Evidence Requirements For Social Security Disability Claims

The primary evidence you need when filing for Social Security Disability Benefits is, not surprisingly, medical in nature.  Essentially you must have evidence proving that you have a medical impairment that prevents you from working.  Such medical evidence must come from sources that the Social Security Administration deems acceptable.   

Acceptable Medical Evidence

The SSA requires the medical evidence to come from certain professionals. Approved medical professionals include: 

1. Doctors (M.D’s or D.O’s) with current licences
2. Psychologists who are licensed or certified, including school psychologists, to prove mental and emotional impairments in adults and children
3. Optometrists with licenses, to prove visual impairments
4. Podiatrists with licenses, to prove impairments to feet and/or ankles
5. Certified Speech and Language Clinicians to establish problems with speech

Once you are certain that you have an approved medical professional providing you with evidence, you will need to collect the right materials.  The specific medical evidence you need to gather includes: 

• Medical reports from your treating physician(s) or other medical professional. 
• Medical reports from various health care facilities, such as hospitals and walk-in clinics where you have been treated. 

Such medical reports from physicians and health care facilities must include:

• Your specific medical background, or history
• What your doctor has found as a result of various physical and mental exams
• Results of various lab workups and other testing
• Physician’s diagnosis, treatment plan, and prognosis
• A notice from your doctor of what you can and cannot do based on your condition. There are also specific rules regarding the notice your doctor must provide:
  • If you are older than 18, this notice should explain specifically whether you can walk, talk, travel, hear, lift, sit, stand, etc. 
  • If you have a mental impairment, this notice should explain what you can and cannot understand, and how your mental impairment specifically affects your ability to work or cope with the pressures and structure of a typical work environment.
  • If you are under 18, how your impairment compares you to other young people your age.  The notice will need to point out how gross, fine, and other skills are affected by the impairment.

In addition to this medical evidence, you may want to collect other forms of evidence to show how your impairment affects your ability to work.  In cases involving children, you will need to show how your child compares to others who lack impairments.  These sources can include:

• Reports from other, non-medical practitioners, like homeopathic practitioners, chiropractors, etc.
• Social workers’ reports
• Workplace records
• School reports
• Testimony of parents and other caregivers

Getting Help

To ensure you have sufficient evidence to get your SSA disability claim approved, it is a good idea to speak to an experienced disability rights attorney. Your attorney can help you to determine if you qualify based on your disability and can help you gather the data you need to prove to SSA that you really are disabled and that you really do need disability benefits.