How SSA Determines your Disability?

As the most basic requirement for you to qualify for Social Security disability benefits, obviously, you have to be disabled.

And to be considered disabled, your condition should meet the definition set by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Under the SSA, you can be considered disabled if you have a mental or physical impairment that is expected to last more than 12 months and you can no longer perform substantial gainful activity or SGA.

That is still a vague definition, so let’s try to find out how do the SSA really determine if a person is qualified medically or not.

Impairment Listing Manual

The SSA or more specifically the Disability Determination Services (DDS) has a manual that contains a list of certain medical problems that can be considered as disabilities.

Aside from the listed medical conditions, the Impairment listings manual also contain the approval criteria or qualification for all impairment in the list.

This way the examiner can examine your claim and the attached medical records against the criteria in the manual to determine if you qualify.

If your disability meets the requirement in the manual it is somewhat easier to get approved fro the benefit.

You just have to prove that you have enough credits and that it prevents your from performing SGA.

Medical Vocational Allowance 

Of course, not all disabilities are listed in the impairment listings manual and in fact, most claims have impairments that are not in the manual. 

As a result, a different process is used to determine your disability.

The first step is to determine your Residual Functional Capacity or RFC.

This will test your exertional limits and determine if you are capable only of sedentary work, light work or medium work.

After they find your RFC, the second step will be testing if you are capable of performing your previous job.

So if you are only capable of light work and your previous work is considered medium work then you can proceed to the third step. 

The third step will now determine if you are able to perform other work.

If you are only capable of light work, then the examiner will determine if you are capable of performing other forms of light work where your skill can be transferred.

If the examiner determines that you are capable of doing other work you will be denied social security benefits.

If the examiner determines that you are “not” capable of doing other work you will be approved provided you have enough work credits.