The Veteran is granted a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to his service-connected disabilities, and the reduction in the rating of lumbosacral strain with IVDS from 40 percent to 20 percent was not proper; the 40 percent rating is restored effective September 18, 2023.

The deciding factor: The Veteran's service-connected disabilities prevent him from obtaining or maintaining all gainful employment, and the reduction in his lumbosacral strain with IVDS rating did not reflect an improvement in his ability to function under ordinary conditions of life and work.

Claimed conditions

lumbosacral strain with IVDS, bipolar disorder, unspecified with anxious distress and alcohol use disorder, left lower extremity radiculopathy (sciatic nerve), tinnitus, hypertension

How they argued it

Direct service connection

Exposure basis

None

Rating assigned

100%

Decision date

November 5, 2025

Citation

A25096185

Want to see how appeals like this one tend to go? Appeals like mine