Citation Nr: 21074123 Decision Date: 12/14/21 Archive Date: 12/14/21 DOCKET NO. 19-26 190 DATE: December 14, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran's service-connected disability renders him unable to maintain gainful employment. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for entitlement to a TDIU have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1155, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.340, 3.341, 4.3, 4.7, 4.15, 4.16, 4.18, 4.19. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from June 1975 to June 1979. This matter is before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) on appeal from an August 2017 rating decision by a Department of Veteran's Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO). Entitlement to a TDIU. The Veteran asserts that his service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) renders him unable to maintain substantially gainful employment. Entitlement to a TDIU requires the presence of impairment so severe that it is impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation. Consideration may be given to the veteran's level of education, special training, and previous work experience in arriving at a conclusion, but not to his age or to the impairment caused by nonservice-connected disabilities. 38 U.S.C. § 1155; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.340, 3.341, 4.16, 4.19. In reaching such a determination, the central inquiry is "whether the veteran's service-connected disabilities alone are of sufficient severity to produce unemployability." Hatlestad v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 524, 529 (1993). The fact that a veteran is unemployed or has difficulty obtaining employment is not enough to warrant a TDIU. See Van Hoose v. Brown, 4 Vet. App. 361 (1993). The law provides that a total disability rating may be assigned where the schedular rating is less than total when the disabled person is unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation as a result of service-connected disabilities, provided that, if there is only one such disability, this disability shall be ratable at 60 percent or more, or if there are two or more disabilities, there shall be at least one disability ratable at 40 percent or more, and sufficient additional disability to bring the combined rating to 70 percent or more. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.16 (a). The Veteran's PTSD is currently rated at 70 percent. As such, the Veteran meets the TDIU schedular requirement. In addition to his PTSD, the Veteran is service connected for tinnitus, rated as 10 percent disabling. The eligibility of TDIU now turns on whether the Veteran's PTSD prevents the Veteran from obtaining substantially gainful employment. A review of the Veteran's work history shows that he worked as a postal service custodian from 1991 to 2014. Lay statements provided by a co-worker of the Veteran report that the Veteran was a disruptive employee and would have to be escorted out of the building at times. See May 2020 Buddy Statement. As for education, the Veteran earned a GED in 1995. VA treatment records show the Veteran's PTSD includes symptoms of sleep disturbances, hypervigilance, irritability, isolation, hyper arousal, poor tolerance of crowds, and distrust of authority. See April 2017 Addendum, New York HHS. Furthermore, a VA examiner opined that the Veteran's PTSD renders him incapable of obtaining and sustaining employment. Id. The Veteran has been fully cooperative in his plan of care, but his symptoms of PTSD persist. In July 2017, the Veteran underwent a VA examination to evaluate the severity of his PTSD symptoms. During the examination, the Veteran expressed the belief that his life is not worth much. Suicidal ideation and impulses were denied but episodic thoughts of death were expressed. The examiner noted the Veteran's PTSD would cause occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity. The Veteran also reported anger issues and a fear of white males due to military sexual trauma. During a VA examination in October 2019, the Veteran reported experiencing panic attacks more than once a week, chronic sleep impairment, inability to establish and maintain effective relationships, and impaired impulse control, such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence. The examiner noted the Veteran's PTSD would cause occupational and social impairment with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgement, and thinking/mood. An expert opinion was obtained in April 2020 regarding the Veteran's PTSD and his ability to obtain and maintain substantially gainful employment. After reviewing the medical record and interviewing the Veteran it was opined that the Veteran's PTSD symptoms prevented him from maintaining substantially gainful employment. The Veteran suffers from chronic sleep impairment, insomnia, broken sleep, nightmares, near-continuous panic or depression affecting his ability to function effectively, mild memory loss, impairment of short and long-term memory, impaired abstract thinking, impaired judgement, disturbances of motivation and mood, sense of foreshortened future, difficulty concentrating, irritability, difficulty establishing and maintaining relationships, difficulty adapting to stressful circumstances including work, impaired impulse control, neglect of personal hygiene, and intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene. Overall, the Veteran cannot sustain the stress from a competitive work environment or be expected to engage in gainful activity due to his PTSD. In this regard, the Veteran reports difficulty remembering events, requests, and occasionally forgetting details or sequencing that would affect his employment. Furthermore, with poor interpersonal skills and workplace trust issues, the Veteran would have an increase in paranoia and would struggle with appropriate work interaction. In reaching these rationales, the expert opinion cited to the medical record and medical journals. Based on the above, the Board finds that the Veteran's service-connected PTSD prevents him from obtaining substantially gainful employment. Functional limitations include communicating effectively and respectfully with coworkers and others in the workplace, issues with anger and violence in the workplace, and having PTSD symptoms that interfere with timely and efficient completion of work tasks. In light of these symptoms, the Veteran would not be capable of more than marginal employment in any type of work setting, whether physical or sedentary. Ortiz-Valles v. McDonald, 28 Vet. App. 65, 72 (2016). Thus, resolving reasonable doubt in his favor, the Veteran's PTSD prevents him from substantial gainful employment. Therefore, a TDIU is granted. John J. Crowley Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans' Appeals Attorney for the Board Laura Cochran, 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.