Questions about my situation

jimmyB1 wrote:Thank you all for your guidance.

Jimmy, unfortunately you cannot turn back time. Your options are to appeal the decisions you disagree with and follow your rehabilitation plan, until you finish or are deemed DEC. I appreciate all the examples of how your symptoms manifest, but it doesn't change the fact that the process is the process.

Thousands of veterans are in similar positions, some spend years in rehab, others a moderate amount of time and others a relatively short period of time, and all for different reasons. The ebb and flow of the bureaucracy, the experienced or inexperienced CM's, the mountains of paperwork, can make the process daunting. But, you are allowed by law to have a family member or someone else you trust assist you in the process.

Without more specific reasons from VAC why you were denied, it is difficult to offer advice brother.

Thank you all for your guidance.

jimmyB1 wrote:Someone from VAC called yesterday, not my case manager. She was talking to me about the changes from the CIA to the New non taxable benefit. I am dropping from 620 cia taxed  per month to the new non-taxable $500.
It feels a bit arbitrary that they just rounded me down. I asked about getting my grade re-assessed and she just told me to talk to my case manager about it. I'm confused about a few things:
I'm at 38% PTSD, approval about a year ago. Since then I am on rehab program and I got approved for cia. My injury was in 2003 and I never got diagnosed or dealt with it until 2018.
When I did my initial assessment I didn't realize I was experiencing flashback or dissociation, both multiple times daily with the dissociation being quite bad. Now that I recognize this and have been undergoing therapy weekly to help deal with it I'm wondering if I am getting the benefits I should be. I know VAC will never tell me what I should be getting and I think they don't really know sometimes when I ask them things.
I was denied VIP (PTSD you should be taking care of your own lawn right?) denied DEC (I applied to soon? 15 years later?) and the CIA-S also denied. Denied caregiver benefit even though I'm prescribed a significant amount of cannabis daily. I have to significantly alter how I take my medication if I want to drive two blocks to the grocery store.
Should I wait to start a reassessment because it's only just been over a year or should I start it now? I'm concerned I'm going to be missing out on some of these benefits if I don't get them now. With my injury in 2003 I feel I am already missing out because of the changes that occured in 2006. It's all so frustrating and overwhelming.
Any advice would be appreciated. I know this may be all over the map so thanks again.

it’s the nature of the beast. I’m no expert but I do know that by looking on line at VAC s maze of information, a lot of things that a vet suffers from, though they are separate conditions in the the civi world are lumped together in the VAC system, which causes a lot of frustration as realistically a veteran should be entitled to perhaps a disability for depression, or alcoholism or anxiety , but VAC stuffs everything in one bag ( though those 3 examples might not be accurate). I don’t know the rules for VIP, years ago apparently your CM could get it for you pretty easy regardless of your injury, PTSD etc. but now perhaps they have tighten the draw strings on the purse and they may require a vet to have a physical injury over mental before they role out the program, just saying, and yet perhaps their are vets with only ptsd and they are getting it, maybe they got it a long time ago, same goes for Caregiver, on line the requirements to get it are pretty much that someone in your family needs to spoon feed you, dress,groom and wipe your butt, otherwise you’re not going to get it, from what I read. If denied DEC you can appeal, you can’t get CIAS without DEC, so that denial is understandable, however, after April 1 even if you appeal and get DEC, the CIAS portion will have ended by then, so SOL, From what you mentioned your CIA grade 3 is probably where you’ll stay, you can ask them to consider a upgrade however , again from reading what’s on the VAC site for CIA grade 2 , ptsd unto itself may not be enough, it seems geared more to the rules applying to caregiver requirements. None of this probably makes you feel better, but , at the same time, apply for everything, appeal everything, what do you have to lose, there doesn’t seem to be a 100% written in stone standard for anything.

You can request a CIA reassessment, and your disability assessment, at any time, that you feel your condition has worsened. I have to say that I agree that the CIA should have always been tax -fee, because it's based on your level of disability, and not your ability to earn an income. But it should have started out being tax free, because what they have effectively done, is wiped out 13 years of Cost of Living increases, resetting the CIA rates, back to the initial amounts, when the NVC was introduced.

You can appeal the DEC decision, if you truly feel that you cannot work, but I'm afraid that it will be too late to reapply for the CIAS, but it will entitle you to receive the new IRB, for life.

Someone from VAC called yesterday, not my case manager. She was talking to me about the changes from the CIA to the New non taxable benefit. I am dropping from 620 cia taxed per month to the new non-taxable $500.
It feels a bit arbitrary that they just rounded me down. I asked about getting my grade re-assessed and she just told me to talk to my case manager about it. I'm confused about a few things:
I'm at 38% PTSD, approval about a year ago. Since then I am on rehab program and I got approved for cia. My injury was in 2003 and I never got diagnosed or dealt with it until 2018.
When I did my initial assessment I didn't realize I was experiencing flashback or dissociation, both multiple times daily with the dissociation being quite bad. Now that I recognize this and have been undergoing therapy weekly to help deal with it I'm wondering if I am getting the benefits I should be. I know VAC will never tell me what I should be getting and I think they don't really know sometimes when I ask them things.
I was denied VIP (PTSD you should be taking care of your own lawn right?) denied DEC (I applied to soon? 15 years later?) and the CIA-S also denied. Denied caregiver benefit even though I'm prescribed a significant amount of cannabis daily. I have to significantly alter how I take my medication if I want to drive two blocks to the grocery store.
Should I wait to start a reassessment because it's only just been over a year or should I start it now? I'm concerned I'm going to be missing out on some of these benefits if I don't get them now. With my injury in 2003 I feel I am already missing out because of the changes that occured in 2006. It's all so frustrating and overwhelming.
Any advice would be appreciated. I know this may be all over the map so thanks again.