Obesity can be a part of a Social Security Disability claim, but it doesn’t likely qualify for benefits on its own.
Living with it is challenging and can put your health at risk. Daily tasks are often harder. Obesity puts pressure on your body, including your heart, lungs, muscles and nervous system.
If you suffer from obesity, especially morbid obesity, it can put working for a living out of reach. You may consider Social Security Disability benefits to help stabilize your finances and bring peace of mind during a hard time.
But winning benefits is no easy task. Social Security has not recognized obesity as a separate qualifying impairment for decades. And the application process for disability benefits is difficult on purpose. Social Security denies on average two out of every three disability claims.
That doesn’t mean you have to abandon hope. Obesity is often linked to other conditions that Social Security more clearly recognizes as disabilities. And if you can prove your individual symptoms are severe enough to make you unable to work, you can win benefits.
A skilled disability attorney can help you get to the root of what Social Security wants to see in order to grant you financial assistance.
At Nash Disability Law in Chicago, we listen, care, and create a strategy for your disability claim that is tailored to your individual situation.
You pay no attorney fee until you win benefits.
Our disability attorneys have helped thousands of people across Chicago land win disability benefits to help cover their medical and daily living expenses. We are one of the top Illinois-based disability law firms in terms of the volume of benefits we have secured for our clients.
WE’VE HELPED MORE PEOPLE IN THE CHICAGO AREA WIN BENEFITS THAN ANY OTHER LAW FIRM.
While Social Security doesn’t consider obesity to be a disability on its own, its connection to other conditions may qualify you for life-changing benefits.
Being chronically overweight heightens your risk factors or intensifies a variety of health problems, including:
Because Social Security defines a disability as the inability to work due to the severity of your health conditions, the combination of obesity with another debilitating impairment can make you eligible for benefits.
The combination of impairments could be the most important part of your claim.
But you must prove to Social Security that your case qualifies. This requires gathering piles of evidence, including medical records, doctors’ notes and statements, and information about your work history, and presenting them in the exacting way Social Security demands.
You will also need to show how your obesity and other health problems have impaired your “residual functional capacity (RFC),” which is an assessment of your physical and mental abilities despite your condition.
Making sure you have all the details and filled out all the forms correctly is daunting. That is where a good disability attorney excels. They can lead you through the process.
Nash Disability Law has more than 40 years of experience working with Social Security Disability claims. Our Chicago disability lawyers know what to ask, what to look for, and how to present your case in the best possible way to winbenefits.
Talk to us for FREE evaluation of your disability claim.
Social Security stopped including obesity as a stand-alone eligible impairment in 1999, making it harder for people to win disability benefits.
Obesity rates in the U.S. have been steadily declining since 2022, possibly because of the spread of GLP-1 weight loss drugs. But 37 percent of Americans still grapple with it every day, according to surveys from the Gallup polling organization.
Though Social Security doesn’t say obesity is a disability alone, it does recognize it as a “medically determinable impairment,” or MDI, and has published several rulings over the years on how people suffering from obesity can qualify for disability benefits.
Successfully applying for disability benefits with obesity requires knowing exactly how to present the effects of your condition to Social Security, which is what the disability attorneys at Nash do every day.
In simple terms, obesity is having too much body fat relative to your height, calculated in the medical field through the Body Mass Index, or BMI.
What causes obesity is complicated. It can spring from a lack of access to healthy foods, a lower metabolism, eating disorders and family history. It’s often caused by a combination of many factors.
To decide whether your obesity is an acceptable MDI, Social Security first evaluates your BMI over time through measurements of your height, weight, waist size, and other factors.
But a high BMI reading doesn’t automatically qualify you for benefits because excess body fat isn’t the reason in every case.
Therefore, Social Security factors in all your symptoms and their impact on your daily functioning. You may have to demonstrate how your obesity has limited your ability to stand, sit, walk or lift things, or its impact on your ability to concentrate and your overall mental health.
To be considered severe and eligible for benefits, your obesity and combination of any other symptoms must prevent you from working at a job—any job—for at least 12 consecutive months.
It can take a disability benefits expert to manage the twists and turns in Social Security’s process.
The Nash Chicago disability lawyers pride ourselves on knowing the ins and outs of this system, from applying to appealing. We can ask questions and gather information that you might not think of, in order to build and strengthen your claim.
And we treat people like human beings, not case files.
Let Nash Disability Law give your obesity-related disability claim the best chance for success so you can focus on managing your health and living a fuller life.
Thank you so very much for your help with my disability claim. Please thank each and everyone who helped in getting this done. Every time I had questions and had to call you for advice, whomever I spoke with at the time was very helpful and polite and most of all caring. Thank you so very much.
Thank you for all your help with my disability case. I felt very confident after discussing my claim with your attorneys. The representation I had for my court date was wonderful. I know I couldn’t have done all that you did on my own . I am very appreciative for all the hard work, time and care you gave to me!
