For military veterans, schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that, when connected to your service, is compensable as a disability. You can receive a VA disability rating from 0% up to 100% depending on the severity of your symptoms.
Stone Rose Law veterans attorneys can help you with making an initial or supplemental VA disability benefits claim for any recognized disability.
In this blog post, we focus on schizoaffective disorders: how the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) assigns disability ratings for this mental condition, and how you can qualify to receive VA disability benefits for schizophrenia.
If you would like to get a VA rating for schizophrenia, please call Stone Rose Law at (480) 498-8998 or reach us online.
The VA assigns the following ratings for schizoaffective disorder: 0%, 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%.
Schizophrenia is rated under Diagnostic Code 9201. Schizoaffective disorder is rated under Diagnostic Code 9211, but both use the same General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders.
Generally, the VA rating you receive depends on factors such as the severity of your symptoms and the impact of your condition on your ability to work and engage in daily activities.
At this rating level, you have a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Still, your symptoms are not severe enough to interfere with your work, or your social functioning, or your family relations, or to require continuous medication.
This disability rating does not qualify for monthly compensation benefits. But it can enable you to receive other VA disability benefits.
Here, you are experiencing occupational and social impairment because of mild or transient symptoms.
They can impair your work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks when you are experiencing significant stress or your symptoms require continuous medication to control.
When you reach this disability rating, your symptoms can include depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks that occur for intermittent periods (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, and mild memory loss, like forgetting names, directions, or recent events.
These symptoms are causing impairment in your occupational and social functioning, which can occasionally decrease your work efficiency and performance.
However, you can still generally function satisfactorily in routine behaviors and conversations.
At the 50% disability rating, your symptoms include:
These symptoms must cause occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity, and difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships.
This rating level includes severe symptoms that can significantly interfere with your ability to work and engage in daily life:
This disability rating reflects total occupational and social impairment. Symptoms include:
If your schizophrenia symptoms interfere with your ability to gain or keep substantially gainful employment, then you may qualify for what the VA calls total disability based on individual unemployability, or TDIU.
This can give you 100% disability rating benefits.
To be eligible for TDIU, in addition to not being able to be substantially gainfully employed, you must meet one of two other eligibility requirements.
This is the most common way to qualify for TDIU. You can receive schedular TDIU if:
If you do not qualify for schedular TDIU, the VA may consider you for this option. Your regional VA office will determine whether:
The Director of Compensation Service reviews the case and issues an advisory opinion, but the regional office or the Board of Veterans’ Appeals makes the final decision.
Schizophrenia is a presumptive condition if it manifests to a compensable degree within one year of discharge.
Otherwise, to receive a schizophrenia VA rating, you must prove that your current symptoms have a service connection. To do this, you must meet all of the following requirements:
The VA requires you to have a current medical diagnosis of schizophrenia from a licensed mental health professional.
Often, Schizophrenia is diagnosed after ruling out other mental health conditions.
So, if you have early medical records that show schizophrenia symptoms, even if the condition is misdiagnosed, these can still support your claim.
To establish a direct service connection, you must show that your schizophrenia condition:
Examples of relevant in‑service evidence include:
Even non‑combat trauma or high‑stress training environments can be relevant evidence, because trauma can alter brain chemistry and trigger schizophrenia in genetically predisposed individuals.
The nexus connection you must establish is that it is at least as likely as not that your schizophrenia began in or was aggravated by your military service.
Often, this connection takes the form of a “nexus letter” that your treating health care provider will prepare for you.
A strong nexus letter typically includes:
Presumptive Service Connection
If your schizophrenia manifested to a degree of 10% or more within 1 year of leaving a period of active duty which meets or exceeds 90 days, it may be presumptively connected to your military service.
Schizophrenia does not always occur by itself. Often, it is accompanied by other mental health disorders.
Sometimes your schizophrenia can be a secondary condition, meaning that you already have a disabling mental health condition that contributes to the onset or worsening of schizophrenia.
In this case, your claim’s medical nexus is to the pre-existing disability.
Some examples of primary service-connected disabilities that can contribute to schizophrenia include:
In other cases, your schizophrenia can co-exist with other conditions even though a causal connection does not exist.
These may form the foundation for a combined disability claim as long as you are not claiming multiple disabilities for the same symptoms.
The VA does not rate schizophrenia based solely on your diagnosis.
Instead, it rates your condition based on how severely your symptoms affect your ability to work, your relationships, and your daily functioning.
Key symptoms to look for include:
Your supporting evidence must show how these symptoms limit your ability to work, maintain relationships, or perform daily tasks. This evidence can take several forms. Here are some examples.
Medical evidence is key to supporting your schizophrenia diagnosis, your symptoms, and their severity. This kind of evidence includes:
Your records of military service can be instrumental in showing a service connection to your schizophrenia condition. Examples here include:
Written statements by people you live and work with, or from people who knew you while you were in military service, can provide valuable insight into how schizophrenia symptoms are affecting your ability to perform occupational tasks and to enjoy life.
These statements are sometimes called “buddy letters”.
You can file your claim online, via mail or fax, or in person at your local VA center. If you don’t file your claim online, you’ll need to download and complete the VA Form 21-526EZ.
Often, after you submit your claim package, the VA will schedule you for a compensation & pension (C&P) exam.
This examination gives the VA the chance to review your service and medical records and other supporting documentation, and to gather information directly from you.
A VA examiner will conduct your C&P exam. It is important that you attend this meeting; if you do not, without a good reason, the VA may deny your claim.
During the exam, the VA examiner will ask you questions about how your mental health condition is affecting your work and your other aspects of life, and may also have you undergo a physical examination and testing.
Specific areas of your claim that the examiner will evaluate include:
Often, the VA examiner will use the Disability Benefits Questionnaire for Mental Disorders Other than PTSD and Eating Disorders to guide the C&P exam.
When the exam is complete, the VA examiner will prepare a report for the VA to help it decide whether to approve your claim and what disability rating to assign to you.
If you have a veterans law attorney to help you file your claim, then your attorney can help you prepare for the exam and request a copy of the VA examiner’s report.
Schizophrenia can have a serious negative impact on your life and may require lifelong treatment.
If you think that your military service may have contributed to a diagnosis for this disorder, you may have a valid claim for VA benefits, including monthly compensation.
It can be a frustrating challenge to pursue a VA benefits claim on your own. Fortunately, help is available through Stone Rose Law.
Our experienced veterans benefits attorneys have many decades of combined professional experience assisting veterans with all kinds of VA benefits claims, including supplemental claims for VA disability compensation and appeals of denied claims.
To speak with one of our VA claims lawyers, call us at (480) 498-8998 or use our online contact form to schedule a free consultation.
