[MUSIC} Hi. Welcome to CCK Live Under 5. I'm Christian McTarnaghan, and I'm an attorney in our court practice here at CCK. Today I'm going to be explaining the VA disability 55-year-old rule. So I'm going to start with some background. VA re-examines veterans, as some of you may know, with disability ratings occasionally to determine whether their condition has improved, stayed the same, or gotten worse. So periodic future exams happen about every two to five years, and they can either show that you should get an increased rating or that your rating might be able to be reduced. But in some situations — and this is what's important about this quick talk today — VA won't reevaluate your condition even if two to five years have passed. These ratings are known as protected ratings. So we have some information on our blog, and we have other CCK Lives about this, so I'm not going to really get into the specifics, but basically, a protected rating is a rating that can't be reduced or revoked by VA in the future. So there's a special 10-year rule, there's a 20-year rule for continuous ratings, and like I said, we have more information on that on our blog and other CCK Lives. But the rule I'm talking about today is a 55-plus rule. So veterans who are over the age of 55 are protected from rating reductions in many situations. It's important to note, though, that this is a case-by-case determination. So it also includes veterans who will be 55 by the date of a future examination. So if you're 50 now and you're scheduled for a five-year re-examination, this rule can apply to you. So there's an exception, though, to the 55-year-old rule. VA can request a reevaluation of a rating when veterans are over 55 "under unusual circumstances." And that language comes right from VA law, comes right from the regulation. Unfortunately, the regulation doesn't provide any explanation about what "unusual circumstances" are. But one example might be, if you're 55 years old and you've completed treatment for cancer, you're required to be re-examined six months after completing treatment, because you get one rating for active cancer and then you get a different rating for residuals. So because you're going to get 100% rating for the active and then you're going to get rated based on your residual symptoms. So at this time, you would be eligible — or you would be evaluated, rather — with a new VA examination, despite being over 55 at the time of that examination. So, these are supposed to be quick, that's all I got for you. More info on protected ratings can be found on our blog. Also, be sure to check out our other videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel, and thank you very much for watching today. [MUSIC]