Amputee Afghanistan Veteran No Longer Disabled According to Social Security?

For disabled vet, battle rages on as feds deny disability payments

Rapid City Journal
Tom Griffith Journal staff
7 min ago

“Somehow I was deemed no longer disabled by Social Security, and it’s been an absolute hellish nightmare. I wish I wasn’t disabled and that my leg grew back, and that my arm functioned, and that my gonads hadn’t been blown off and I no longer needed testosterone shots, and I could hear, and I didn’t have PTSD, and that I didn’t have a traumatic brain injury." 
Wayne Swier

Hannah Hunsinger Journal Staff

For 31-year-old Wayne Swier, a U.S. Army combat veteran who suffered devastating injuries from an improvised explosive device seven years ago in Afghanistan, this summer should have been a season of solace and celebration.

But fate and a federal agency seemed to have conspired to turn it into a nightmare.

Swier is set to marry his sweetheart in a week, and the couple plans to move into a new home near Johnson Siding built by the nonprofit Homes for Our Troops later in August.

By any account, it should be a summer of love for the Stephens High School graduate who spent the better part of two tours with the 101st Airborne’s “Band of Brothers” unit fighting the Taliban in the remote mountainous regions of Afghanistan.

Instead, in May the Social Security Administration deemed him no longer disabled and cut off his monthly disability checks, in a manner as harsh as the way that IED blew off his leg in a small Afghan village in November 2010.
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Social Security Judges Don't Have to Explain Cutting Disabled Veterans Benefits?

Veteran survives crash, stroke, heart attack, but denied benefits
WXIA
Andy Pierrotti
July 22, 2017

In the past, when a veteran was deemed unemployable by the VA, Social Security judges were required to explain why they disagreed with the VA’s disability ruling.

Starting this past march, judges are no longer required to do that.

Sleep is rare commodity for Daniel Norfleat. The Covington resident typically gets about three to four hours asleep a week.

“And without the sleep, I’m constantly going around in circles, a circle of pain,” said Norfleat, a U.S. Navy veteran.

The 53-year-old takes two dozen pills a day for pain, depression and a severe case of insomnia. The rare moments he does get shut-eye, he’s often woken by the screams of a deadly day serving onboard the U.S.S. Lexington, an air craft carrier.

In 1989, a pilot crashed his plane while trying to land. Five sailors died that day and Norfleat hasn’t been able to shake the image from his mind.

“We had fires. We had hurt bodies, hurt people,” said Norfleat. “I have a VA psychologist I see and we talk about it.”

In addition to post traumatic stress disorder, Norfleat has suffered a heart attack, a stroke, and knee surgeries.
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Denial of Social Security to Vietnam vet upheld

Denial of Social Security to Vietnam vet upheld
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

A wounded Vietnam veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, who lives in a remote area and said he has frequent flashbacks, isn't entitled to Social Security disability benefits because there is work he could still perform, a divided federal appeals court ruled Monday.

James L. Turner's mental condition would not prevent him from holding a job where he could work alone at "simple, repetitive tasks," such as a cleaner, laundry sorter or folding machine operator, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

Read more: Denial of Social Security to Vietnam vet upheld

Legislation would help cut red tape for veterans

Legislation would help cut red tape for veterans
BY KRISTINA SMITH HORN • Watchdog/enterprise reporter • November 11, 2009


FREMONT -- A U.S. senator introduced legislation Tuesday that he said could help Ohio's disabled veterans receive medical and social security benefits faster with less bureaucracy.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced the Benefit Rating Acceleration for Veteran Entitlements Act to the Senate. The BRAVE Act, if approved, would allow disabled veterans to apply at the U.S. Veterans Administration for benefits and Social Security disability at the same time, Brown said.

Currently, they must apply separately to the VA and Social Security. "It's a cumbersome process," Brown said. "It takes weeks, sometimes months, for people to go through this. If you can meet VA criteria, you automatically should meet Social Security disability requirements."
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http://www.thenews-messenger.com/article/20091111/NEWS01/911110304/-1/newsfront2

Florida disabled wait for benefits in backlog

For disabled, wait for benefits hurts
In Tampa, where cases for Florida's west coast are heard, the average waiting time for a hearing is 681 days. "The backlog is the worst in Florida,'' said Rep. Kathy Castor at a news conference outside the Tampa Social Security office Monday. Castor, a Democrat, announced that she would introduce a bill this week to expedite the disability claims process.

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