The Social Security disability process can be a long and winding road, but there are ways to expedite the process. Certain disabling conditions that are considered to be severe are listed on Social Security’s Compassionate Allowance list. If an applicant suffers from one of these impairments, Social Security is supposed to expedite the processing of claims. Here is how Social Security describes it.
Compassionate Allowances are a way to quickly identify diseases and other medical conditions that, by definition, meet Social Security’s standards for disability benefits. These conditions primarily include certain cancers, adult brain disorders, and a number of rare disorders that affect children. The CAL initiative helps us reduce waiting time to reach a disability determination for individuals with the most serious disabilities.
The Compassionate Allowances program identifies claims where the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets Social Security’s statutory standard for disability. By incorporating cutting-edge technology, the agency can easily identify potential Compassionate Allowances to quickly make decisions. Social Security Administration (SSA) uses the same rules to evaluate CAL conditions when evaluating both Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs.
SSA receives information from the public, advocacy groups, comments received from the Social Security and Disability Determination Service communities, counsel from medical and scientific experts, research with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and information received from past public outreach hearings regarding potential CAL conditions. For more information on how to submit a potential CAL condition to SSA visit Submit the Name of a Condition for Consideration.
The list changes periodically so that new conditions are added. Social Security accepts input from advocacy groups, medical and science experts and the National Institute of Health in creating the list of compassionate allowance conditions. To see all the conditions on the list click here.
