Is Your Condition Severe Enough to Qualify for Disability Benefits?

Under Social Security’s rules, sustained work generally means a 40-hour week: eight hours a day, five days a week. If your condition forces you to stop and rest your back, arms, legs, or other joints throughout the day, it is hard to hold a job. Even someone who can only work two or three days a week may have a claim, because that is the kind of limitation the disability program exists to cover.

A "severe impairment" is more than being slightly bothered by pain or discomfort. You have to show, with objective medical evidence, that your impairment prevents you from sustaining basic work activities such as walking, lifting, bending, stooping, sitting, carrying, talking, or concentrating.

You only need one severe impairment to move forward, though many claimants have several. Whichever it is, proving that it is severe enough to keep you from working is your burden, and that means having the objective medical evidence Social Security asks for.

The "Listing of Impairments"

The Listing of Impairments, often called the Blue Book, is Social Security’s catalog of medical conditions it considers severe enough to be disabling. Part A covers adults and Part B covers children under 18. If you are considering a claim, it is worth reviewing the listing that fits your condition and comparing your records to the evidence it calls for.

The Blue Book describes, for each body system, impairments serious enough to keep someone from substantial gainful activity. The same criteria apply whether you are claiming SSDI or SSI, and the records used to evaluate a listing are also used in the five-step evaluation, which is applied to every claim.

The five-step evaluation, in short

• Step 1: Are you working above the earnings limit? If so, the claim is denied.
• Step 2: Is your impairment medically determinable and severe? If not, the claim is denied.
• Step 3: Does your impairment meet or equal a listing? If so, you are found disabled.
• Step 4: Can you do work you did in the recent past, given your residual functional capacity? If you can, benefits are denied.
• Step 5: Can you adjust to other work that exists in the national economy? At this step, the burden shifts to Social Security.

Objective medical evidence is decisive

Your medical records are the most important thing Social Security uses to judge severity, and the most common reason claims fail is a lack of sufficient medical evidence. If your records do not spell out how your condition limits your ability to do past work or adjust to new work, the claim can be denied. Those denials are reversed every day with careful preparation.

Key takeaways

• Compare your condition to the Blue Book listing and its evidence requirements.
• Get help navigating the process before you file if you can.
• Learn how to describe your symptoms to your doctor, and make sure those discussions make it into your records.
• Gather the strongest objective medical evidence you can showing how your symptoms limit you.

The Blue Book is not an exhaustive list. If your condition is not listed exactly, you may still qualify when its effect is functionally equal to a listed impairment. If you would like a free evaluation of your claim, call The Law Office of Dan Wimmer at 833-833-2026.