Citation Nr: 18148964
Decision Date: 11/08/18	Archive Date: 11/08/18

DOCKET NO. 12-10 337
DATE:	November 8, 2018
REMANDED
Entitlement to a total disability rating based upon individual unemployability (TDIU) due to service-connected disabilities is remanded.
REASONS FOR REMAND
The Veteran served on active duty from April 1982 to December 1992.
Entitlement to a total disability rating based upon individual unemployability (TDIU) due to service-connected disabilities is remanded.
In November 2015, the Veteran testified before the undersigned Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) at a Travel Board hearing.  A copy of the transcript is associated with the record. 
The Board’s July 2017 decision found that the matter of entitlement to a TDIU had been raised, and remanded the matter for development and adjudication.  
A July 2018 AOJ letter to the Veteran requested that he complete and return a VA Form 21-8940 (Veteran’s Application for Increased Compensation Based on Unemployability), for information necessary to properly adjudicate such claim.  While the correspondence requested that he respond within 30 days (and that the AOJ could make a decision at any time after that 30 days had expired), it also notified him that he had up to one year to submit evidence/information in support of his claim.  He has not yet provided the information sought, and the one-year time period afforded for doing so has not expired.  
The record does not show that the Veteran has indicated (e.g., by returning an SSOC Response Form) that he does not intend to respond.  Therefore, this matter was prematurely returned to the Board, and a remand for due process (to afford the Veteran the full year to respond) is necessary.  
The Veteran is advised that a governing regulation, 38 C.F.R. § 3.158, provides that where evidence requested in connection with a claim for VA benefits is not received within a year of the request (here by July 26, 2019), the claim will be considered abandoned.
The matter is REMANDED for the following actions:
1. The AOJ should again provide the Veteran with VA Form 21-8940, Veteran’s Application for Increased Compensation Based on Unemployability, and VA Form 21-4192, Request for Employment Information in Connection with Claim for Disability Benefits.  
The AOJ should advise the Veteran that he has until July 26, 2019, to submit a completed VA Form 21-8940.  If he does not timely submit such form, the claim must be further processed as abandoned under 38 C.F.R. § 3.158(a).
2. The AOJ should then review the record, arrange for any further development suggested, and readjudicate (under 38 C.F.R. § 3.158(a), if applicable) the claim.  If it remains denied (or is dismissed as abandoned), the AOJ should issue an appropriate SSOC, afford the Veteran and his representative opportunity to respond, and return the matter to the Board. 
If the Veteran does not complete the TDIU form as requested, and the AOJ determines that 38 C.F.R. § 3.158(a) does not apply, the SSOC must include an explanation of the determination. 
 
K. Parakkal
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	S. Owen, Associate Counsel