Front-banner

What Conditions Automatically Qualify You for Disability in Ohio?

Home /  SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY /  Social Security Disability FAQs /  Automatically Qualify for SSD

Helping Me, That's HNB

Applying 
Qualifying 
SSI 
Disability FAQs 

A “Compassionate Allowance” Speeds Up Your Benefits

Getting Social Security Disability benefits is normally a long, uncertain process. But in one situation, it’s faster and clearer.

If you have an extremely severe, life-threatening illness, Social Security has a system to automatically identify your case as obviously qualifying for benefits.

This is a program called “Compassionate Allowances.” If you receive a Compassionate Allowance, you don’t have to spend months or longer proving you can’t work. You could win approval for crucial economic aid in a matter of days.

While you might be asking what conditions automatically qualify you for disability under this program, a Compassionate Allowance isn’t completely automatic. You still need to submit medical records and evidence confirming you have an eligible disease.

The Ohio Social Security Disability lawyers at Horenstein, Nicholson & Blumenthal (HNB) can help you know if you should seek a Compassionate Allowance from Social Security—and get the right information to Social Security so they will approve it.

HNB has helped thousands of people in Ohio for over 50 years. “Helping me, that’s HNB.”

If you think you might qualify for a fast track for disability benefits approval, get a case consultation with our disability attorney team for free.

Tell Us About Your Case

    Conditions that Qualify for Disability Benefits Under Compassionate Allowances

    The Social Security Administration (SSA) keeps a list of medical conditions that can get you closer to automatic approval of disability benefits through a Compassionate Allowance.

    Many of the diagnoses on the list are certain types of aggressive cancer. Some are genetic degenerative diseases like ALS. The list also includes diseases affecting children (which could qualify for Supplemental Security Income, SSI, benefits).

    Nearly 300 diseases were on the Compassionate Allowances list as of 2025. These are just some of them:

    • Acute leukemia
    • Adrenal cancer
    • Adult heart transplant wait list
    • Adult non-Hodgkin lymphoma
    • Adult-onset Huntington disease
    • Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
    • Bladder cancer (advanced stages)
    • Breast cancer (advanced stages)
    • Carcinomas (certain kinds)
    • Child heart transplant wait list
    • Child lymphoma
    • Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease
    • Esophageal cancer
    • Gallbladder cancer
    • Glioblastoma brain cancer
    • Head and neck cancers (advanced stages)
    • Kidney cancer (advanced stages)
    • Large intestine cancer (advanced stages)
    • Lewy body dementia
    • Malignant multiple sclerosis
    • Merkel cell carcinoma
    • Ovarian cancer (advanced stages)
    • Pancreatic cancer
    • Prostate cancer (certain cases)
    • Salivary cancers
    • Skin malignant melanoma (with spreading to other body parts)
    • Small cell lung cancer
    • Small intestine cancer (advanced stages)
    • Soft tissue sarcoma (spreading or recurrent)
    • Stomach cancer
    • Thyroid cancer

    You can get a Social Security Disability attorney to help you secure financial relief as you deal with a health crisis for no attorney fee until you win benefits.

    How You Usually Qualify for Disability Benefits & How Compassionate Allowances Are Different

    For people with medical conditions that alter their lives but aren’t immediately life-threatening, they have to go through a complicated process of proving they deserve disability benefits.

    This involves:

    • Submitting medical evidence confirming that your health problems are seriously limiting
    • Using details of your training and work experience to show how your health now makes it impossible to work
    • Convincing Social Security that your situation won’t improve for at least a year, if it hasn’t been a year already

    First you apply for benefits, and it can take several months to get an answer. Most people are denied at first and must appeal the decision, which takes months longer.

    Not only are Social Security Disability benefits not automatic most of the time, they’re difficult to get as Social Security seeks to be certain beyond all doubt that you couldn’t work in some capacity.

    But with the most serious diseases like the ones listed above, Social Security recognizes there’s no need for more proof.

    This is what Social Security says: “The Compassionate Allowances program identifies claims where the applicant’s disease or condition clearly meets Social Security’s statutory standard for disability. By incorporating cutting-edge technology, the agency can easily identify potential Compassionate Allowances to quickly make decisions.”

    Whether Social Security automatically flags your case or not, talk to the HNB disability lawyers to make sure you receive all of the support you deserve to bring more peace and stability to your life after years of working cut short by major illness.

    For help with a Compassionate Allowance or any kind of disability claim, contact us today.