| Overview |
Under the Social Security Act, a person is disabled if they have a medically determinable, physical or mental impairment that is so severe they are unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity, and the impairment is expected to last at least twelve months or result in death. Social Security does not pay for partial disability or occupational disability.
There are five steps that Social Security uses to determine disability:
|
- Are you working? If you are working and making more than a specific amount per month, set each year by Social Security, then you do not qualify.
- 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.
- 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. 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.
- 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. Social Security only looks at what you've done in the past 15 years, as "relevant past work."
- 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 Social Security Act.
|
|
