Missourians who are suffering from different types of impairments might think that it is simple logic that the Social Security Administration will assess their application for Social Security disability based on their disabilities and not base it on other factors. However, the federal regulations can be somewhat complex and the rules confusing. For example, those with multiple impairments should know how the SSA goes about assessing these issues when determining whether to award SSD benefits or not. Understanding how unrelated severe impairments, concurrent impairments and their combined effect will influence the case is an important part of a case.
Should the applicant be suffering from unrelated severe impairments, the SSA will not combine them so the 12-month duration requirement is met. A person who has a severe impairment or more than one severe impairment and then has another severe impairment that is not related to the previous ones, but none will meet the 12-month requirements will find that the SSA will not declare the person disabled regardless of the issues reaching a combination of 12 months.
If there are concurrent impairments that are viewed as severe when they are assessed in combination, the SSA will decide whether the combination will remain severe for 12 months. If there is improvement in one or more, or it is expected to improve within a 12-month time-period so the impairments are no longer viewed as severe, then the person will not meet the duration requirements.
When the impairment or impairments have a combined effect that are sufficiently severe that it could form the basis for the person to be eligible, then the SSA will assess the combined issues of all impairments independent of whether they would be sufficient for the person to be declared as impaired. The combined impact will be considered during the entire process. For those who are not found to have a combination of impairments that will be viewed as medically severe, the person will not be considered disabled.
As the rules for combined impairments shows, it is not a guarantee that the SSA will approve an application for SSD benefits based on the person having several impairments if they do not meet the basic requirements. A law firm that understands the rules under which the SSA functions can help with these cases to try and get a client the Social Security disability benefits he or she needs.