Can You Get Social Security Disability for Vertigo?

Vertigo (VUR-tuh-go) is a sudden sensation of motion or spinning, often described as dizziness, that happens even when you aren’t moving. Vertigo is often associated with inner ear problems or vestibular balance disorders such as Meniere’s disease. During an episode of vertigo, you might have trouble driving, climbing stairs, or even just staying upright without assistance.

While vertigo can be a scary or disorienting experience, it’s not necessarily a disabling impairment on its own, since vertigo can often be avoided by performing sit-down jobs. Chronic, severe vertigo may signal an underlying disabling condition, however. If vertigo (or a related impairment) keeps you from working full-time for at least twelve months, you should know what disability benefits may be available to you and what medical evidence you’ll need to qualify.

When Is Vertigo a Disability?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recognizes that vertigo symptoms can prevent people from performing jobs safely. Positional disorientation, the feeling of being in motion, and motion sickness are examples of symptoms that can make certain kinds of work challenging or impossible. With this in mind, vertigo can be considered a disability if it meets the requirements of a Blue Book listing or causes functional limitations that rule out all jobs.

Many instances of vertigo are temporary and easily resolved, and might not meet the severity requirements under Social Security’s disability determination process. (The SSA doesn’t offer short-term disability benefits, only “permanent” disability.) You’ll have a greater chance of getting your application approved if you have medical evidence of an additional underlying condition or some amount of hearing loss in addition to vertigo.

Medical Evidence Showing That You Have Vertigo

Your medical records are the backbone of your disability application (“claim”). The SSA doesn’t necessarily need to see that you’ve been diagnosed with a specific type of vertigo—although it helps—but the agency will want to see that you’ve had consistent medical attention for vertigo or a related condition. Make sure to provide the contact information and treatment dates for all the doctors, therapists, and specialists you’ve seen for vertigo symptoms.

Ideally, your records should document the causes, symptoms, and treatment of your vertigo. Vertigo can be caused by something relatively harmless, like a virus or migraine. But vertigo may also be an indicator of more serious conditions like stroke, tumors, diabetic complications, or drug toxicities. Traumatic brain injury or skull fractures can also lead to vertigo.

Tell your doctors about any symptoms you experience from vertigo. Symptoms can include:

• difficulty focusing the eyes
• dizziness
• loss of balance that can cause falls
• ringing in the ears (tinnitus), and
• nausea and vomiting.

Treatments for vertigo include medications (such as Dramamine) or, for cases of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, performing a canalith repositioning procedure to help rebalance pressure in the inner ear canal. The procedure simply involves shifting from one position to another for half a minute until the vertigo resolves. People with a type of vertigo known as persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD) can benefit from vestibular rehabilitation therapy that re-establishes a better sense of balance.

Getting Disability for Vertigo by Meeting a Listing

Social Security maintains a category of medical disorders (known as the “listed impairments”) that the agency considers exceptionally severe. If you have medical evidence that satisfies the requirements of a listed impairment, you’re said to “meet a listing” and the SSA will award you disability benefits automatically, without having to decide if any jobs exist that you can do.

If your vertigo is caused by a disturbance of labyrinthine-vestibular function—a condition where your eye and inner ear are out of sync, causing the world to appear unstable and “bouncy”—the SSA will evaluate your claim under listing 2.07. (Meniere’s disease is included in this listing.) You can meet the requirements of this listing by having medical documentation of frequent balance problems, tinnitus, and partial hearing loss.

This documentation must include a specific type of test showing that your vestibular labyrinth (the part of your inner ear that helps you maintain balance) is damaged or disrupted. Additionally, you’ll need an audiometry test confirming that you have hearing loss.

Vestibular Tests

These tests help your doctors determine how well your inner ear is working. Acceptable vestibular tests the SSA will look for include:

• caloric reflex tests that record how well your eyes stabilize in response to water in the ear canal
• objective imaging such as MRI, X-ray, CT scan, or bone scans
• rotary chair tests that record your eye movements in a swiveling chair
• positional nystagmus tests that record how far your eyes “jump” (nystagmus) in response to changing your head position, and
• ocular motility exams that record how well your eyes move around.

Most vestibular tests use a method called electronystagmography or videonystagmography to record eye function. When conducting these tests, your doctor might give you special goggles to wear to help track your eye movements.

