Disability Qualifications for SSD

Unfortunately, not all workers that fall ill or become injured will qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI.  The Social Security Administration, also known as the SSA, adheres to strict guidelines for qualifying workers to receive benefits.  There are medical and non-medical requirements involved in determining whether someone is eligible to receive benefits or not.

First of all, workers need to understand what the SSA considers to be disabled.  The Social Security Administration define disability as “the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity (SGA) by reason of any medically determined physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months.”.  

So you can see the ailment cannot be short term, must be total disability, and is founded on a worker’s inability to work.
The SSA digs further still in determining disability.  To qualify, claimants can’t have been previously working and making more than $940 a week or it is considered substantial gainful activity and therefore not considered disability.  Next, the claimants disability must be severe, which is considered to be when the disability impedes basic work activity, and the impairment must be on the SSA’s list of medical conditions. 

If it is a condition not listed they will review whether it is as severe as another condition that is listed.  If your impairment isn’t as severe as the requirements in the list of medical conditions the SSA will determine if it is still severe enough to keep a worker from carrying out their job.  They not only review your previous job, but all jobs held in the past 15 years that you worked long enough to learn and involved physical and mental work for pay. 

If it is determined you are able to carry out any previous job that falls into these categories then you aren’t considered disabled.  If you are unable to perform past work there is still one more requirement to meet.  After all of this the SSA will finally determine, based on education, past work experience, age, skills, and your medical condition, if you are able to perform any other kind of work. 

If not, the SSA will consider a worker to be disabled and eligible for Social Security Disability benefits.  There are, however, situations that justify different determinations.  There are different qualifying requirements for the blind, disabled widows and widowers, disabled soldiers, and disabled children.

It might seem like an unfair, overly strict practice to put already injured and ill workers through.  But when considering that it’s others workers and employers who are paying taxes to fund SSDI, the SSA has to do them justice and make sure workers are truly unable to work.