Did you wait till you were out to get your disability rating? If so, how long before you made your first claim?

I filed after one month of retirement and initially received a rating of 30% and after several more Comp and Pension visits got rated at 80%. I was very surprised that all this took only six months to happen. I guess having medical documents available to substantiate my injuries really made the process move rather quickly.

Many years later I filed a claim.

I waited many years. Parkinson's disease appeared about the age of 70, and I filed a claim with the VA about four years later. After several physical exams and back-and-forths with those folks, my service-connected disability rating has gradually increased until it finally hit 100% about four months ago. I'm now a month away from the age of 79.

I waited many years before filing. Only when Parkinson's disease appeared, at about the age of 70. I initially didn't even know what it was! My wife knew something was amiss, and suggested I ask our primary care physician if she had noticed anything regarding my sense of balance, or appearance when walking. She said she thought I might be showing signs of Parkinson's and suggested I consult a neurologist. I did that, and after an exam, he confirmed it and prescribed a medication, carbodopa/levodopa to be taken every few hours. I've been on it ever since, and am now taking 200 mg every eight hours. In the mean time, an old friend, a retired Army chaplain suggested I contact the VA and ask if they could assist. That led me to file a claim, and after several physical exams and back-and-forths with those folks, I'm now judged to be 100% disabled, and it is service-connected. I'll be 79 next month (if I live that long), and only reached the 100% level about four months ago.

I put my claim in online while I was preparing to ETS, probably a month or less before I left and had my disability evaluation/physical the day after my ETS date. I received my rating about 7-8 months from the date I filed my claim. I would suggest to file your claim sooner rather than later because everything is fresh in your mind and it should be less of a pain to obtain all your medical/military records. Good luck man.

You should have your C & P exam while you’re still on active duty. The burden of proof to show that your condition existed or was caused while on active duty is much lower since well, you’re still on active duty. Waiting to have your exam until you’ve separated will require you to prove via documentation, that the condition existed while on active duty.

10 years.

I have attended tons of pre/during/post deployment events for all branches and components (other than the Coast Guard) as a result of my civilian position. There are rules and regulations as to how soon you can start the claim if you are on active duty. Contact Military OneSource for transition related resources including this topic. If you serve as a drill status reservist or Guard you can file when you return from deployment (Title 10 orders) or get off active duty and there may be other occasions you can do so. If you are a Guard or reservist in receipt of disability pay they will recoup the difference between your service connected disability pay and your drill pay as you cannot collect both for the overlapping days. For example, I usually ended up repaying a couple months a year, the government sent a letter with the number of duty days in the previous year and how much the repayment was. You could dispute the days if they're wrong, but otherwise you just lost the check until recouped. Caveat- If you deploy or otherwise go on active duty, (or go to jail/prison) you must put a stop payment or whatever it is called. Once you return to drill status (or leave jail/prison) your disability restarts although you have to complete an additional form. The rate of disability will determine whether you can collect both retirement pay and disability without penalty (50% and above right now) or your retirement pay is offset by your disability (40% and below), you end up with just the amount of the retirement pay rather than concurrent pay, but the portion of the pay that comes from the disability is tax-free.

Applied before I retired and was a good move. First thing VA rep had me do was to go get my medical records and he copied them and today those records are in my VA file. Got my first check the month I retired.

18 years. Found out that I never should have been retired without one.