BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR SSDI

Here are the fundamental requirements to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance or SSDI.

1. You must have stopped working at substantial gainful activity (SGA) due to a disability.

2. You must have worked long enough and recently enough to have insured status. In general, you should have worked at least 5 years out of the most recent 10-year period. There are different rules for very young workers.

3. You must have what Social Security considers a severe and medically determinable impairment, which can be physical and/or mental.

4. Your impairment must have lasted, or be expected to last at least 12 straight months OR to end in death. There is no short term disability benefit and no partial-disability.

Those are the basic rules. In addition, you must have objective medical evidence of your impairment(s), giving the onset, duration and severity of your condition. It helps to have X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, laboratory tests or other hard evidence. If you claim a mental or psychological impairment, such ad depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc.), you should have evaluations and treatment by either a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist

Social Security will review your medical records to see what your "Residual Functional Capacity" is: How much are you still able to do in terms of work related activity, in spite of your impairment(s)? How long can you sit, stand and walk? How much weight can you lift and carry? How often can you bend, stoop, crouch, kneel, and reach? What is your attention span? How well do you interact with others? These are examples of items on a Residual Functional Capacity evaluation.

Besides your RFC, other factors that Social Security will consider are: age, education, and employment history and skills. Claimants over age 50 may meet "grid rules" or Medical-Vocational Rules that make it easier to be approved.

What is the approval rate for disability applications? Only about 23 percent, on average, get approved in the initial stage. Many others may be approved in the subsequent appeal stages. Some studies suggest that claimants who are professionally represented are 3 times more likelyk to get approved, especially in the appeals. It is a mistake to give up just because an application is denied. Most claims that get approved do so by filing appeals and attending hearings. It is not an easy process because Social Security wants to make sure that nobody gets a disability benefit if they are not really disabled. So they are skeptical and they check carefully.