Audiometry Tests

These tests record your level of hearing loss. Common audiometry tests that the SSA will want to see include the following:

• A pure tone exam (or air conduction test), which measures how sensitive your hearing is by asking you to signal when you hear a tone.
• A speech audiometry exam, which assesses your ability to recognize speech in different settings by having you repeat back words you hear.
• A Bekesy test, which screens for noise-induced hearing loss by having you respond to pulsed tones that change in frequency and intensity.

You’ll need to have both vestibular and audiometry testing performed and included in your medical record in order to qualify for disability under listing 2.07. If you don’t have these tests, you can still qualify for benefits if you can show that you’re unable to work full time due to vertigo.

Getting Disability for Vertigo by Showing You Can’t Work

Few claimants are able to meet the requirements of a listing and get benefits automatically. The more common way to qualify for disability is through a “medical-vocational allowance,” meaning that Social Security has determined that you’re unable to work due to your medical condition. The process of deciding whether you can work is called assessing your residual functional capacity (RFC).

Your RFC is a set of limitations on what you can and can’t do safely in a work environment. A typical RFC for somebody with vertigo will likely contain restrictions against activities that could worsen their symptoms, or that could be hazardous even with mild difficulties with balance or dizziness. Examples of these restrictions include:

• no work around unprotected heights
• no climbing ladders, ropes, or stairs
• no driving or operating heavy equipment, and
• no walking on uneven ground.

If your past work involved tasks that are currently restricted in your RFC, Social Security won’t expect you to return to that work. Depending on other factors—like being older than 50 and having specific exertional limitations—not being able to perform your past work might be enough for the agency to award you benefits under a special set of rules known as “the grid.” Claimants younger than 50 or who aren’t disabled under the grid rules will need to show that they can’t perform even the most basic sit-down (“‘sedentary”) jobs in order to be found disabled.

Because most sit-down jobs don’t involve exposure to heights or hazards, it can be hard to rule out all these jobs based on vertigo symptoms alone. You’ll have more success qualifying for benefits with multiple impairments that result in additional restrictions in your RFC. Social Security must consider the combined effects of your conditions when determining whether you can work, and the more limitations you have in your RFC, the fewer jobs exist that you can perform.

Can Veterans Get a VA Disability Rating Percentage for Vertigo?

Veterans who have service-connected vertigo may be assigned a disability rating according to the VA Schedule for Rating Disabilities under diagnostic codes 6204 (for peripheral vestibular disorders) or 6205 (for Meniere’s disease). Peripheral vestibular disorders can be rated at either 10% for occasional dizziness or 30% for dizziness and occasional staggering. Meniere’s disease can be rated at 30%, 60%, or 100%, depending on the frequency and severity of the vertigo. (38 C.F.R. 4 (2026)).

Applying for Disability Benefits

Filing a disability claim with Social Security is fairly straightforward. Many people find the online application tool at ssa.gov to be the most convenient method, since you can complete it at your own pace, but you can also apply by calling the agency’s national hotline at 800-772-1213 (TTY: 800-325-0778) between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, or visiting your local Social Security office.

Applying for VA benefits works much in the same way. You'll need to complete Form 21-526EZ, Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits, which you can do using one of the following methods:

• File online using the electronic version of Form 21-526.
• Fax Form 21-526EZ to 844-531-7818 (from inside the United States) or 248-524-4260 (from outside the U.S.).
• Bring your application to your local VA office.
• Mail the form to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Claims Intake Center, PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444.

Veterans can receive both VA and Social Security benefits, although being found disabled by one agency doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get disability from the other due to the different criteria for each. But if you have medical records strong enough for the VA to give you a 100% disability rating, it’s a good bet that the SSA will come to a similar conclusion and find you disabled.

What If My Disability Claim Is Denied?

Few people are awarded disability benefits on their first try. If you’ve received a Social Security denial or disagree with your VA rating, you can (and probably should) appeal the decision, preferably with help from an experienced disability attorney or advocate. Your lawyer can draft a persuasive pre-hearing brief, represent you in front of an administrative law judge, and cross-examine an expert’s testimony.

Disability lawyers work on contingency, meaning they don’t get paid unless (and until) you win, so there’s little up-front cost to you in hiring one. Additionally, many representatives offer free consultations, allowing you to ask around until you find one who you think is a good match. If you’re ready to speak to an attorney, our article on how to find a good disability lawyer can help you in your search for representation.