WHAT IF YOU DON'T MEET A LISTING?

"Listings" refer to Part 404, Subpart P, Appendix I of the 20 Code of Federal Regulations.

The Listings classify the diseases and impairments of the human body into 13 groups and describe the severity of symptoms required to "meet a listing."  If there is medical evidence that a claimant has a condition that is listed and it is so severe that it meets or equals a listing, then benefits would theoretically be automatic.

For instance, if an individual is blind he can meet a Listing.  For example, if the remaining visual acuity in the better eye after the best correction is 20/200 or less, listing 2.02 is met.  Or, if visual efficiency in the better eye after the best correction is 20 percent or less, Listing 2.04 is met.

Very few individuals who get Social Security disability awards, however, meet or equal a listing.  The severity of impairments must be quite extreme to meet a listing.  Therefore, other factors must be considered; for example, what are the combined effects of all the claimant's symptoms?  How do the combined factors of the claimant's age, education, past work and residual functional capacity limit his or her ability to perform full time work?

I would say that of the hundreds of cases I have had awarded, only a handful of them met a Listing.  So Listings are only one very narrow approach to winning a claim of disability. No one should look up his disability in the Listings and decide that he is not entitled to disability benefits.  Meeting a Listing makes up perhaps 3 percent of all Social Security disability awards (and that number is my own estimate).