Social Security disability for anemia or other blood disorders
I was recently asked to write about how Social Security views disability claims based on anemia and other blood disorders. First, I will address how Social Security generally handles disability claims. If that puts you to sleep, just skip ahead a few paragraphs
In general, Social Security reviews cases using the five-step sequential evaluation process:
Does your impairment keep you from being able to work?
Is your impairment severe. That is, does your impairment have more than a minimal at effect on your ability to perform daily activities?
Does your impairment meet or equal one of Social Security’s “Listing of Impairments?” A listing of medical conditions, acceptable medical evidence, and the severity necessary for an impairment to be considered disabling.
Does your impairment prevent you from being able to perform any job you performed over the last 15 years which was also a substantial gainful activity?
Does your impairment prevent you from being able to perform any other type of work which exists in substantial numbers of the national economy?
This is just a quick rundown of the five-step sequential evaluation process. There are exceptions and corollaries to this but I just want to quickly state the steps that Social Security will go through in evaluating a disability claim.
Assuming that anemia and/or other blood disorder keeps you from being able to work (step one) and has more than a minimal impact on your ability to perform daily activities (step two), that brings us to step three: does the impairment meet or equal a listing level impairment.
