The Veteran is granted special monthly compensation based on the need for regular aid and attendance due to his service-connected disabilities. The issue of entitlement to special monthly compensation based on housebound status is dismissed as moot.
The deciding factor: The Veteran's physical incapacity requires care or assistance on a regular basis to protect him from the hazards or dangers incident to his daily environment, specifically due to his service-connected spinocerebellar ataxia and associated ambulation issues.
- Claimed conditions
- residuals of a right elbow fracture, spinocerebellar ataxia of the right and left lower extremities, lumbar degenerative disc disease, scoliosis, degenerative arthritis, intervertebral disc syndrome, radiculopathies of the sciatic and femoral nerves
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 100%
- Decision date
- December 8, 2020
- Citation
- A20018132
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 837 · Granted: 24% (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 A20018132.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities rendered him unable to secure and follow substantially gainful employment prior to August 14, 2023.
- Granted
The Board has restored the Veteran's rating for his right elbow condition from 10 percent to 20 percent effective May 5, 2025, finding that the evidence was in equipoise regarding whether there had been improvement in the Veteran's ability to function under ordinary conditions of life and work.
- Granted
The Board has granted earlier effective dates of January 13, 2020 for the service connection of low back disability and related radiculopathy issues. The Veteran's claims were reopened due to new evidence submitted in January 2020.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for a back condition, including degenerative disc disease and scoliosis, due to lack of current disability evidence.
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