Compassionate Allowance - Leptomeningeal Carcinomatosis

Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis occurs when a solid tumor spreads to the leptomeninges (the membranes surrounding the brain). Usually these tumors begin as lung tumors, breast tumors, or malignant melanoma. The condition is rare, occurring in only about 5 percent of people who develop cancer. The condition is almost always terminal. Left untreated, the median survival rate is four to six weeks. When treated, the median survival rate increases to two to three months.

Compassionate Allowance - Intracranial Hemangiopericytoma

Intracranial hemagiopericytoma, also known as HPC, is a very rare malignant tumor that develops in the blood vessels adjacent to the lining of the brain. These tumors are very rare, accounting for less than 1 percent of all tumors found within the skull. While surgery is often the best approach to such tumors, the recurrence rate of this type of cancer is very high, as is the mortality rate.

Compassionate Allowance - Esthesioneuroblastoma

Esthesioneuroblastoma is a rare form of cancer and one that can qualify you for not only disability benefits but also expedited review and approval of your disability claim through the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) Compassionate Allowances (CAL) program.

Compassionate Allowances

When your application is submitted, it will be flagged for quick review under the CAL program. This means you wait only a matter of weeks for a decision on your claim rather than several months, which is the average for all non-CAL applications.

Freeze - Title II (FZ)

If you are approved for disability benefits through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program, then the monthly SSDI payment you receive from the Social Security Administration (SSA) is considered “Title II” benefits.

What Are Title II FZ Benefits

If you are statutorily, or legally blind, you can continue to work and still receive SSDI benefits. Your benefits are required to be designated Title II FZ under the SSA’s rules governing disability for statutory blindness.

Full Range of Work

The concept of “full range of work” is a part of the Social Security Disability (SSD) evaluation process involved in examining an applicant’s “residual functional capacity” or RFC.

An RFC evaluation is typically only performed if disability applicants do not meet or match a listed condition in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA’s) manual of impairments or disabilities, which is known as the Blue Book.

When an RFC analysis is required to determine eligibility for disability benefits, the SSA looks at several factors, including the applicant’s:

  • Age
  • Work history
  • Acquired job skills
  • Training and education
  • Overall job qualifications

To be found eligible for benefits through an RFC analysis, the SSA must determine that you are unable to get and keep a job for which you are otherwise qualified given all of the factors listed above and given the limitations your impairment or medical condition imposes on you.

For example, if you are no longer able to do the kind of work you have done in the past, but your medical condition or impairment does not prevent you from performing the “full range of work” associated with sedentary jobs, like clerical, administrative, or office jobs, then the SSA will deny you disability benefits.

This is because your RFC shows you are not completely disabled and should therefore be able to find a job in which you are capable and qualified of performing the “full range of work”, even if that job is not in your traditional career field.

If however you apply for disability benefits and your RFC analysis shows you are not able to perform the “full range of work” in any job for which you are otherwise qualified, then the SSA will grant you disability benefits through what is known as a medical vocational allowance.