This content outlines a four-step process for veterans to effectively write a "Statement in Support of Claim" (VA Form 21-4138) to clearly communicate the severity of their service-connected disabilities and their impact on daily life to the VA.
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in this video I explain our four-step
process to writing a winning statement
in support of claim what's up fellow
vets Klay Houston here former Blackhawk
pilot in the US Army Reserve and now
content writer here at Via claims
Insider I've written uh like 50 plus
blogs on a wide range of topics
including how to get tdiu and a long
list of disabilities and today I'm going
to explain our four-step process for how
to write a winning statement in
supportive claim otherwise known as VA form
form
21-4138 a VA statement in support of
claim is a 3 to5 paragraph written
narrative that details the circumstances
and the facts of your disability it's
really useful for communicating to the
VA in your own words the severity of
your symptoms and how your disability
has negatively affected your work your
life and your social functioning and
those factors are really important
because they are how the VA will
determine your rating percentage it's a
common misunderstanding that the VA
rates disabilities what they actually
rate are the symptoms produced by your
disability and generally speaking the
worse your symptoms are and the more
they negatively affect your life the
higher your rating will be and so uh
statements in suppor of claims are just
one way that you can show the impact of
your symptoms now let's get into our
four-step process for writing a winning
a statement in support a claim I'm going
to include specific examples for you but
first there's just a few like quick tips
that I want to go over it's really
important that you are open and honest
and vulnerable when writing this you
don't want to undersell it and you don't
want to oversell it either you want to
tell the VA exactly how your disability
affects your life and generally speaking
less is more you don't want to write a
whole novel in the remark section for
the VA they don't have time to read that
and it probably will hurt your chances
because they might end up just skimming
it now like I said you should write
these four steps out in the remark
section of your VA form 21-4138 the
section of above that one is for your
identification information and all
that's pretty self-explanatory all right
so step number one you want to list the
name of the disability that you're
claiming in the first section of the
remarks so in this first paragraph we'll
call it you want to list the name of
your disability and we recommend
including the diagnostic code as well
and you can find that in CFR title 38
part 4 which is the schedule for rating
disabilities diagnostic codes or DCs are
four number indicators that the VA uses
to categorize all of the dis abilities
that they rate so for example if you're
a first-time filer for PTSD you're going
to name it as follows in this first
paragraph they'll call it DC 9411
post-traumatic stress disorder
parentheses PTSD due to combat
deployment to Iraq or whatever the
circumstances are that you claim caused
your PTSD step number two you want to
explain the approximate time frame that
your disability began along with why you
think it should be service connected so
in the second paragraph you should
explain in terms of month and year
that's specific enough for the VA of
when your symptoms began and you also
want to tell the writer who's going to
read your VA form 21-4138 to explain
what happened to you when it happened
and where it happened so for example if
you're a first time filer for PTSD using
that example again you need to explain
the event that you claim was stressful
enough to cause your PTSD and it must
have taken place during and because of
your military service in order for it to
be service connected so this could be
anything from an IED blast to a sexual
assault and generally speaking if you
genuinely feared for your life then it
is considered traumatic enough to cause
PTSD now if you're filing for an
increase to a disability that's already
rated by the VA in this paragraph you
want to go ahead and explain how long
you've had your rating and why you're
filing for an increase for example
here's how you could phrase it I've been
rated for disability for a number of
years but my symptoms have worsened in
these ways and then you list the ways
and then you can say that's why I feel
like I deserve a rating increase step
number three you want want to list the
current symptoms of your disability in
terms of frequency severity and duration
over time so this is where you want to
explain the symptoms caused by your
disability in detail and this is
critical because like I mentioned before
this is how the VA will determine your
rating so if you suffer from sticking
with the PTSD example if you suffer from
PTSD that causes major impacts you want
to write down all the symptoms with
examples of when you experience the
symptoms this will help the VA get a
clear picture of the impact your
symptoms have on your life so here's an
example of what you could write in this
paragraph you could say I suffer from
severe symptoms of PTSD and now have hyp
sensitivity to light and Loud Noises
constant anxiety and depression near
constant panic attacks sweating heart
racing you get the idea you want to list
all the symptoms that you are suffering
from because of your PTSD and then you
also in this paragraph want to explain
how often you experience those symptoms
and how long those symptoms last when
you do experience them step number four
you want to explain how your disability
negatively affects your work life and
your social life and in this paragraph
it's best to use two examples here's an
example of something that you could
write in this paragraph you could say my
PTSD has negatively affected my work and
life in many ways I've been divorced
twice and don't have relationships with
my children anymore I lost my job
because I can't get along with my
co-workers or supervisors you could also
include that I have severe depression I
constantly check windows doors and locks
out of an OCD like paranoia so that's a
really intense example someone with
those symptoms would probably get a
pretty high rating for their PTSD all
right folks that's all I got for you in
this video those are the four steps for
writing a winning statement in
supportive claim thanks for watching uh
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