If you are a veteran with a cognitive disorder related to your military service, you could be eligible to collect VA disability benefits. Unfortunately, recovering these benefits can be difficult. A VA disability advocate can help you compile a compelling appeal for cognitive disorder veterans’ benefits.
Cognitive Disorders Eligible for VA Disability
Cognitive disorders include any condition that impairs memory, learning, thinking or problem-solving. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) uses a schedule of ratings that lists many cognitive disorders eligible for disability benefits, including:
- Delirium
- Neurocognitive disorders due to HIV/Infections
- Neurocognitive disorders due to traumatic brain injury
- Vascular neurocognitive disorders
- Neurocognitive disorders due to Alzheimer’s disease
- Cognitive disorders due to another medical condition
- Eating disorders
- Severe anxiety that can affect everyday life
- Depression and other mood disorders
- Medication or substance abuse that could have been the result of your military experience
- Much more
Life with a cognitive disorder can be difficult, and it is unfair to be left suffering alone after your service. Remember that you do have options to recover compensation, which can make life a little bit easier down the road. Call and speak with a VA disability advocacy group to learn more.
Count on a VA Disability Advocate to Build Your VA Disability Appeal
In order to recover benefits for a service-related cognitive disorder, you will need to provide forms and other paperwork to help validate your claim. A VA disability advocate knows how to build a strong appeal for a cognitive disorder. By gathering evidence and compellingly organizing and presenting your appeal, you can demonstrate three things to VA:
You Have a Valid Diagnosis
A VA disability advocate can gather your medical records and other supporting documentation to make it clear that you have a diagnosis and proof of your qualifying disability.
In-Service Event
An event took place during your military service that contributed to or caused your condition or that your condition began during your service.
There Is a Nexus Between Your Condition and the In-Service Event
For your appeal for VA disability to be successful, you must be able to show a nexus between your condition and the in-service event. There must be a direct connection between this event and your condition.
Why Seek Veterans Benefits for a Cognitive Disorder
If you are living with a cognitive ability, you could require expensive assisted living, healthcare, rehabilitation, prescriptions, and more. In some cases, you could even be unable to work and earn wages.
You do not deserve to suffer, especially after dedicating yourself to your country. Thankfully, benefits through VA could be available to change your life for the better.
VA disability benefits can help alleviate some of your financial stress, allowing you to focus on your family, loved ones, and the things you enjoy in life. It all starts with filing a claim. If you are considering taking action, remember that a brighter future for you and your family could start today.
How Are Disability Payments Disbursed?
If you are awarded compensation through a disability claim, your payments will be made monthly. The amount of compensation you receive will be based on your disability rating, although you could appeal a decision if you feel you are not receiving the compensation you deserve. An advocate specializing in veterans disability benefits may be able to help you estimate the potential of your benefits.
Are Veterans Disability Benefits Taxable?
Typically, disability benefits for veterans are not taxable. If you have any specific questions about taxes, it could be beneficial to speak to a financial or tax professional so that you can better plan your financial future and budget accordingly.
VA Disability Advocates Help You Collect the Benefits You Deserve
A VA disability advocate can not only help you get approved for VA disability, but they can also fight for the highest compensation level.
VA rates disabilities on a scale of 0 to 100%. The higher your VA disability rating, the higher your potential monthly compensation. If you get approved for VA disability benefits for a cognitive disorder, you will receive one of five ratings: 10, 30, 50, 70, or 100%.
As of 2022, the disability compensation levels for each of these ratings (for a single veteran with no dependents) are:
- 0% disability rating: $0 per month
- 10% disability rating: $152.64 per month
- 30% disability rating: $467.39 per month
- 50% disability rating: $958.44 per month
- 70% disability rating: $1,529.95 per month
- 100% disability rating: $3,332.06 per month
Understanding the Rating Schedule for Veterans Benefits
Here is the mental health schedule of ratings VA uses to determine which of these ratings you qualify for:
- 100% rating: “Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name.”
- 70% rating: “Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a work-like setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships.”
- 50% rating: “Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships.”
- 30% rating: “Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events).”
- 10% rating: “Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or; symptoms controlled by continuous medication.”
- 0% rating: “A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication.”
A VA disability advocate can help you build a compelling appeal that paints a picture of the full extent of your cognitive disorder, one that yields the highest possible rating.
The Benefits of Having an Advocate By Your Side
If you are considering filing a disability claim for veterans benefits related to cognitive disorders, it could be helpful to hire an advocate to fight for you. There are many ways in which an advocate could benefit your claim, including but not limited to:
- Managing your expectations regarding your eligibility for benefits
- Answering any questions you have about your claim while explaining the decision review process step by step
- Offering general support as you fight for the benefits you deserve
- Keeping your claim on track by ensuring you do not miss any important deadlines
- Assisting you with the decision review process if you are not awarded the appropriate benefits or rating for your claim
- Much more
Living with a cognitive disability can make your everyday life more difficult. If your disability is related to your military service, you could be entitled to benefits to help make life a little bit easier moving forward.
Call Disabled Vets Today for a Free VA Disability Case Evaluation
You do not need to handle your cognitive disorder disability benefits appeal alone. Call for a free case evaluation.
