Can you get Social Security disability for Degenerative Disc Disease?

Back and neck problems are among the most common disabling conditions I see. They include scoliosis, herniated discs, spinal stenosis, sciatica, spondylolisthesis, arthritis, and degenerative disc disease, and they can cause chronic pain severe enough to make full-time or even part-time work unsustainable.

What degenerative disc disease is

Degenerative disc disease occurs when the discs between the vertebrae deteriorate over time. Contributing changes include tears in the outer layer of the disc and loss of fluid within it. Where the pain is felt generally depends on which discs are affected.

The condition can lead to:

• Chronic pain in the back or neck
• Pain radiating into the arms or legs
• Numbness and tingling
• Weakness in the extremities
• Difficulty sitting, standing, or walking for extended periods

As we age it is not uncommon for these changes to occur, and that ordinary observation turns out to be the central difficulty in these claims.

The problem at the heart of a DDD claim

This is the thing worth understanding before anything else, and most pages on this subject do not mention it.

Degenerative changes in the spine are extremely common on imaging in people who have no symptoms whatsoever, and they become steadily more common with age. By later middle age, a majority of people who feel entirely well would show disc degeneration if they were scanned.

Adjudicators and Administrative Law Judges are aware of this. It means an MRI report describing degenerative disc disease, on its own, does not establish that you are disabled, and it can even work against you if a judge concludes the findings are simply age-related changes of the kind everyone has.

The consequence is straightforward. A degenerative disc disease claim is not won by producing imaging. It is won by connecting the imaging to something specific: a nerve root that is actually compromised, examination findings that match the affected nerve, and functional limitations that follow from both.

If your file consists of an MRI report and your description of your pain, it is weaker than it feels, and the fix is usually to get the connecting evidence rather than more imaging.

How Social Security evaluates degenerative disc disease

There is no listing named for degenerative disc disease. Claims are evaluated in one of two ways.

1. Meeting or equaling a spine listing

If you have read about this elsewhere you have probably encountered listing 1.04, disorders of the spine. That listing no longer exists. Social Security rewrote the musculoskeletal listings effective April 2021 and replaced it with two:

Listing 1.15, disorders of the skeletal spine resulting in compromise of a nerve root. This requires all four of the following:

• Pain, paresthesia, or muscle fatigue in a neuro-anatomic distribution
• Neurological signs in a radicular distribution on examination or testing: muscle weakness, and signs of nerve root irritation, tension, or compression, together with either sensory changes or decreased deep tendon reflexes
• Imaging findings consistent with compromise of a nerve root in the cervical or lumbosacral spine
• A physical limitation lasting or expected to last twelve months, with a documented medical need for a walker, bilateral canes, or bilateral crutches, or a wheeled and seated mobility device involving both hands; or an inability to use one upper extremity for work-related movements together with a documented need for a one-handed device that occupies the other; or an inability to use both upper extremities for work activities

Listing 1.16, lumbar spinal stenosis resulting in compromise of the cauda equina, structured the same way, with nonradicular symptoms and signs and neurogenic claudication among the qualifying findings.

Note the third element carefully. The imaging has to show compromise of a nerve root, not merely disc degeneration. Degenerative changes without nerve root involvement do not satisfy it, however extensive they look on the report.

Note the fourth element too. Every route through it requires both hands to be occupied or unusable. Most people with degenerative disc disease do not use walkers or bilateral canes, which is why relatively few of these claims are approved at the listing step.

Arachnoiditis, which had its own criterion under the old listing, no longer appears in the spine listings at all. Social Security now evaluates spinal nerve disorders that originate in the nervous system, including spinal arachnoiditis, under the neurological listings in Section 11.00.

2. A medical-vocational allowance

If your condition does not meet or equal a listing, Social Security assesses your residual functional capacity to determine whether you can perform any work. This is where most degenerative disc disease claims are decided.

It is important to understand that you do not have to meet or equal a listing to receive benefits. Residual functional capacity refers to what you can still do given limitations on sitting, standing, walking, and lifting, and Social Security must also consider the pain you experience in deciding whether you could maintain employment.

What Social Security looks at

• The severity and duration of your symptoms
• The effect on your ability to perform work-related activities
• Your age, education, and work history
• How effective your treatment has been

On that last point, treatment that has been tried without success is useful evidence rather than a weakness in your claim. Injections, physical therapy, and surgery that did not resolve the pain demonstrate that the condition is not simply a matter of finding the right intervention.

One rule changed recently and works in claimants’ favor. Social Security used to consider work performed over the previous fifteen years when deciding what you might return to. Since June 22, 2024 the relevant period is five years, and work lasting fewer than 30 calendar days does not count at all.

Age matters here too. A claimant of 50 or older who is limited to sedentary work with no transferable skills is in a considerably stronger position than a younger claimant with identical limitations, and at 55 the vocational rules shift again in the claimant’s favor.

The evidence that actually helps

Given the imaging problem described above, the evidence that moves a degenerative disc disease claim is the evidence that connects findings to function.

Imaging, read properly. X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans matter, but what matters within them is nerve root compromise, foraminal or central stenosis, and the level involved. Ask for the full report rather than the summary, and make sure it is in your file rather than merely referenced.

Examination findings that match. This is the piece most often missing. Reduced reflexes, sensory loss, muscle weakness, positive straight leg raising, and measured range of motion, recorded in the same distribution as the imaging findings. For lumbar nerve root compromise, Social Security wants straight leg raising recorded in both the supine and the sitting position, which is easy to ask for and frequently missing. Imaging and examination that corroborate each other are considerably more persuasive than either alone.

Electrodiagnostic testing. EMG and nerve conduction studies can objectively document radiculopathy where examination findings are equivocal.

A treatment history with outcomes. What was tried, and what happened. Injections, therapy, medication, and surgery, with the result of each.

Statements from treating physicians addressing how long you can sit, stand, and walk, how much you can lift, how often you would need to change position or lie down, and how many days a month you would be absent.

A pain and limitation journal kept over several months, which converts an impression into a record.

Work history and failed work attempts. An attempt to return to work that failed because of your condition is strong evidence, and it is frequently left unmentioned because people treat it as a failure rather than as proof.

Applying and appealing

Check the non-medical requirements first. SSDI requires sufficient work credits; SSI has income and resource limits.

Apply online at ssa.gov, by phone at 1-800-772-1213, or in person at your local Social Security office.

Expect a wait. Initial decisions commonly take several months and current processing times have been running longer than they once did. Appeals extend that considerably.

Appeal if denied. You have 60 days to request reconsideration. Do not start a new application instead, because that forfeits your original filing date and the back pay attached to it. I can help you with your appeal.

Why these claims are challenging

It is worth being realistic about the obstacles:

• Symptoms and severity vary widely between people with similar imaging
• Social Security emphasizes functional limitation rather than diagnosis
• Extensive medical documentation is needed
• Back-related claims have a high initial denial rate
• Degenerative findings are common enough that they are easy for an adjudicator to discount

Many applicants nonetheless obtain benefits by providing thorough evidence and, where necessary, appealing. Persistence and documentation are what carry these claims.

Talk with an Indiana disability attorney

If degenerative disc disease is keeping you from working, my legal team can help make sure your application is complete and your evidence connects. Contact my office for a free consultation.