Disability for Traumatic Brain Injury. What remains three months after the injury.

How Social Security evaluates traumatic brain injury

The listing can be met in two ways. Each must persist for at least 3 consecutive months after the injury.

Motor function. Loss of control of movement in two extremities that causes an extreme limitation in standing up from a seated position, balancing while standing or walking, or using the arms.

Physical and mental limits together. A marked limitation in physical functioning and a marked limitation in one of four areas: understanding, remembering, or applying information; interacting with others; concentrating, persisting, or maintaining pace; or adapting or managing oneself.

Lasting changes in thinking, mood, and behavior can also be evaluated under the mental health listings, and post-traumatic headaches and seizures under their own rules.

When no listing is met

Most claims are decided on residual functional capacity: what you can still do in a work setting despite your symptoms. Social Security then asks whether any jobs fit those limits. For brain injury, the limits are memory, attention, processing speed, fatigue, headaches, balance, irritability, and tolerance for noise, light, and stress.

Evidence that matters

• Emergency and hospital records from the injury, including imaging.
• Neurology and rehabilitation records over the months that follow.
• Neuropsychological testing.
• Speech, occupational, and physical therapy notes.
• Statements from family or former coworkers about changes since the injury.

Ask your doctor to complete the mental impairments form in our free doctor forms. It records your limits in the terms Social Security uses.

Why these claims are denied

• A normal CT or MRI, read as no injury.
• No neuropsychological testing.
• A claim decided before the three-month point on incomplete records.
• Changes in personality and stamina never reported to a doctor.

People who knew you before

A person with a brain injury is often the last to see what has changed. Written statements from a spouse, relative, or former supervisor describing the difference before and after the injury are evidence Social Security must consider.

If you are 50 or older

Under Social Security’s grid rules, a person limited to sedentary work at 50, or light work at 55, may be found disabled depending on education and past work.

Next steps

If you have been denied, you have 60 days to appeal. See what to do after a denial in Arizona, SSDI in Arizona, and SSI in Arizona. There is no fee unless benefits are awarded.

J Disability Law Firm, PLLC · Joseph J. Duerst, Attorney · 18444 N. 25th Ave, Suite 420, Phoenix, AZ 85023 · (602) 607-0000. This page is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every case is different. Past results do not predict the outcome of your case.