Applying for Social Security Disability benefits is a complicated battle for people with headache disorders. The process can last years and rulings often go against the patient. One reason for this is that the Social Security Administration’s official criteria to qualify for benefits does not include headache disorders as potentially disabling.
The Social Security Administration is currently revising the criteria for neurological disorders. Despite urging from several members of Congress and the Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy, the administration has said they will not include any headache disorders in the revised criteria. Without this inclusion, people who are disabled by headache disorders will continue having to fight for years and through numerous appeals for benefits they may not ultimately receive.
You have until April 28, 2014 to help change this. Write the Social Security Administration TODAY on the neurological revisions comment page. Submitting your comment directly to the administration is the most effective action you can take, but you can also voice your support by signing this petition. And please ask anyone you know who cares about someone who is disabled by a headache disorder to submit a comment to the administration.
Want to learn more? Read Speak Out for Migraine & Social Security Disability Today by patient advocate and lawyer Diana Lee.
Note: Be sure to leave your comment on the Social Security Administration’s website, not as a comment on this The Daily Headache post. While I always appreciate your comments, only those submitted through official government channels will count.
I left a comment on that government page and signed the petition. I hope they do the right thing! Thank you for posting about it and with such clear instructions on how we could do our part.
Headaches are a real illness, just like cancer or diabetes. No one knows why someone gets a migraine, but I know my daughter has suffered since she was a teenager and through now to early forties. Nothing has worked long term. She tries so hard to feel good and go to work but the pain she is in is not conducive to work. She’s an RN and needs to be in top form. Hard to do when your head feels like it’ll melt or explode in the next second. HEADACHE IS A REAL ILLNESS AND SSI NEEDS TO TREAT IT AS SUCH.
My Son has a headache 24/7 – he has had these since he was 11.
He is now 21 and can not work or go to school due to the pain.
Pain relievers don’t work.we have tried them all.
We live on my single income as a housekeeper.
I would like to know that he’d have enough money to live on if something happened to me.
Having to apply for Social Security Disability benefits is the next step.
He hopes to be well enough to go back to school and to earn his own livelihood someday.
I’m sure no one wants to live their whole life on disability.
But until then having Social Security Disability benefits will make it possible for him to live a little bit better life.
Please include headache disorders as potentially disabling, because they are.
It’s just not right having to fight for years and through numerous appeals for benefits that you may not ultimately receive.
Thank you
Serena Hazan