Ssdi

[Jake40]

I was awarded 100% p&t a couple months back.

i can’t work. How do I apply for Ssdi? And should I ? I don’t know what to do. Please advice 

[Berta]

Click on https://www.ssa.gov/disability/

their site has the criteria for disability benefits and also has the Application on line.

Your VA award letter is good evidence of total and Permanent disability.

But read over their criteria first.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Berta

[pacmanx1]

Go on SSA and file today.  In rare cases SSA will grant your SSDI but in normal cases SSA will deny your claim.  Once your claim is denied, get an attorney.  It is a hidden secret that a lot of claimants have to hire a lawyer to get their SSA benefits. 

[kanewnut]

I think someone recently posted on here that they got SSDI without an attorney. I think they got an evaluation from a vocational rehabilitation expert that helped them. CFR title 20 parts 400 to 499 cover social security.

[Berta]

That is correct- in my husband's case,we tried to get a SSA lawyer, -he had succeeded in getting SSDI, without a lawyer or Voc Rehab specialist, 

 but they failed to consider one of their own regulations. 

SSA award solely for 1151 stroke 1993,  few months later SSDI awarded solely for his PTSD, awarded by VA almost 3 year after he died, as 100% SC P & T for PTSD.

I am glad the lawyer would not represent us. we did better without him anyhow.

Full story in this thread-it still  bothers  me- because I succeeded in proving my husband's wrongful death by VA, without an IMO or a lawyer. 

Every lawyer here in NY I called, to represent me , said I could never succeed.

Thanks OK.

 My evidence was impeccable. And the VA  General Counsel can Read.

I dont know why the doubles---

A point- if a claimant contacts a vet lawyer, some of these vet lawyer firms have people who triage those emails. They might reply to you right off the bat saying that the lawyer cannot help you.

I do not believe many of these people ( they might be paralegals) really have the ability to fully assess your claims via email or via phone calls to them.unless ou state and even attach to the email omething that will trigger them to consider representing you.

A local vet,( who joined hadit but never posted anything)  had gone to the CAVC twice and had 2 lawyers.Denied again and again.

I helped him succeed in his claim but VA wanted to hold back $8,000 of the retro for his legal fees. I wrote to the RO and told them why his lawyer did not deserve the fee at all and sent him a copy of my letter. The VA has a 5 point criteria for legal fee payment. His lawyer failed on every point.

This was one of the most demanding and abusive vets I ever met- he started to call me contantly and email me constantly at some point, as he thought I could speed up the VA on their final decision.

His last call to me was that if the fee was paid to those lawyers (who did NOTHING to help him-that was a fact )then I would be hearing from him every day ,by phone, until I fixed that.

I never heard from him again at all and am sure the VA released the 8,000 to him, in addition to his retro which they had already sent.

This is one of Many reasons I do not handle claims by phone or emails regarding claims issues.

Just try another lawyer, if a law firm , via a brief assessment from someone who is not a lawyer, takes your call or email and then turns you down.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Berta

[broncovet]

Berta, 

    Im sorry you had a bad experience helping a Vet, as you described.  You helped the guy win his benefits, then, when the lawyer tried to collect a fee he didnt deserve, the Vet made YOU the scapegoat.  Terrible.  

    Unfortunately, yes, many Vets "are not thinking right", taking it out on you, when you were the best help he had.  I think this is largely due to the PTSD talking.   I dont know if this Vet was SC for PTSD, but I do know that I havent always persued every claim, and I had reasons for that.  As an example, I have a family member, who has a purple heart from injuries in Afghanastan, who "wont apply for TBI/PTSD" because:

1.  He thinks he wont be allowed to own weapons (guns) if he gets SC for PTSD/TBI

2.  He thinks "other Vets" deserve it more.  

    Both of these reasons are ridicilous.  The doc makes a statement, or not, as he decides, whether or not you are a threat to self or others.  If you are a threat, well you should not have a weapon.  Its made independently of whether or not you have PTSD/TBI.  NOT "everyone" who goes crazy and starts shooting people has done it because of PTSD.  Some are just crazy.  

    Worse, while there are "other Vets" with more serious injuries, this should be left up to the VA..they render these decisions, not us.  I feel if VA awards it, then I deserve it "as long as" I tell them the truth.  Let them do their job and figure it out.  Its not our job to make judgement calls about other Vets disabilities.  That is between the other Vets, their VARO/BVA, and their doctors.  

     We dont have to wear tshirts that say stuff like, "I have PTSD and am rated 100 percent with the VA".  Our medical records are private and we need not disclose those, or our ratings, if any, to everyone who passes by.  A disabled person "has the right" to choose whether or not he discloses his/her disability.  

     I know its tempting to generalize and say, "Well this Vet did this to me, so all Vets would do so likewise".  However, that is like saying:  "Ok, I have 3 rocks and each is round.  Therefore, all rocks are round".  

     This said, there is nothing wrong with protecting yourself by putting up boundaries.  You deserve that!  

Edited July 16, 2020 by broncovet

[Berta]

This vet,in no way, had PTSD. It was a diabetes claim.Not under Nehmer either.

He had a degree, owned his own business ,and could have won his claim himself, if he had been willing to carefully read his last BVA decision. He came to my house with a ton of documents, but forgot to bring the BVA case, but with a few search terms, I found it at the BVA very fast ,before he even got here .It held a clue in the first paragraph- a medical term,no one to include his lawyers even looked up.

I honed in on researching  that term, which was in  his SMRs, but with nothing in them about diabetes at all , then I prepared a medical assessment, citing my research, referring to specific SMR entries, and he gave it to his private endocrinologist, and the endocrinologist then  wrote an exquisite IME for him -for free and he succeeded with the claim.

"Im sorry you had a bad experience helping a Vet, as you described."

Not "a" vet, it was more than 50% of vets who contacted me from this board or elsewhere.One hadit member  even asked me to write a buddy letter for him ( as an eye witness account of an incident he said happened , that hi claim was for( it is on the older hadit board) while he was onboard a ship in the late 1960s.

I am a civilian and women service personnel were  never on on Navy ships in the 1960s.

I was able to prevent his future emails from coming to me, at that point.

Many widows were just as bad- one in email said "get me my money or I will kill myself", and one tried to pull something over on the CAVC. Neither of the were legal widows of any veteran.

After I contacted the CAVC they looked into it and pulled the appeal off the site.

I refuse to be intimidated or used by anyone. Widows have to learn that right away, s some times people perceive them as vulnerable-in many respects------ far beyond anything to do with the VA claims process.

A public forum means others can get good advice by reading the posts and topics, and if I err in anything , some one here will correct me-there is no one to correct my advice in email or by phone.

I see many here do not have their personal emails and phone contacts in their profile.I think they are smart to prevent contacts. Some guests only read our profiles, and I do not think our personal contact info should ever be that available to guests ,who may not even be veterans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 4 minutes ago by broncovet