Compassionate Allowances

Some conditions will immediately qualify a person for SSDI. They are not necessarily fatal (though some are), but they are exceptionally severe (e.g., cancers, atrophy, rare developmental disorders, etc.).

What are Compassionate Allowances? 

The SSA recognizes that certain conditions will qualify someone easily for SSDI. They currently list over 200 conditions on the list of compassionate allowances. These conditions will immediately allow someone to get SSDI as the SSA sees that they will always be debilitating to patients. Suppose you have a compassionate allowance claim for your SSDI case. In that case, your application will be reviewed by a special adjudicator in the Disability Determination Services (the same office all applications are first reviewed). This allows for a faster determination process, and it is more likely that you will be approved in the first round, saving you from any possible appeals. 

Examples of Applicable Conditions

Many of the conditions are cancers, rare disorders that children get, or fatal syndromes. Some cancers that qualify are: 

• Ureter cancer (with metastases, or inoperable) 
• Salivary cancers
• Breast cancer (with metastases or inoperable)
• Ependymoblastoma (child brain cancer) 

Generally, the cancers that allow immediate SSDI clearance are those that are severe to the point that they will interfere with the patient’s life. The SSA has decided that they do not need to evaluate these conditions individually, as they will always be very limiting to the patient. Examples of other kinds of these conditions include: 

• Adult-onset Huntington disease
• Mastocytosis (Type IV)
• Megalencephaly Capillary Malformation Syndrome 
• Tabes Dorsalis
• Lewy Body Dementia 
• Endomyocardial fibrosis 

How to Add a Condition to the List of Compassionate Allowances

If you believe that your condition should be on the list of compassionate allowance, there is a way to petition the SSA. The SSA accepts comments from the public to curate this list and listens to research from the National Institute of Health and its medical committees. They will request specific information from you, such as: 

• Your contact information 
• The name(s) of your condition
• Any diagnostic/laboratory testing done to confirm your condition
• Timeline of your disease (onset and progression)
• Treatments, current and past 

The SSA will consider all of this information when evaluating your claim. You shoud provide as much detail as you can to put forward a good case that this condition should be treated as an automatic qualifier for SSDI. To submit a condition for compassionate allowance, go to https://www.ssa.gov/compassionateallowances/submit_potential_cal.html?tl=0%2C1%2C2 and click on the second blue header. Underneath, you will find the link to submit the potential claim. 

Once it has been submitted, the SSA will follow a few steps to determine the viability of your claim. They will begin by evaluating everything you sent over to see if it meets their internal criteria. Then they will gather any additional information they need, like expert recommendations or advice from their committees. Any information they receive, they will submit to a review board to confirm their decision. Finally, they will inform you of their decision. If they decide to accept it, they will add your condition to the list and approve you for SSDI. 

Contact a Local Attorney for Help

To get a compassionate allowance claim accepted by the SSA, you will need to be able to provide anything that they ask for. But you can be prepared if you are properly informed. Many online resources offer tips on how to prepare your claim and even more people are willing to help you right now. If you need help preparing your claim or have any issues that you are facing with SSDI (including SSI), contact a local attorney today. Our team is ready to help with whatever you need, whenever you need it.