I'm getting 20% disability from the Army, should I appeal or should i just take the check?

Question

Should I try to get more of a percentage and get the magic 30% number, or should I appeal and present myself to a formal board. I KEEP GETTING PRESSURED by my PEBLO officer to just take the money and get out. But something is fishy here, it's like he doesn't want me to appeal. Is it just me? Plus I was told if I appeal they could lower my percentage.

Answer 1

The thing is if you appeal they could just take the 20% from you and you walk away with nothing. What you can do is send your stuff to VA, they the review and 9 times out of 10 you get a higher rating and get the disability pay anyways. The part that sucks you have to return the money to the army that they gave you but you do get the monthly one from the VA.

Answer 2

Go for 30% or more, trust me because the longer you wait the longer it will take!  You have to think that as you age more than likely your disability will not get any better also if you have children and/or spouse they will get compensated as well. It all adds up...

"Good things come to those that wait"

Answer 3

It depends what you are receiving the disability for.  

Answer 4

If you are separating from the Military and have some form of disability that was caused by or aggravated from military service, then you want to file a claim with the Department of Veterans Affairs for a service connected disability.

Here is the website  for the Department of Veterans Affairs

http://www.va.gov/

You will need to contact your local county Veterans Service Agency Representative (County Government Building) to file a disability claim.

If still Active Duty, they your Organization's Family Support Center should have a Veterans Service Agency Representative to help you in filing a claim.

You will need a complete copy of ALL of your Medical Records (both Military and any Non-Military Providers) that you have seen to submit to the VA (Recommend having two copies made - 1 to submit to the VA and 1 for personnel reference)

The VA will review the medical records and schedule you for a Comp & Pen (Compensation & Pension) Exam to determine the severity of your disability.  After the exam, a Decision Rating well be decided by the VA on your level (%) of disability.

Waiting on Comp & Pen Exams and also Decision Ratings can take a while to process but can be worth it in the long run.  When a decision is made, compensation payment is normally backdated to the original claim date and then paid out monthly.  Note - Any appeals after a decision rating needs to go through your Veterans Service Agency Representative

Hope this information is helpful / feel free to check out my profile as i have answered some other Veteran Related disability questions from time to time