When an application for Social Security disability benefits is submitted to the Social Security Administration for consideration, Social Security rules require the agency to follow a five-step sequential evaluation to determine if the claimant’s impairments are considered severe. The steps include looking at a claimant’s work earnings; determining whether an impairment meets a Social Security listing; whether a claimant can perform past work and whether the claimant can adjust to other work.
These are all very crucial steps in the process, but possibly the most crucial evaluation Social Security will do on a claim is to determine whether the impairments a claimant suffers from are considered severe. Below is specific evaluation Social Security conducts to determine whether an impairment is severe:
- At the second step, we consider the medical severity of an individual’s impairment;
- An individual must have a medically determinable physical or mental impairment (or a combination of impairments) that is severe and meets the duration requirement;
- To be severe, an impairment must interfere with basic work-related activities;
- To meet the duration requirement the impairment must be expected to last 12 months or to result in death;
- If the impairment is not severe or does not meet the duration requirement, the individual is found not disabled;
- If the impairment is severe and meets the duration requirement, the adjudicator goes to the next question that needs to be resolved.
