Citation Nr: 20004874
Decision Date: 01/22/20	Archive Date: 01/21/20

DOCKET NO. 14-15 811
DATE: January 22, 2020

REMANDED

Entitlement to a clothing allowance for the 2014 benefit year is remanded.

Entitlement to a clothing allowance for the 2015 calendar year is remanded.

REASONS FOR REMAND

The Veteran served on active duty from December 1961 to January 1970.  

The Veteran testified before the undersigned at a May 2018 Board hearing.  A transcript is of record.  

Clothing allowances for the 2014 and 2015 benefit years

The issues of entitlement to clothing allowances for the 2014 and 2015 calendar years are remanded.  

Significantly, at the time of his clothing allowance claims, service connection was awarded for tinnitus and left ear hearing loss disabilities during the 2014 and 2015 calendar years.  See January 2020 rating code sheet.  At his May 2018 Board hearing, the Veteran testified to wearing a long leg brace with plastic and metal components.  See May 2018 Board Hearing Tr. at 42.  He further testified that the devices he used were for his neuropathy and asserted that he should be service connected for the condition.  Id. at 50.   The Veteran was notified that, depending on the effective date assigned for a grant of service connection for neuropathy, the claims for clothing allowances for the 2014 and 2015 calendar years could potentially be impacted.  Id. at 49 and 50.   

Thereafter, in a January 2020 Board decision, the Veteran was granted service connection for lower extremity neuropathy.  As the Board’s January 2020 decision grants service connection for lower extremity neuropathy, the procedural posture of the claims for clothing allowances have changed, and due process requires that the AOJ be afforded an initial opportunity to assign an effective date(s) for the service-connected disabilities before reconsidering the clothing allowance claims.  

The matters are REMANDED for the following action:

The AOJ should review the expanded record, implement the award of service connection for lower extremity neuropathy, to include the assignment of an effective date(s), and readjudicate the claims for clothing allowances for the 2014 and 2015 calendar years in light of the Board’s January 2020 award of service connection for lower extremity neuropathy.  If any clothing allowance claim remains denied, the AOJ should issue an appropriate supplemental statement of the case, afford the Veteran and his representative opportunity to respond, and return the case to the Board. 

 

 

VICTORIA MOSHIASHWILI

Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans’ Appeals

Attorney for the Board	S. Schick, Associate Counsel

The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential, and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.