Why You Need Objective Evidence of Your Disability

Posted April 24, 2025 by Premier Disability Services, LLC®

Before the Social Security Administration (SSA) will consider you for disability benefits, you need to show you have a diagnosis of a severe impairment that keeps you from working. After Social Security determines you’re not currently doing “substantial gainful activity” (working a significant amount), the next step is for Social Security to decide if you have a severe impairment that will last for a year or more.

What Is a Medically Determinable Impairment?

Before Social Security can determine if your impairment is severe, the agency needs to see that it’s “medically determinable,” meaning that your doctor must provide evidence that you have a physical or psychological “abnormality” that’s causing your limitations.

Physical abnormalities are conditions that are causing harm to you physically, such as cancer, heart disease, or back conditions. Psychological abnormalities are conditions causing harm to your cognitive or mental health, such as bipolar depression, PTSD, or substance use disorders.

The disability claims examiner who works for Disability Determination Services (a state agency that makes the initial disability decision for Social Security) will want to see that you have medical records with solid medical evidence documenting your condition. In other words, the SSA won’t approve disability payments based on symptoms alone, without confirmation by clinical or laboratory findings. For instance, chronic pain without a related diagnosis that would likely cause such pain won’t qualify for disability benefits.

Signs, Symptoms, and Laboratory Findings

The SSA needs to see signs, symptoms, and laboratory findings of your impairment to consider you for disability benefits:

  • Signs include outwardly visible manifestations of your impairments that the doctor can see and record, such as a poor range-of-motion test or the inability to speak clearly or follow instructions.
  • Symptoms are self-reported by you, things that you experience yourself and tell your doctor or Social Security about.
  • Laboratory findings include blood tests, X-rays and other imaging, IQ tests, and other objective medical evidence.

Social Security will only accept a diagnosis of a medically determinable impairment from someone with a high of level medical training. Social Security calls these health care professionals “acceptable medical sources.”

Source:20 C.F.R. 404.1521