in or your ratings become permanent.
Therefore, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will need you to undergo an assessment to establish if your service-connected condition still requires a specific disability rating.
When is VA permitted to lower disability ratings?
Future Compensation & Pension (C&P) tests for veterans with service-connected ailments that are not deemed permanent may be required so that VA may assess the severity of such conditions and assign the appropriate rating. VA may lower a veteran’s disability rating if it determines that their health has improved. 38 CFR 3.105(e) states that a rating drop is only permitted in the following circumstances:
- VA has examined the veteran’s complete medical file.
- The veteran receives an acceptable comprehensive examination to be used for grading.
- VA determines that the veteran’s capacity to function daily, including work, has steadily improved.
When there is a majority of data that shows a reduction in service-related symptoms that has remained over time, across circumstances, and under regular living conditions, that is what is meant by “sustained improvement” in this case (38 CFR 3.344). In other words, the improvement cannot be just situational or due to mitigating circumstances, such as:
- The propensity of a handicap to transient or episodic improvement
- Temporary relief by extended relaxation, or
- Less comprehensive or comprehensive forms of examination
The veteran must be given notice of the planned rating reduction, 60 days to provide supporting documentation, and 30 days to seek a hearing when ratings are reduced. However, the VA is not required to provide notification of a decrease if it would not affect the actual pay a veteran is receiving.
Your VA Disability Rating Could Become Permanent at Certain Times
When it is fairly likely, based on medical evidence, that the degree of impairment will persist for the remainder of the veteran’s life, VA determines a disability to be “permanent.” It may be more challenging for younger veterans to be deemed permanently incapacitated because of this, and VA is permitted to consider age when deciding whether a condition is permanent. Veterans no longer need to go to re-examinations after VA determines that a veteran’s service-connected ailment is permanent. You are excused from further tests under 38 CFR 3.327 when:
- Your situation is unchanged;
- Your condition has “persisted for a period of five years or more without materially improving” (stable rating);
- The “disability from sickness is of such a sort that there is little chance of improvement and is permanent in character;.”
- Even if there can be certain exceptions, such you are older than 55;
- The score you were given is the required minimum score; or
- If a lesser rating would not have an impact on your overall disability rating
Total and Permanent Disability
Your disability rating shouldn’t be decreased if the VA has determined that you are fully and permanently incapacitated. Permanent and Total Disability denotes a service-connected ailment that is completely hindering and not likely to get better. VA won’t schedule you for any more C&P tests as a consequence.