Can Social Security Find Out About Drug Use When You Apply for Disability?

If you're applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, evidence of drug or alcohol abuse could affect your claim. Infrequent or social drinking isn’t likely to raise any red flags, nor would similar recreational use of marijuana, so you probably don’t have to worry about an occasional beer or cannabis edible tanking your application.

But it’s not a good idea to assume that Social Security won’t deny your claim based on drug or alcohol use that you might not consider noteworthy. Even casual substance use can interact with prescribed medications in a way that can affect whether the agency can consider you disabled—especially illicit or “street” drugs that can exacerbate symptoms. Before you apply for benefits, it’s important to understand how the Social Security Administration (SSA) evaluates drug or alcohol abuse and how you can best handle questions about drinking or using drugs.

How Does Alcohol and Drug Use Affect Your Disability Decision?

Social Security can deny your claim for disability benefits if the agency thinks that drug or alcohol abuse (DAA) is “material” to your claim. “Material” refers to whether your DAA is a significant contributing factor to your medical condition. So if drugs or alcohol are mentioned in your doctors’ notes or hospital records, Social Security will need to determine whether you would meet the definition of disability if you quit drinking or using drugs. If so, your application will be denied.

Does Social Security Drug Test You When You Apply for Disability?

No, the SSA doesn’t currently require disability applicants to take a drug test. But the claims examiner handling your file isn’t likely to ignore the results of previous drug tests or anything else in your medical records that indicate prior substance abuse. This can include lab results from blood tests, urine samples, and psychological examinations, among other documents. So if there’s any evidence of prior drug or alcohol use in your medical records, the disability claims examiner will learn about it.

What If You’re Not Currently Using Drugs But Have in the Past?

It’s important to maintain the distinction between past and current substance abuse. If the SSA denied every claimant who previously struggled with drugs or alcohol, the agency would have to rule out many people with disabling impairments who’ve maintained sobriety for quite some time. Social Security doesn’t want to penalize people who’ve successfully controlled a substance addiction, so as long as you can establish a period of sobriety and have been able to stay clean, past drug or alcohol use shouldn’t pose too much of an issue.

Even relapses or periods when you’ve “fallen off the wagon” don’t necessarily have to sink your application. But if you’ve never stopped abusing drugs or drinking unhealthily, your claim could be denied. That’s why it’s important to have a period of abstinence from drugs or alcohol in your records.

How Do Disability Examiners View Current Alcohol and Drug Use?

Evidence of current drug or alcohol abuse will likely have an impact on your claim. This is especially true if you have a mental health disorder or if substance abuse caused your physical impairment (like chronic liver disease). Your claims examiner could find that even fairly moderate alcohol or drug use is material to conditions such as depression, seizures, or sleep apnea, for instance. Short statements in your doctor’s clinical notes like "patient admits to occasional alcohol use" or "patient consumed three beers the previous day" could be enough to deny your claim the first time.

However, many examiners have a more balanced approach and aren’t likely to perform a DAA analysis unless there is significant evidence of an ongoing substance abuse issue. This can manifest in the medical records in a number of ways, such as recent hospital admission and discharge summaries for a drunk-driving accident or infected heroin needle. Mentions of attendance in a recovery program, such as NA or AA, will likely to attract the attention of the claims examiner as well, as are any police reports suggesting substance abuse was an issue.

How Do I Handle Questions About Alcohol or Drug Use?

Honestly. Be open with both your doctors and the SSA—not just because it’s better for your health and well-being, but because keeping substance abuse a secret will hurt your claim more often than not. If the examiner reviewing your application thinks that you’re being less than forthcoming in your statements, you will almost certainly receive a denial. And it’s very challenging to overcome even a perception of untruthfulness if your case makes it in front of an administrative law judge.

What Happens If You Fail a Drug Test on Disability?

Just as Social Security doesn’t require you to pass a drug test to get on disability, there’s no drug test required to keep your benefits once your claim has been approved. That doesn’t mean the agency won’t look for signs of drug or alcohol abuse during the continuing disability reviews that you’ll have every three to seven years. If the SSA finds that you’re using drugs or alcohol and not following your doctor’s treatment plan, you could lose your disability benefits.

Furthermore, spending your disability benefits on drugs or alcohol can have other negative effects. The SSA could appoint a representative payee who would receive your disability payments and manage the money for you. You might also put yourself in a legal grey area if you purchase drugs with your benefits, raising the possibility of criminal charges.

If you lose your benefits after a continuing disability review—even if it’s because of drug or alcohol abuse—you can appeal the cessation. (You may even be able to keep collecting benefits while you appeal.) Consider contacting an experienced disability attorney to discuss your options and increase your chances of getting your benefits reinstated.