Bmanmax

At 35 years old I applied for SSDI I was IU 100%P&T due to combined disabilities. I did not have doctor saying I could not work because I had all my health care from the VA. The VA doctors I had could not say I was unable to work due to my disabilities because the VA has a system to determine your ability to work under the IU statute. Having no letters from a doctor I was unable to obtain a lawyer to help me. When I applied for the SSDI I applied as being too disabled to work due to my combined disabilities. SSA denied my claim because they was evaluating each disability separately and they did not take into account the total of all my disabilities being on one individual. The next step I could have asked for a review. I asked them if they would do anything differently from the first one and they told me no so I decided to skip that step. Next I appealed my claim for a hearing with a judge. The way I figured it if the judge tells me I can work then I would ask him to give me a job but it did not get that far. In the hearing the judge asked me if I had an attorney and I told him no. Then he asked me if I wanted one and he told me I should get one so I thought about it for a few minutes. I asked him if I had another appeal after this one and he told me yes. I told him I waited 3 years for this hearing and I believe my combined disabilities should make my case without one. He asked me about my medications (7), so I started with the one that had the worst side effects. I explained what it was like without the medication and then I started telling him about the side effects. I explained what the side effects are and how they are better than the alterative. Before I got halfway through the side effects of my first medication when he stopped me saying I heard enough and my claim was approved. In his finding he bashed the SSA for not considering my combined disabilities that range from physical to mental as being on one individual. Because I could not get a VA doctor to write a letter saying I could not work so I was prepared to argue that my health care provider is responsible for all my care is the VA and they said I could not work by giving me IU 100%P&T due to combined disabilities should be considered a medical record. I was told they do not consider VA disability ratings when making their decisions so I cannot include it in my appeal. I added this argument to as part of my request for the hearing anyway and told them the judge can ignore it if he wants to. I do not know if the judge took my argument into account because we did not get that far but I am sure it did not hurt my case. If you truly believe your combined disabilities, both service connected and non service connected make it impossible for you to work I encourage you to file a claim and appeal it until you see a judge because if you continue to refile you lose the back pay. I hope this helps you.

I cannot say I ever had a problem with VA claims. However, my disabilities was well documented by the time I got out of the Army. The only thing I had a problem with was getting my neck condition service connected. They denied my claim so I looked in my Army medical records and found 1 x-ray of my neck that showed an abnormality. That one piece of paper proved my case. A few weeks I got my letter from VA for SC neck. I also never filed an appeal trying to get a higher disability %. I always felt that they treated me fairly with my ratings. Every time I got reevaluated they up my disability and 2 weeks after I retired on disability they gave me TDIU, P&T. I did send them a letter in advance telling them that I was retiring on disability and would be filing a claim for TDIU soon. I feel that the more you fight the system the harder it becomes for you in the long rum. Some people just do not know when or what battles to fight. So many people fight for a 10% increase in one condition that is not going to change their combined %. A lot of stress over nothing and the veteran will most likely would get it and more at their next reevaluation. I read one claim at The Board of Veterans' Appeals and the veteran was claiming gray hair to be a disability. These people tie up the system for everyone else and then complain about how slow or unfair it is. I feel sorry for those who can get something back from the system like a higher combine %.

I will explain what happen to me while on P&T TDIU. I applied for SSDI and had to go to the judge for a ruling. Before entering the court room, I asked lady working the desk if TDIU rating be used in a SSDI claim. I was told no because VA has a different system then them. I was ready to argue that my VA rating of P&T TDIU should be used as medical evidence to determine if my combined disabilities are sever enough to qualify me for SSDI. I also was going to argue that VA Doctors do not determine if you are too disabled to work because VA have a separate system to evaluate who is unemployable due to combined SC disability called TDIU. Having no lawyer, I went before the judge to argue my case. The judge starting asking about my medications so I explained what my life was like without them and what it was like with them. After the 2nd medication of 5 he stopped me saying he heard enough and ruled totally in favor of my SSDI claim. In his ruling he stated that no one disability qualifies me but my combined disabilities do qualify me. Just before leaving the court room. I explained how I believed that my P&T TDIU should be use to help qualify me for SSDI in my combined disability case. In his ruling he use it as supporting evidence to help justify my SSDI claim. This means that he agreed that VA has a separate system to determine if someone cannot work due to service connected disabilities and VA Doctors do not determine if someone cannot work because of said rating system. P&T TDIU can help with your SSDI claim if you have no doctor's letter saying you cannot work. I hope this information can help others get SSDI they paid for. Keep in mind every case is different and I am not a lawyer. Taking our case before an appellate court judge maybe worth it.