The Veteran's use of VA-issued bilateral ankle and knee braces is found to consistently wear or tear his clothing, warranting a clothing allowance for the year 2017. The Board granted this request based on relative equipoise in the evidence.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's orthopedic appliances cause wear and tearing of his clothes, which meets the eligibility criteria for a clothing allowance as they are used consistently with his service-connected disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral ankle sprain, knee degenerative joint disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 2, 2019
- Citation
- 19100152
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 3,038 · Granted: 30% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 19100152.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for trochanteric pain syndrome of bilateral hips, bilateral ankle sprain, and patellofemoral pain syndrome of bilateral knees. The remaining claims were denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has denied service connection for a bilateral ankle disability and remanded the issue of service connection for a sleep disturbance condition due to insufficient evidence, including lack of a sleep study.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claims for an increased rating for boxer's fracture and service connection for bilateral ankle sprain were dismissed because the Veteran did not file a timely Notice of Disagreement on the correct VA form prescribed by the Secretary.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's TDIU was awarded effective November 3, 2020. The Board finds that there has been a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error in failing to consider a TDIU prior to this date and refers the matter for extra-schedular consideration.
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