How the SSA Views Severe and Non-Severe Impairments for Disability

One of the first things the Social Security Administration (SSA) asks for on your disability application (“claim”) is a list of health issues (“impairments”) that you’re receiving medical treatment for. Disability claimants often have multiple impairments, but not all of them are serious enough to interfere with their daily life for a significant amount of time. Because some impairments are temporary or minor in nature, the SSA classifies them as severe or non-severe.

Severe impairments are conditions that have more than a minimal impact on your activities of daily living, and can form the basis of a successful disability claim. Non-severe impairments aren’t enough on their own to qualify for benefits, but the SSA is required to consider them as part of the total combined effect on your ability to work. Since most claimants have both severe and non-severe impairments, it’s important to understand how the agency evaluates them all together and how that evaluation can impact your disability claim.

What Are Severe and Non-Severe Impairments?

A severe impairment is any medical condition that significantly limits your ability to perform basic life activities, such as:

• walking, sitting, standing, pushing, pulling, lifting, and carrying
• hearing, speaking, and seeing
• understanding and following simple directions, and
• interacting with other people and adapting to changes in your environment.

Severe impairments can be physical, mental, or both, but they need to last at least 12 months (the durational requirement). The SSA doesn’t provide “short-term” disability benefits, so any medical issues you have that resolve in under a year won’t be considered severe.

Non-severe impairments are conditions that you can generally recover from easily or with basic medical attention. To help visualize the differences, here are some examples of severe and non-severe types of similar injuries or illnesses:

Note that the non-severe impairments can be treated with readily available remedies such as bandaging, eyeglasses, and mental coping exercises. But the severe impairments often require greater intervention, including prescribed medications, surgery, or intensive therapy, making it more likely that they will significantly interfere with the ability to work full-time.

Severe vs. Non-Severe Cognitive or Intellectual Impairments

Mental impairments, such as cognitive disorders or borderline intellectual functioning, can be classified as severe or non-severe just like physical impairments can. And as with physical impairments, the SSA will determine if your mental impairment is severe with reference to the extent in which the impairment affects your daily activities.

Given the wide variety of human cognitive and intellectual abilities, it might be helpful to think of severe vs. non-severe in this context as representing a significant degree of statistical deviation from the norm. Here’s some examples:

In other words, traits such as taking longer to read a book, “flaking out” on plans, or social awkwardness aren’t going to be considered severe impairments by themselves. But if you can’t remember the basics of what you just read, don’t recognize close friends, or aren’t able to communicate intelligibly with others, the SSA will likely find that to be evidence of a severe impairment.

How to Win Disability Benefits by Combining Severe and Non-Severe Impairments

In order to win your claim for disability, you need at least one severe impairment. Social Security generally won’t award you benefits for a combination of non-severe impairments, so somebody who’s applying for benefits because they have pinkeye, athlete’s foot and a shellfish allergy isn’t going to be found disabled.

But if this same claimant is over the age of 50, previously worked as a waiter, and also has a severe spinal disorder that makes it difficult to stand, having a shellfish allergy becomes more important because it can reduce—and even eliminate—the amount of jobs the claimant can safely perform. If the claimant can’t use their skills in an environment that allows them to avoid shellfish, the SSA could find them disabled under the medical-vocational grid rules.

Combining Severe and Non-Severe Impairments in Your Residual Functional Capacity

To determine whether you’re disabled, Social Security first looks at your medical records and functional limitations in order to assess your residual functional capacity (RFC). Your RFC is a set of restrictions that reflects the most you’re able to do, physically and mentally, in a work setting. The agency doesn’t expect you to do a job that’s outside of the restrictions in your RFC.

Even though non-severe impairments can’t be the only basis of a disability claim, Social Security must consider any limitations you have from them when assessing your RFC. All limitations, whether from severe or non-severe impairments, have to be documented in your medical records. Then the agency decides the extent to which these combined limitations affect your ability to work.

