What are the Medical Requirements for SSI?

The Supplemental Security Income program (SSI) is federally funded program supplying supplemental income to aged, blind and disabled individuals who have little or no income so that they have money for food, clothing and shelter.  A disabled applicant may be a child or an adult meeting all other financial and citizenship based criteria may request benefits based on their disability.

Medical Requirements for a Child

A child, or an individual under age eighteen, is “disabled” if medically determinable evidence is submitted documenting a physical or mental impairment which has the following elements:

• The condition causes marked or severe functional limitations or
• Can be expected to result in death and
• Has lasted or is expected to last for twelve months or longer

Medical Requirements for an Adult

A person over age eighteen will be considered disabled if he can produce medical evidence and documentation supporting a “medically determinable physical or mental impairment” meeting the following criteria:

• The condition results in an inability to do any substantially gainful activity and
• Can be expected to result in death or
• Has lasted or is expected to last for a continuous period not less than twelve months

The level of medical requirement documentation or medical proof of a disability is essentially the same for Social Security and the Supplemental Security Income program.  A disabled applicant must be able to existence of a medically determinable impairment of the required duration by submitting medical evidence detailing relevant symptoms, signs, and laboratory findings which may include psychological or developmental test findings.  Symptoms may include complaints presented by a child.  Psychiatric signs include medically demonstrable phenomena that indicate specific psychological abnormalities in behavior, mood, thought, memory, orientation, development, or perception as documented by described by an appropriate healthcare provider.  Multiple disabilities evidenced by multiple symptoms and signs may be clustered together to constitute one recognizable mental disorder.  Referenced impairments may be intermittent or continuous depending on the nature of the disorder claimed.

 Getting Legal Help

If you or a member of your family is interested in submitting an application to SSI for benefits it may be helpful to discuss the circumstance concerning the disability with a disability attorney.  An attorney can assist by explaining the options that may be available to the disabled person and his family and isolate the best methods of moving forward with the application and the medical disability determination processes.