How long must my condition be present and prevent me from working?
In order to receive Social Security disability (or SSI: Supplemental Security Income) you must have a condition that is preventing you from working for at least 12 continous months. This is a very important factor. Even conditions that are indeed disabling but have not lasted this minimum length requirement will be denied on the basis of duration by a disability examiner if the claim is being decided at the initial claim or later on, during the reconsideration appeal phase.
At the second appeal level (disability hearing level) an ALJ (Administrative Law Judge) can award so called closed period. This is a lump sum benefit payout for a defined period less than one year’s length, during which a claimant otherwise met the qualifications for disability under Social Security guidelines.
However, this is the only level of the system at which this type of award occurs and, typically, the opportunity for receiving a closed period award is heightened when a claimant is able to provide additional medical record documentation that was not present during the application and reconsideration phases, or when the claimant’s disability attorney is able to satisfactorily demonstrate that the disability examiner erred in one of the prior determinations.
You do not have to wait until you have had your condition for one full year: disability examiners and administrative law judges can review the evidence and make a determination as to whether or not your condition will eventually last one full year.
Does Social Security award temporary or partial disability benefits?
Social Security does not award partial or temporary disability benefits.
Both Social Security disability and SSI are total disability programs. You will not be awarded any temporary disability benefits or for a defined period of time. When a person is awarded disability benefits, the award is made under the assumption that the claimant will receive the benefits indefinitely, until such time as a future review- CDR (continuing disability review) determines that the individual has achieved medical improvement of their condition.
What conditions are regarded disabling?
For a condition to be considered disabling for an adult, it must result in the loss of the ability to engage in work activity and thus loss of income. For a condition to be considered disabling for a child, it must result in the loss of the ability to engage in what SSA refers to as “age-appropriate activities”. For school-age children, this will ordinarily translate into an impairment of the ability to keep up with their peers in a school setting, which is why children filing for disability will have not only their medical records reviewed, but will often have their school records reviewed as well.
How does the Social Security Administration measure how severe your condition is?
To be approved for SSD or SSI benefits, you must have a severe impairment that causes significant functional limitations. If your medical and/or mental conditions have been so severe as to prevent activities of daily living, including work activity (or age-appropriate activities in case of children) you need to file a disability claim.
Assuming a disabling condition exists for the minimum one-year time period, SSA will look for evidence of severity by obtaining your medical records and your work history (school records for a child), along with daily activity questionnaires completed by you and a third-party (person who knows you.
What are Activities of Daily Living?
Daily activities are the things you do every day, such as driving, cooking, cleaning, showering, your hobbies, getting groceries, etc. For physical impairment cases, this is measured in terms of your ability to stand, sit, walk, stoop, crouch, reach, carry certain weights and more. For mental impairment cases, this may be measured in terms of the ability to remember and retain knowledge, comprehend instructions, interact with family, friends or strangers, complete tasks, or the ability to maintain attention and concentration and many more.
A disability examiner will either send you a questionaire to complete and return or call you and perform an interview over the phone, completing the questionaire form as the interview proceeds. Or they might contact the third-party contact person (usually a friend, relative, or neighbor) to gather ADL information.
When Do I Qualify for disability?
Social Security uses a guidebook called Disability Lists of Impairments- mental and physical. If your condition is so severe that your symptoms satisfy the criteria of a Social Security impairment listing, you are awarded disability benefits. However, most disability applicants have significant impairments that may not satisfy the severity requirements of an impairment listing. Or they may have a condition that is not even listed in the manual.
If your condition does not fulfill the criteria of an impairment listing, but you still have a condition that causes limitations significant enough to prevent you from engaging in work activity (or age-appropriate activities for a child), you may be awarded disability benefits through a medical vocational allowance: If you do not meet an impairment listing, the disability examiner will continue the evaluation process by determining your functional limitations (for example, inability to sit or stand or walk more than a certain length of time, or inability to retain newly learned information).
These limitations will be noted in an RFC (residual functional capacity) or physical or mental assessment. The RFC rating, or assessment, will be compared to your past work to see if you can return to any of the jobs you have performed in the last 15 years.
If you cannot do any of these former jobs, the examiner will look to your education and work skills, giving consideration to your age and functional limitations, to see if it is possible for you to switch to a new type of work. If it is decided that you cannot be expected, based on the severity of your condition, to be able to do some type of other work, you are likely to be awarded disability benefits.
Source: Social Security Disability Resource Center
