Over 12 million people currently rely on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Different medical conditions could allow you to qualify for SSDI benefits or SSI benefits, but data collected by the SSA reveals that there are some common disabilities, which keep appearing in Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits applications.
As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a quarter of all adults living in the United States suffer from one or the other disability affecting their ability to carry out normal daily activities. Some of the most common such disabilities are the following:
Regardless of the condition that renders you disabled and therefore unable to work, you must support your claim with medical evidence including your diagnosis based on a clinical examination and results of diagnostic investigations.
Qualifying for disability benefits through the Social Security Administration requires you to prove that you suffer from a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that renders you unable to engage in substantial gainful activity (SGA). To succeed for disability benefits, you must also prove that the impairment(s) have lasted for at least 12 months or is expected to last for at least 12 months or result in death.
The SSA decides if you can engage in SGA based on your monthly income. In case you can work and earn $1,470 per month or more in 2023, you will be deemed to be performing substantial gainful activity. So, you would not qualify for SSI or SSDI benefits. In case you are blind, the monthly earnings amount in 2023 is $2,460.
Just because you cannot perform substantial gainful activity does not imply that you qualify for benefits. The SSA also considers if you are capable of performing a job that you were doing in the past, or whether you can do some other job as per your age, training, education, and the limits of your medical condition.
For deciding if an individual is disabled, the SSA maintains a listing of impairments. This is also called the “Blue Book.” It contains different physical and mental impairments for adults and children. If your disability is covered by an impairment in the Blue Book, the SSA deems it to be severe enough to meet the disability definition used to determine eligibility for disability benefits.