Citation Nr: 21065547 Decision Date: 10/26/21 Archive Date: 10/26/21 DOCKET NO. 17-05 757 DATE: October 26, 2021 REMANDED Entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) due to service-connected disabilities is remanded. REASONS FOR REMAND The Veteran served on active duty from October 1972 to October 1976 and from August 1981 to July 2002. This matter comes before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal of a May 2013 and April 2017 rating decision by a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). In February 2020, the Veteran testified at a live videoconference hearing conducted by the undersigned Veterans Law Judge. A transcript of the hearing has been added to the Veteran's claims file. The following April, the Board remanded the Veteran's claim for additional development. The case is once again before the Board. 1. Entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) due to service-connected disabilities is remanded. In January 2017, the Veteran applied for increased compensation based on unemployability. Asked to list all his employment for the last five years he worked including self-employment, the Veteran listed just one joba part-time customer service job at a car wash. He wrote that he began working there in May 2012. However, he reported a different date (April 2014) to the Social Security Administration ("SSA"). His employer provided yet a third datesometime in 2013. What's more, it appears that the Veteran's employment history is incomplete. In November 2011, he told his doctor he ran a daycare with his then-spouse. And in May 2013, he reported working in a deli to the VA examiner. Neither job is listed on his application despite it asking for "all" his employment in the last five years he worked "including self-employment." Without it, the Board cannot decide whether the Veteran is "unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation as a result of service-connected disabilities." 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a). To make that finding, the Board must discuss the Veteran's educational and occupational history. Another issue reasonably raised by the record is whether the Veteran's employment before February 2015 is marginal. Marginal employment is not substantially gainful and "exist[s] when a veteran's earned annual income does not exceed the amount established by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, as the poverty threshold for one person." See 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a). Because the Board cannot make a fully-informed decision, it must remand for additional development. Finally, as the case is being remanded for additional development, any outstanding VA treatment records should be associated with the claims file. See Bell v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 611, 613 (1992) (per curiam). The matters are REMANDED for the following action: 1. Obtain all outstanding VA treatment records and associate them with the claims file. 2. Ask the Veteran to complete a VA Form 21-8940, Veteran's Application for Increased Compensation Based on Unemployability. The Veteran should provide his employment history (including income) from November 2010 to present day. The Board is particularly interested in the Veteran's employment history from his deli and daycare jobs. 3. After undertaking any additional development deemed appropriate and giving the Veteran full opportunity to supplement the record, adjudicate the Veteran's pending claim in light of any additional evidence added to the record. If any benefit sought on appeal remains denied, the Veteran and his attorney should be furnished with a Supplemental Statement of the Case and be afforded the applicable opportunity to respond before the record is returned to the Board for further review. M. Donohue Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board C. Canedy, 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.