For example, if you have anxiety around large groups of people (agoraphobia), Social Security needs to see how intense your symptoms are to determine the extent of your limitations. Here’s a chart illustrating a spectrum of symptoms and how the agency might address them in your RFC:

As you can see, having non-severe agoraphobia still means that you’ll have restrictions in your RFC related to working with the public. These restrictions might not necessarily be enough to keep you from working at any job, but if your past work involved working with large crowds, the SSA is likely to find that you can’t perform your past work. Depending on your age, education, and exertional level, that could be enough for the agency to find that you’re disabled.

Combining Impairments to Win Disability Under a Medical-Vocational Allowance

Not all impairments are severe, and not all severe impairments are disabling. But your RFC will contain limitations from your combined impairments, and Social Security uses your RFC to determine whether you’re disabled by comparing it to the demands of your past jobs and any other jobs in the national economy. Being awarded disability benefits because no jobs exist that you can do is called a medical-vocational allowance.

If you’re over the age of 50, non-severe impairments can play a larger role in your RFC than they do if you’re younger. The closer you get to full retirement age, the less likely it is that Social Security will find that you can adjust to other work, so limitations from non-severe impairments that keep you from doing your past work become more important.

If you’re under the age of 50, any limitations you have from non-severe impairments will still be considered when determining which jobs you can do, but it will be more difficult to show that the limitations rule out all work. This is because the SSA needs to see that claimants under the age of 50 aren’t able to do even the least demanding jobs before the agency can find them disabled.

How Can I Show That My Impairment Is Severe?

It’s always better for your disability claim to have evidence of severe impairments than non-severe impairments. Social Security will generally give you the benefit of the doubt when determining how limiting your impairments are, but only to the extent that they’re supported by the medical records.

You can help by diligently documenting your symptoms and following up with your doctor, including complying with recommended treatment. Provide the SSA with all the information the agency needs (like names, dates, and locations of medical providers) to obtain your medical records, such as:

• admission and discharge dates from any hospitalizations
• a list of prescribed medications and side effects, if any
• diagnostic tests such as lab results or psychiatric evaluations
• objective imaging (X-ray, MRI, CT scan, ultrasound), and
• progress notes from your doctors or therapists.

Whether your impairment is severe or not depends on how seriously it affects your daily routine, so take time to thoroughly fill out your function report. The SSA only knows what you tell them about your symptoms or limitations, so even if you’re struggling with something that you don’t think is important, don’t neglect to mention it.

What About Non-Severe Impairments That Become Severe?

For most of us, our health degrades over time. Vision issues that were once corrected with eyeglasses, for example, can develop into partial or even total blindness as we age. Remember that the SSA won’t consider an impairment to be severe unless it’s caused more than minimal interference with your daily functioning for at least a year. Therefore, it’s best not to apply for disability benefits until you are certain that your medical issue will not resolve within twelve months and that it will continue to significantly interfere with your routine during that time.

Some people who apply for benefits discover that a previously non-severe impairment has become severe while they are still waiting for a decision. The disability determination process can be a lengthy one, and it’s not uncommon for new health issues to arise (or old issues to worsen) before the SSA can decide your claim. Depending on the nature of the impairment, the agency may change your alleged onset date to account for the new factors.

What to Do If Your Claim is Denied For Lack of a Severe Impairment

If you’ve already applied for Social Security disability benefits and your claim wasn’t approved, read your denial letter closely. Under the section “Disability Determination Rationale,” you should find a list of medical conditions that the SSA considered severe and which were considered non-severe. If you think that the agency missed important information or didn’t review all the evidence, you should address this in your appeal.

While you aren’t required to hire a lawyer to appeal a denial for disability benefits, winning your claim based on a combination of impairments can be difficult. Consider getting help from an experienced disability attorney or advocate. Your lawyer can increase your chances of getting your claim approved by gathering medical evidence, handling communications with the SSA, and representing you at a disability hearing. Disability representatives don’t get paid unless you win your claim, so there’s little risk in finding a lawyer near you who’s a good fit for you.