Citation Nr: 22010514
Decision Date: 02/23/22	Archive Date: 02/23/22

DOCKET NO. 16-13 697
DATE: February 23, 2022

ORDER

An annual clothing allowance for the 2015 calendar year for topical medication used to treat service-connected pseudofolliculitis is granted.

FINDING OF FACT

The topical medication used to treat the Veteran's a service-connected pseudofolliculitis, for the year 2015, caused irreparable damage to his shirts.

CONCLUSION OF LAW

The criteria for a clothing allowance for the 2015 calendar year for topical medication used to treat service-connected pseudofolliculitis are met.  38 U.S.C. §§ 1162, 5107; 38 C.F.R. § 3.810.

REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION

The Veteran served on active duty from February 1980 to May 1992.  This appeal is before the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) from a July 2015 decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center.  In February 2022, the Veteran testified at a Board hearing before the undersigned.  This case is being handled using the One-Touch Initiative.

The law provides for payment of an annual clothing allowance for each veteran who, because of a service-connected disability, wears or uses a prosthetic or orthopedic appliance (including a wheelchair) which VA determines tends to wear out or tear the clothing of the veteran, or uses medication which a physician has prescribed for a skin condition which is due to a service-connected disability and VA determines causes irreparable damage to the veteran's outer garments.  38 U.S.C. § 1162.

The implementing regulation, 38 C.F.R. § 3.810, provides, in pertinent part, that an annual clothing allowance may be granted when the Under Secretary for Health or a designee certifies that a veteran, because of a service-connected disability or disabilities, wears or uses one qualifying prosthetic or orthopedic appliance (including, but not limited to, a wheelchair) which tends to wear or tear clothing, or that a veteran uses medication prescribed by a physician for one skin condition, which is due to a service-connected disability, that causes irreparable damage to the veteran's outer garments.  38 C.F.R. § 3.810(a)(1)(ii).

The Veteran has been service-connected for the skin condition of pseudofolliculitis, affecting the face and neck, since September 1998.  VA medical records reflect treatment of the condition with topical medication, including lidocaine, in the year 2015. 

As reflected in his February 2022 testimony before the Board, the Veteran asserts that, in the year 2015, he used topical medication to treat his service-connected pseudofolliculitis which caused irreparable damage to his shirt collars, particularly when the creams smeared and mixed with the blood resultant from his disability.  At the hearing, he presented a stained button-down collared shirt and stained t-shirt as evidence of the damage.

The only basis of the agency of original jurisdiction's denial of the Veteran's claim, as reflected in its July 2015 decision and January 2016 statement of the case, was that the topical medication used by the Veteran for his service-connected pseudofolliculitis had been determined not to cause permanent damage to clothing.  Given the Veteran's testimony and the physical evidence presented at his Board hearing demonstrating the asserted damage to his shirt collars by his topical medication, the Board finds the evidence for and against the Veteran's claim to be at least in approximate balance.  

Affording the Veteran the benefit of the doubt, the Board finds that the topical medication used to treat his service-connected pseudofolliculitis, for the 2015 calendar year, caused irreparable damage to his shirts.  Accordingly, an annual clothing allowance is warranted for the 2015 calendar year.  See 38 U.S.C. § 5107.

 

 

MARTIN B. PETERS

Acting Veterans Law Judge

Board of Veterans' Appeals

Attorney for the Board	Andrew Mack, 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.