Does a Child With Intellectual Disability or Low IQ Qualify for SSI Benefits?

Children with intellectual disorders or low IQs can qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if their intellectual functioning is so limited that it severely affects their life. To qualify for SSI disability benefits, your child must meet the financial eligibility guidelines for SSI and have an intellectual disorder that qualifies medically as a disability.

If you’re thinking about applying for benefits for your child, it’s important to know what evidence of intellectual disability Social Security will be looking for in your child’s medical (and educational) records, how much your child will receive in SSI if their application is approved, and what you can do if their application is denied.

When Is Low IQ Considered an Intellectual Disability?

Having a low IQ test by itself isn’t enough to qualify medically for SSI. Social Security needs to see that your child’s intellectual disability severely limits their ability to function at an age-appropriate level and is expected to last at least 12 months, so you’ll also need to provide evidence showing how your child's ability to learn or perform basic tasks is limited.

Social Security evaluates child SSI claims by referring to the agency’s “Blue Book” of mental and physical impairments that are considered severe enough to qualify for disability automatically (with the proper medical evidence). There are separate listings for children and adults, and one of those listings is for “intellectual disorder.”

Intellectual disorder in children is characterized by significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning and significant deficits in current adaptive functioning. The disorder may be described in the medical evidence using phrases such as “intellectual disability,” “general learning disability,” “mental disability,” “intellectual development disorder,” or historically used but currently disfavored terms like “mental retardation.”

Meeting the Disability Listing for Intellectual Disorder

Social Security evaluates SSI claims for children ages 3 to 18 under listing 112.05 for intellectual disorder. (Children who are approved for SSI under listing 112.05 will be reevaluated under the adult listing when they turn 18.) Your child can meet the requirements of listing 112.05 in one of the following two ways:

• The child doesn’t have the cognitive ability to participate in standardized testing of intellectual functioning and they don’t have an age-appropriate level of independence in taking care of their personal needs (like bathing, eating, dressing, and toileting).
• The child has a low IQ score and an extreme limitation in one (or a marked limitation in two) of four key areas of mental functioning, including the ability to understand information, interact with others, maintain focus, and manage oneself.

For the purposes of listing 112.05, “low IQ score” is defined as a full-scale IQ score of 70 or below on a standardized test of general intelligence, or a full-scale IQ score of 71-15 with a verbal or performance score of 70 or below. “Extreme” limitations are worse than “marked” limitations, which is why your child needs an extreme limitation in only one area of mental functioning to meet the listing requirements and two marked limitations.

When evaluating the extent to which your child has an “extreme” or “marked” limitation in an area of mental functioning, Social Security will look at evidence gathered from doctors, teachers, and other adults who have insight into what tasks your child can and can’t perform. These tasks include:

• learning new terms and concepts
• following instructions
• solving problems
• understanding social cues
• cooperating
• forming and maintaining friendships
• handling conflicts
• finishing homework
• ignoring distractions and not distracting others
• regulating emotions
• controlling behavior
• avoiding hazards, and
• maintaining personal hygiene.

Social Security takes your child’s age into account when evaluating their functional limitations. For example, if a four-year-old child can’t get dressed without help, it’s not considered evidence of a functional limitation. But if a fourteen-year-old can’t get dressed without help, it is evidence of a limitation in personal functioning.

Can a Child With a Mild Intellectual Disability or Borderline IQ Qualify for SSI?

Children with a full-scale, performance, or verbal IQ score of 71 or above won't be considered disabled according to the intellectual disorder listing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your child won’t qualify for SSI. Children with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities may have other mental conditions that can be evaluated under the listings for neurocognitive or neurodevelopmental disorders, for example.

Benefits for Infants and Toddlers With Severe Developmental Delays

Because of the difficulty in diagnosing IQ in infants and toddlers under three, Social Security doesn't use the intellectual disorder listing for children of this age. Instead, the agency uses listing 112.14 to evaluate developmental disorders in infants and toddlers. Listing 112.14 covers diagnoses like developmental coordination disorder, separation anxiety disorder, sensory processing disorder, and general developmental delay.

To qualify for SSI under listing 112.14, you must have medical documentation that your child has a delay or deficit in the development of age-appropriate skills (or has lost skills that they’ve previously acquired). For infants and toddlers, this may manifest as failure to feed properly, an inability to mimic or engage in facial expressions, and severe under- or over-reactions to sounds or sights.

Additionally, the listing requires that the baby or toddler have an extreme limitation of one, or a severe limitation in two, of the following developmental abilities:

• controlling motor movement
• learning and remembering
• interacting with others, or
• regulating physiological functions, attention, emotion, and behavior.

You’ll want to make sure that Social Security gets clinical notes from your child’s pediatrician and other medical specialists that contain evidence of the above limitations.

Childhood Listings and Functional Equivalence

A child who doesn’t meet the exact requirements of the intellectual disorder listing (or another listing) still might be eligible for SSI disability. If your child’s impairment (or combination of impairments) is “functionally equivalent” to the listings, the child can qualify for disability benefits.

You can prove functional equivalence if you can show that your child’s impairment has the same level of severity as the listings. Being able to equal a listing can be especially important for very young children since they’re often old enough to exhibit serious limitations but might not be old enough for a doctor to assign a specific diagnosis.

Benefit Amounts for Children Who Qualify for SSI

Children who qualify for SSI can receive up to the federal benefit rate—$994 per month, for 2026—the same as adults do. This rate is set by the federal government and represents the maximum amount you can receive in SSI (save for a modest supplement payment in the states that provide them). Calculating the exact amount of a child’s SSI benefit can be complicated, however, since the payment is reduced if the child’s family has any countable income. For more details, see our article on how parents’ income affects their children’s SSI benefits.

How to Apply for SSI Benefits for a Child with an Intellectual Disorder

You have a couple of options to apply for SSI disability benefits for your child. You can call Social Security at 800-772-1213 (TTY 800-325-0778) to make an appointment to apply. At your appointment, a Social Security representative will help you with the paperwork.

You can also get your child’s disability application started online. Applying online is a two-step process. You must:

• complete an online child disability report (which should take about an hour), and
• accept a phone call from a Social Security representative to discuss the claim and complete the application for SSI (generally three to five business days after you submit the online report)

Social Security offers a starter kit with checklists and worksheets you can use to get ready to file your child’s SSI application.

What If Your Child Doesn’t Qualify for SSI Benefits?

If your child’s application is denied, Social Security will send you a denial letter explaining why they made their decision. If your child doesn’t meet the financial eligibility requirements for SSI (which can happen if your family is “over resourced” or makes too much money), there’s unfortunately not much you can do. But if your child’s application was denied because Social Security didn’t think there was enough medical evidence to support a finding of disability, you can appeal the decision and try for a better outcome.

You can also hire a disability lawyer or advocate to help build your child’s SSI case. Social Security applicants often have more success when they work with an attorney than when they file a claim on their own. (Learn more about how a disability lawyer can help get SSI benefits for your child.)