about the Process

When you apply for any type of disability benefit, it is your responsibility to prove to the RRB that you are "permanently disabled" either from your regular railroad job, or any type of job.

After the RRB receives your completed application, they will decide if you are entitled to disability by going through the following five step process:

1. Are you working? If you are working and making more than a specific amount per month, set each year by the RRB, then you do not qualify.
   
   
2. Do you have a severe medically determinable impairment? If your impairment(s) interfere with your ability to perform work activities you may qualify. However, no symptom, or combination of symptoms can be the basis for finding a person disabled, no matter how genuine the individual's complaints are, unless there is a "medically determinable" impairment. That means you must have current medical records that show you have been going for treatment, and that your impairment and treatment are well documented in the records.
   
   
3. Do any of your severe impairments meet a Social Security Listing? The "Listings" are a set of medical criteria for determining if a claimant is disabled, categorized by body systems and specific diseases or impairments, found in the Social Security Regulations. The railroad uses the Social Security regulations for this part of the determination. One way a claimant can be found disabled, is to show that his or her medical signs, findings, and symptoms "meet" or "medically equal" one of the set of medical signs, findings and symptoms found in the Listings. If your impairment meets or equals a listing, then your are presumed disabled. You will generally need an experienced disability attorney to help prove you meet or equal a Listing.
   
   
4. Taking into consideration your limitations due to your impairment, could you still do one of the jobs you've had in the last 15 years? If you can still do any of your past relevant work, you are not disabled. The RRB only looks at what you've done in the past 15 years, as "relevant past work."
   


5. Is there any other kind of work you can do? If you cannot do any of your past relevant jobs, and there is nothing else you can do with your physical and/or mental limitations, then you are disabled under the Railroad Retirement Act.