Can You Get Disability Benefits for High Blood Pressure?

Qualifying for Social Security Disability Due to Hypertension

If you've been diagnosed with hypertension, you might have difficulty with some tasks or you might have restrictions from your doctor that prevent you from doing some activities. You might feel that you're unable to work. But improved treatments have made high blood pressure easier to control—meaning Social Security isn't likely to approve your disability claim based on hypertension alone.

To get SSDI or SSI benefits, you'll probably have to show Social Security that your medical condition prevents you from working at any type of job. And you'll need evidence to back it up.

When You Have High Blood Pressure and Another Condition

Over the years, uncontrolled high blood pressure can cause damage to your blood vessels, resulting in heart disease, kidney damage, eye problems, or brain injuries. If your hypertension has caused serious damage to other organs, you might qualify for Social Security disability benefits based on that damage and the resulting limitations.

For instance, if high blood pressure has caused you to have a heart condition, you might qualify for SSDI or SSI benefits by meeting or equaling the listing for that heart condition. Likewise, if you've suffered kidney damage and vision problems due to undiagnosed hypertension, the combined effect of those disorders might qualify you for disability.

If you have secondary hypertension, you might qualify for disability based on the medical condition that caused your high blood pressure. For instance, if your hypertension was caused by an immune disorder like lupus or scleroderma, you might be able to meet the listing for the underlying disorder.

How Does Hypertension Affect Your Ability to Function?

When you're applying for disability benefits, Social Security is most concerned with the symptoms you experience and the way they limit your daily activities. For instance, if you have hypertension that's well controlled with medicine, a restrictive diet, and no other serious health conditions, you won't qualify for disability benefits.

But if your high blood pressure has caused a serious heart condition, like an enlarged heart, the resulting symptoms might seriously limit the kind of work you could do. Whether your medical condition was caused by hypertension or your high blood pressure was caused by something else, you can get disability benefits if you can demonstrate that you have limitations that make you unable to work in any type of job on a consistent basis.

Social Security's Disability Determination Process

After you apply for disability, a claims examiner at your state's Disability Determination Services (DDS) office will review your application and request copies of your medical records from your medical providers. If your condition doesn't meet a listing, the examiner will review these records and (working with a medical professional) will assign you a "residual functional capacity" (RFC) based on your limitations.

Your RFC is the most strenuous work you can be expected to perform, given your condition. You'll receive an RFC rating for one of the following:

• sedentary work
• light work
• medium work, or
• heavy work.

If you're 50 or older, the claims examiner will decide whether you're disabled using Social Security's medical-vocational grid rules. The grid rules determine disability based on your RFC along with your:

• age
• education level
• previous work experience, and
• transferable job skills.

Under the grid rules, winning a Social Security disability claim gets easier the older you are. (Learn more about when your RFC qualifies you as disabled).

If you're younger than 50 or otherwise don't qualify as disabled under the grid rules, you could still get disability benefits if you can show that there's no kind of job you could realistically do based on your limitations (including non-exertional limitations or those caused by a mental impairment).