TDIU

TDIU stands for total disability based on individual unemployability. It is the provision under which the VA pays compensation at the total rate to a veteran whose service-connected disabilities prevent securing or following a substantially gainful occupation, even where the schedular evaluations add up to less than 100 percent. The rule sits at 38 CFR 4.16.

The regulation is built in two parts. Section 4.16(a) sets percentage thresholds: one disability ratable at 60 percent or more, or two or more disabilities with at least one ratable at 40 percent or more and a combined evaluation of 70 percent or more. Section 4.16(b) covers veterans who are unable to follow a substantially gainful occupation but do not meet those percentages, and provides for their cases to be submitted for extraschedular consideration rather than decided under the table alone.

What the medical record contributes is documentation, not a conclusion. Clinicians record the diagnosis and what the condition limits in functional terms, including limits that bear on work, such as how long a task can be sustained or how often symptoms interrupt it. Whether the regulation's standard is met in a particular case is a determination the VA makes on the evidence before it, argued by the veteran with their accredited representative or VSO. Representation through a recognized VSO is free.