Vertigo is a term used to describe symptoms of conditions that affect your inner ear, impairing your balance. Many veterans suffer from vertigo symptoms as a result of their service.
Although the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) does not recognize vertigo as a specific disability, it does provide disability benefits, including monthly compensation, for peripheral vestibular disorders that cause vertigo symptoms.
In this post, we consider the disability ratings the VA assigns for vertigo symptoms and how to apply for VA benefits for vertigo symptoms.
If you would like to obtain a VA rating for vertigo symptoms, please call Stone Rose Law at (480) 498-8998 to speak with a VA disability lawyer.
Vertigo is a sensation of feeling dizzy and off balance. You may feel as though the room is spinning, and may also experience nausea, vomiting, and nystagmus (abnormal or jerking eye movements).
Aside from dizziness and balance problems, common symptoms of vertigo include:
The severity of vertigo symptoms varies from mild and manageable to severely debilitating. Symptoms can last from a few minutes to a few hours, or in some cases for a period of days.
Conditions you experience during your military service can cause ear issues that lead to peripheral vertigo. These include:
Your vertigo VA rating will depend on the severity, frequency, and duration of your symptoms, as well as the type of vertigo you have.
The VA offers benefits for those experiencing peripheral vertigo.
Peripheral vertigo is the more common kind of vertigo. It involves problems with your inner ear or vestibular nerve that affect your balance. This type of vertigo is further categorized into two types of underlying problems that cause dizziness: peripheral vestibular disorders and Meniere’s disease.
Peripheral vestibular disorders affect your inner ear vestibular structures. Peripheral vestibular disorders that the VA recognizes include:
Meniere’s disease is a disorder caused by fluid building up in the chambers of the inner ear.
Central vertigo is less common than peripheral vertigo. It happens because of a traumatic brain event like a stroke, tumor, or infection.
Although the VA provides disability benefits for veterans who have experienced brain trauma that causes central vertigo, it does not consider vertigo caused by one of those traumatic events to be a source for additional monthly disability compensation.
For peripheral vestibular disorders, the VA rates vertigo under the following diagnostic codes:
Ratings for peripheral vestibular disorders are:
Ratings for Meniere’s disease are:
If your VA disability rating for vertigo is less than 100% you may still qualify for total disability benefits under TDIU.
TDIU can apply to you in one of two ways: schedular TDIU, or extraschedular TDIU.
To qualify for TDIU benefits for vertigo symptoms, you must meet the following requirements:
For vertigo, a situation that may warrant TDIU benefits would be if your dizzy spells are frequent and severe enough to make it dangerous for you to work.
You will need to support a claim for TDIU benefits with documentary evidence. For example, a letter from your doctor recommending you to cease working and a letter from your employer explaining that you can no longer complete your job tasks because of your condition from your employer would support a TDIU claim.
Unlike schedular TDIU, which requires you to meet specific disability rating thresholds, the VA can give you extraschedular TDIU when your service-connected conditions are so severe that they still prevent you from keeping substantially gainful employment.
To qualify for extra-schedular TDIU, you must demonstrate that your service-connected disabilities create an exceptional or unusual disability that makes the standard rating schedule inadequate. The VA will review your claim to see if the symptoms of your service-connected conditions are so severe and unique that you can receive extraschedular TDIU.
The VA will also consider your education and work history when deciding whether to provide you with TDIU benefits connected with a vertigo VA disability rating.
You can apply for VA benefits for vertigo symptoms in the same way you make a benefits claim for most non-presumptive VA disabilities. The general process is:
To file a successful claim for VA disability benefits, you must establish a connection between your present symptoms and your military service. This is known as a service connection.
To establish a service connection, you will need to show the following:
You will need to support your benefits claim application with documentary evidence. This can include medical records of treatment while you were still in the military, your civilian doctor’s diagnosis and records or medical treatment, and written statements from others evidencing how your vertigo symptoms affect your ability to work and to participate in daily life activities.
A key supporting document will be a nexus letter. Your diagnosing and treating physician will usually prepare this for you. Your benefits claim can include a Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ) for ear conditions. Your doctor may have copies of this form, or you can download it from the VA.
A secondary disability is a disability that is caused by or linked to a service-connected disability. If you have two or more disabilities, the VA can combine all your ratings to calculate your overall disability rating. That means a secondary disability can increase your rating and entitle you to more compensation.
A veteran’s vertigo condition is most often a symptom of an underlying condition. If this underlying condition also qualifies as a VA disability, you do not need to prove vertigo as a primary service-connected disability. Instead, you can seek to establish a nexus showing vertigo as a secondary disability caused by the underlying condition.
Examples of conditions that can lead to vertigo as a secondary disability include:
During its consideration of your disability benefits claim, the VA may schedule you for a Compensation and Pension (C&P) exam. The purpose of this exam is to give the VA the opportunity to gather additional information to decide whether to assign you a disability rating for your vertigo symptoms.
A C&P exam is not voluntary for you. If the VA schedules you for one, then you need to attend it or risk delay or denial of your claim.
The C&P exam will usually be performed by a VA examiner, who is ordinarily a VA-contracted physician. The VA examiner will review your applicable service records of treatment, if any, along with your other medical records of diagnosis and treatment.
The examiner may ask you questions about your vertigo symptoms and how they are affecting your life. The C&P exam will often conclude with a physical exam that can also include some tests.
Sometimes the VA will not approve an initial claim for vertigo symptoms. This can happen because of an incomplete claim, a lack of sufficient supporting evidence, or, in some cases, the VA itself can make an error in processing your claim.
If the VA does not approve your initial claim, you have three options to revive it.
The purpose of a supplemental claim is to give the VA new and relevant evidence to bolster your initial claim to overcome a denial based on lack of sufficient evidence or an incomplete claim.
If you believe that the VA has mistakenly denied your claim, a higher-level review can give a senior VA examiner the opportunity to go over your claim again.
If you have tried a supplemental claim or requested a higher-level review and the VA is still denying your claim, you can make an appeal to the VA Board of Veterans Appeals. In this formal appeal, you will have a hearing before a VA law judge who will review your claim and any new supporting evidence you present.
If you are experiencing vertigo symptoms, you can prepare and submit your VA benefits claim by yourself. But having an experienced VA benefits lawyer to assist with its preparation can help you in significant ways:
At Stone Rose Law, we are board-certified VA claims lawyers who help veterans receive VA disability benefits nationwide. Our VA-accredited attorneys give you affordable, high-quality legal assistance with VA disability claims, including claims for vertigo symptoms.
A Stone Rose Law VA disability lawyer can help you prepare your disability claim, monitor your claim status, and consult with you before disability examinations at no cost to you.
If the VA denies your original claim, our VA benefits law firm will help you respond effectively, up to making a formal request for a hearing with the Board of Appeals if necessary.
For more information about how one of our VA disability lawyers can help you with your vertigo VA rating claim, request a free case evaluation consultation at (480) 498-8998 or use our contact form.
