Meeting Social Security Disability List of Impairments

 

The first stage of the SSA review will be to compare your disability to a list they call the Listing of Impairments to determine if your impairments are severe enough to meet or equal the SSA requirments. Listings are federal requlations, found at 20. C.F.R. Part 404.

Each impairment in the listing specifies a degree of medical severity which if met by an applicant, presumes that she cannot function well enough to perform any type of substantial work. Listings differ for adults and for children.

In order to be found disable based on a listing your impairments must match exactly. If this happens you will be granted benefits regardless of your age, education, or work experience.

If none of your impairments meet a listing, the reviewer must determine if your impairments are equal to the severity of those in the listing. Below are a cercumstances where your impairment will be considered equal to a listing.

1. Your impairment is not listed, but it is of the same medical severity as of listed impairment.

2. You don't meet the criteria of a listing, but your medical findings have the same meaning as the listing criteria.

3. You have a combination of impairment. None alone severe enough to equal a listing, but together they are equaivalent to listing-level disability.

4. A child applying for SSI, the impairment is considered a functional equal of those that satisfy the listings.

Click on a listing below to see the requirments under each listing needed to be found severe.