VA IU and Social Security Disability

What is the difference between VA IU and Social Security Disability?  Many veterans ask this question and I will try and give a basic explanation.  The main difference is that Social Security will look at all your medical conditions to determine if you are unable to work.  With veteran's IU the VA will only look at your service connected disabilities to determine if you are disabled.  You can get a better understanding of how each agency determines disability by reading my web pages on Social Security's 5 steps to determine disability and how the VA determines if you are unable to work under VA IU.  What most veterans need to know is that if you have been found disabled for VA IU there is a real good chance you will be able to get SSDI.  Also if you are getting SSDI mainly due to your service connected disabilities, there is also a good chance you can get VA IU as well.  This is a very simple explanation of the difference between these two programs and the website links above should help explain further.  If you are unable to work because you are disabled and you are not sure what you may qualify for then one of the best things you can do is speak to an attorney to see if you may qualify for IU and SSDI or both.  If you would like to ask me feel free to call me at 1-877-527-5529.

Social Security Medical Listing of Impairments

The medical listing of impairments comes into play at the third step of Social Security's 5 step process for determining disability.  If your medical condition meets or equals a listing you will be found disabled.  If you do not meet or equal a listed impairment then you would move on to next step of the process.  To meet or equal a listed impairment it takes a doctor saying you do and explaining why it is your condition meets all the requirements for the listing, or at least why your condition equals the severity of the listing.  If there is a medical expert at your ssdi hearing, one of the first questions usually asked of the expert is if the claimant meets or equals a listed impairment.  You should read the medical listing of impairments as it applies to your medical condition and if you think you meet the listing you can take a copy to your doctor and ask them if they think you meet the listing.  If they think you do ask them to write you a report saying this and it should include why and be backed up with all evidence that supports this conclusion.  If you do not meet or equal a listing it is not the end of the world since you simply move on to next step in the process.  The majority of social security disability cases that win are not based on meeting or equaling a medical listing since these listings were made very hard to meet by design.