How to Determine Eligibility for Multiple Disabilities
There are a number of factors that are taken into consideration to determine whether or not you qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), including whether your condition prevented you or will prevent you from working for at least a year and whether you’ve paid your share of Social Security taxes. While certain injuries or illnesses may not be considered disabling by the Social Security Administration, the symptoms of multiple disabilities combined together may.
How the Social Security Administration Determines Eligibility
The way that the Social Security Administration determines whether or not your condition qualifies as a “disability” is dependent on their Blue Book. Their Blue Book lists all of the disabilities that will automatically qualify you for SSDI benefits if your condition matches. Additionally, you’re likely to qualify even if your condition does not make it into the Blue Book. This is true if the symptoms of your condition match to or are close to the symptoms of the conditions listed in the Blue Book. Hence, ofet referred to as having a “medically equivalent” condition.
Of course, you will need to prove that you have one of the conditions listed in the Blue Book. Or, that you have medically equivalent symptoms. You can accomplish this with an official diagnosis from a doctor. Or, with medical tests and proof of medications taken or procedures done in an attempt to eliminate or reduce your symptoms.
Determining Eligibility for Multiple Disabilities
You may have a physical or mental condition that, by itself, does not qualify when compared to the criteria of the Social Security Administration’s Blue Book. However, if you have more than one condition, then the Social Security Administration will have to take at the combined effect that those conditions have on your ability to work as opposed to looking at them separately. Separately, they may not meet the criteria of the Blue Book listings; however, combined, they may.
For example, say you have diabetes. Up until recently, diabetes patients had to have evidence of certain complications as well. For example, retinitis proliferans, neuropathy or acidosis. If you didn’t have any of these complications, but you did have diabetes, you would not be eligible.
Nonetheless, if you suffer from high blood pressure and morbid obesity, the symptoms of all three combined need equal accountability. Basically, the Social Security Administration would have to determine whether the symptoms caused meet two criteria:
- All of those conditions combined are medically equivalent to having diabetes.
- One of the three complications appears in the Blue Book.
It’s worth noting that the Social Security Administration must take into account both mental and physical conditions. For example, you may suffer from moderate anxiety, which by itself isn’t enough to warrant disability benefits. You may also have a physical condition that causes moderate pain. Which by itself also does not make you eligible for disability benefits. Still, the combination of moderate anxiety and your physical condition could make you eligible. This is because moderate anxiety can actually reduce your tolerance for pain.
Judging Multiple Disabilities Individually
Do you have multiple disabilities? The Social Security Administration does not judge each disability individually. They combine them to determine how they affect your ability to work. If you need advice concerning multiple disabilities and whether or not you will be eligible for disability benefits, be sure to call 602-952-3200 for a free consultation with one of our professionals at SSDA USA today. You can reach us at your convenience, too, with our awesome LiveChat feature.
This is attorney advertising. SSDA, LLC is a group of attorneys that pursues claims for Social Security Disability benefits on behalf of its clients against the Social Security Administration. SSDA, LLC is in no way a part of the Social Security Administration. Further, the information on this blog is for general information purposes only. Nothing herein should be taken as legal advice. This information is not intended to create, and receipt or viewing does not constitute, a representative-client relationship.
