The Social Security Administration has set up a program called “compassionate allowances” to expedite disability claims for people with severe medical conditions. According to the Social Security website: “Social Security has an obligation to provide benefits quickly to applicants whose medical conditions are so serious that their conditions obviously meet disability standards.”
Compassionate allowances are a way for the Social Security Administration to fast-track benefits for people who have diseases or other medical conditions that invariably qualify as disabilities under the agency’s Listing of Impairments. Typically, such claims can be decided within days.
“Compassionate allowances will allow Social Security to quickly target the most obviously disabled individuals for allowances based on objective medical information that we can obtain quickly,” according to the Social Security website.
The Initial List of Compassionate Allowance Conditions includes 50 severe diseases or medical conditions such as Acute Leukemia, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and several types of cancer.
The list was developed with the help of medical and scientific experts. The Social Security Administration also held a series of public outreach meetings: the first on rare diseases in December 2007; the second on cancers in April 2008; and a third on brain injuries in November 2008. The Social Security Administration may expand the list of Compassionate Allowance Conditions over time.
