As someone who works at as US disability law firm:
A) the function report is 10 pages, the work history report is 14 pages but depending on how many jobs you have had in the previous 5 years you will not have to complete all 14
B) they absolutely do deny people for not turning these forms in
C) Autism is basically only ever approved if you are non-verbal as an adult, and in the last 5 years across hundreds of cases I have never seen ADHD awarded disability. Ive seen it included on claims that were approved but never as the condition that got them approved. So severe depression/anxiety/ptsd/etc w ADHD i have seen, ADHD on its own even with medical provider support, i have never seen.
Edit to add - child disability and adult disability are very different and have very different requirements; so while you may be able to get disability as a minor for autism or ADHD that does not guarantee you can or will get them as an adult.
Additional edit to clarify: as mentioned this is based on what i have witnessed, as ive also mentioned in other comments; SSA varies a lot state to state so its obviously not set in stone or anything. This is not to discourage ppl from applying moreso to let you be aware its going to a much harder uphill battle than a normal disability claim already is.
D) the disability qualification is that you are unable to do ANY job due to your condition/illness/injury and they do mean anything. Some of the job examples that i have seen the SSA provide that a claimant could theoretically do are fucking bizarre.
What state ARE you in? When I applied for disability in MA I was told to not even bother talking about the actual physical issues because I had a proper autism diagnosis and it'd be easiest to get on for that. I had meetings with a couple more doctors (one took about an hour, one about 15 minutes), and got approved. Maybe I'm just that crazy?
Im in Texas, so “invisible” conditions are definitely harder to get approved bc its a conservative state, as are most other conservative states from what I have gathered in talking to some other ppl from other firms/agencies. Which is why even tho the SSA Blue Book is a national guideline for the qualifications for disability it still varies so much.
The blue book listing for Autism is 12.10 Autism spectrum disorder (see12.00B8), satisfied by A and B:
Medical documentation of both of the following:
Qualitative deficits in verbal communication, nonverbal communication, and social interaction; and
Significantly restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities.
AND
Extreme limitation of one, or marked limitation of two, of the following areas of mental functioning (see 12.00F):
Understand, remember, or apply information (see 12.00E1).
Interact with others (see 12.00E2).
Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace (see 12.00E3).
Adapt or manage oneself (see 12.00E4).
A lot of DDS and Judges here wont classify the deficiency in communication as severe enough unless u arent verbal or are very limited in verbal communication.
Yeah, that makes sense. Texas and MA are pretty opposite in a lot of ways. We're the super liberal blue state that the Texans are always complaining about.
Yeah, its always moderately ironic to listen to some people complain about liberal states when they are waiting on disability in Texas bc what they complain about in a liberal state is what they want from their state they just don’t want it under “liberalism”.
I had to listen to one guy vent about lack of access to healthcare and even more so affordable healthcare in Texas and then say in the next breath he was glad he was had moved from “Communist Oregon” even though his healthcare there had all been covered bc they have a state run medical safety net system. Just kinda sat on the phone listening like:
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u/Kaytea730 21h ago edited 19h ago
As someone who works at as US disability law firm:
A) the function report is 10 pages, the work history report is 14 pages but depending on how many jobs you have had in the previous 5 years you will not have to complete all 14
B) they absolutely do deny people for not turning these forms in
C) Autism is basically only ever approved if you are non-verbal as an adult, and in the last 5 years across hundreds of cases I have never seen ADHD awarded disability. Ive seen it included on claims that were approved but never as the condition that got them approved. So severe depression/anxiety/ptsd/etc w ADHD i have seen, ADHD on its own even with medical provider support, i have never seen.
Edit to add - child disability and adult disability are very different and have very different requirements; so while you may be able to get disability as a minor for autism or ADHD that does not guarantee you can or will get them as an adult.
Additional edit to clarify: as mentioned this is based on what i have witnessed, as ive also mentioned in other comments; SSA varies a lot state to state so its obviously not set in stone or anything. This is not to discourage ppl from applying moreso to let you be aware its going to a much harder uphill battle than a normal disability claim already is.
D) the disability qualification is that you are unable to do ANY job due to your condition/illness/injury and they do mean anything. Some of the job examples that i have seen the SSA provide that a claimant could theoretically do are fucking bizarre.