Social Security Administration does not have a distinctive list of illnesses that qualify a person to be awarded disability benefits, but defines “disability” as being either physical, emotional or some combination of both. So, in order to qualify for social security disability an individual must be able to demonstrate a disability severe enough to keep them from working in any regular paying employment for a period of at least twelve consecutive months.
According to the Federal Social Security disability Act, “disability” denotes the “inability to participate in any significant beneficial activity as a result of any medically diagnosable physical / mental impairment expected to end in death or persists or is anticipated to last for an unremitting period of no less than twelve months. According to Social Security Administration, the test for eligibility for social security benefits is determined by whether an individual is physically and emotionally capable of doing a job that is generally available in the every day work place.
In addition to the above, in order to obtain social security disability benefits an individual must have a medical professional such as a doctor or a psychiatrist state that they are disabled by medically satisfactory, clinical & lab findings”. Unfortunately, quite a number of genuine disabling conditions such as learning disabilities and other psychological conditions are difficult to diagnose by objective testing but are still covered under the definition of disability provided by the social security administration. It is in such cases that an individual’s legal help or representative is needed to present their case and convince the government that they qualify and deserve social security benefits. With this in mind, the general rule is to have adequate legal representation so as to fully benefit from these benefits.