Getting Social Security Disability for Severe Impairments
If you’re looking into Social Security Disability benefits—getting monthly income and Medicare after a costly hit to your health— you’re probably asking whether your medical condition qualifies.
And when you’re struggling with a severe health problem, you wonder if there’s a chance your condition might automatically qualify for disability benefits.
Is there such a thing as a condition that automatically qualifies for disability?
Technically, no.
Social Security Disability is never automatic. You always must meet certain qualifications to win benefits.
But there are medical conditions that come with a higher chance of approval for benefits, and some that can bring faster approval. You still must certify to Social Security that you have one of those diseases.
The Chicago disability lawyers at Nash Disability Law have helped thousands of people with thousands of different diagnoses. We can help you get benefits to support your life when you can’t work because of bad health.
We know what to do for just about any illness you can think of—what medical evidence to gather, how to call attention to Social Security that your case is particularly severe.
On this page, our disability attorney team discusses what conditions Social Security Disability may recognize faster, and how to tell if your health situation could mean a simpler or more complicated case for benefits approval.
We’ve helped more people in Chicagoland win benefits than any other law firm.
Special Cases: When You Can Get Faster Approval for Social Security Disability
Social Security has two programs that provide likely, though not automatic, approval for some diseases.
Compassionate Allowances
One program, called Compassionate Allowances, recognizes illnesses that are so obviously severe that they will qualify for benefits.
With these ailments, Social Security says, there’s no need to go through the usual process, taking months or longer to document and confirm that your health prevents you from working. You can instead start receiving benefits quickly.
Hundreds of conditions are on the Compassionate Allowances list. For faster approval of benefits, you’ll send documentation of your diagnosis of one of those conditions.
Here are some examples of health problems that qualify for a Compassionate Allowance:
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Being on an adult heart transplant wait list
- Being on a child heart transplant wait list
- Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease
- Lewy body dementia
- Malignant multiple sclerosis
Presumptive Disability for Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Another program for easier approval of disability benefits applies to one type of benefits: Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for people with extremely limited economic means.
Called Presumptive Disability, this SSI program allows you to start getting benefits before your claim is officially approved.
This can apply to health circumstances like these:
- ALS
- Amputations
- Blindness
- Cerebral palsy
- Deafness
- Muscular dystrophy
- Terminal illnesses
Talk to an experienced Chicago disability lawyer to make sure your health condition gets the full weight and recognition it deserves from Social Security for any programs that accelerate approval of your claim.
Health Factors that Make It Easier or Harder to Win Social Security Disability
If neither a Compassionate Allowance or Presumptive Disability apply to you, the severity and nature of your health problems still make a difference in how likely you are to win benefits.
These kinds of cases may make it easier for you to prove that you need Social Security Disability:
- Your medical issues produce concrete, physical evidence of your impairments, and your doctors have explained your limitations.
- You have an impairment on Social Security’s list of recognized conditions, and you can match their directions for proving it.
- Your age (especially over age 50 or 55) and work background, combined with your health, reduce your odds of a career change.
At Nash Disability Law, our disability lawyers don’t shy away from challenging cases.
We do the work it takes, whether you have a clear-cut serious impairment or something more complicated, to build your claim and show Social Security how your health problems warrant financial assistance.
You pay no attorney fee until we win benefits for you.
Let us help you get access to the resources you need for a more stable, peaceful and dignified life.
