Social Security Disability - Supplemental Security Income
Physical Impairments
Congress has defined the term "disability' for both the regular social security disability program (which appears in Title II of the Social Security Act) and the SSI disability program (which appears in Title XVI of the Act) as an inability "to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or which has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months."
Under the five-step sequential disability evaluation process described in the Social Security Regulations the following must be proved by a claimant in order to be found disabled:
- The claimant is not earning $810.00 or more in 2005, and
- The claimant has a "severe" impairment, and
- The impairment meets or "equals" one of the impairments described in the social security regulations known as the "Listing of Impairments"; or
- Considering the claimants "residual functional capacity (RFC), that is, what the claimant can still due even with his or her impairments, the claimant is unable to do "past relevant work" (PRW); and
- Other work within the claimant's RFC, considering age, education and work experience, does not exist in the national economy in significant numbers.
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