Respiratory disorders are among the most common reasons people apply for Social Security disability benefits. You may qualify for Social Security disability for respiratory disorders if you have a serious lung or breathing problem that prevents you from working. Not everyone with a lung condition qualifies. Social Security looks at how severely your condition affects your ability to work, not just your diagnosis.
How Hard is it to Get Disability for Respiratory Disorders?
Many lung and breathing problems can qualify for Social Security disability benefits if they’re severe enough to prevent you from working. The key is showing that your condition causes serious limitations even when you’re following your treatment plan.
COPD and Social Security Disability
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is one of the most common lung diseases that qualifies for disability benefits. COPD includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
- COPD makes breathing difficult, causing severe shortness of breath with even minor activity like walking to the mailbox or getting dressed.
- Your lung function tests (especially FEV1 measurements) show how well air moves in and out of your lungs. Lower numbers usually strengthen your disability claim.
- Many people with COPD need oxygen therapy throughout the day, which shows Social Security your condition is severe.
- Frequent hospital visits for COPD exacerbations prove your condition remains serious despite treatment.
Learn more about COPD and Social Security disability
Asthma and Disability Benefits
Severe asthma can qualify for disability benefits when it causes frequent attacks that interfere with your ability to work consistently.
- Most mild to moderate asthma doesn’t qualify for disability, but severe persistent asthma may make you eligible.
- If you need emergency room care or hospitalizations more than six times per year despite taking your medications, this shows your asthma is severe.
- Asthma attacks that happen unpredictably make you unreliable for any job, even if you have good days in between.
- Side effects from high-dose asthma medications like steroids can cause additional problems including weight gain, mood changes, and bone loss.
Learn more about asthma and disability benefits
Pulmonary Fibrosis and Disability Claims
Pulmonary fibrosis is scarring of the lung tissue that gets worse over time. This is one of the more serious lung conditions that often qualifies for disability.
- The scarring makes your lungs stiff and unable to expand properly, causing constant shortness of breath.
- Pulmonary fibrosis is progressive, meaning it gets worse over time even with treatment.
- Your oxygen levels drop significantly with activity, and many people need continuous oxygen therapy.
- Pulmonary function tests show declining lung capacity over time, which strengthens your disability claim.
Learn more about pulmonary fibrosis and disability claims
Sleep Apnea and Disability Benefits
Sleep apnea by itself rarely qualifies for disability, but severe cases with serious complications can lead to approval.
- Severe sleep apnea causes extreme daytime fatigue that makes it impossible to stay alert during work hours.
- When sleep apnea leads to heart problems like heart failure or serious arrhythmias, your combined conditions can strengthen your claim.
- If you can’t tolerate CPAP treatment despite trying multiple adjustments, Social Security may consider your condition more severe.
- Sleep apnea combined with obesity, heart disease, or other lung conditions creates a stronger disability claim.
Learn more about sleep apnea and disability benefits
Cystic Fibrosis and Social Security Disability
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that causes thick mucus to build up in your lungs and digestive system.
- Adults with cystic fibrosis often have severe, chronic lung infections that require frequent antibiotics and hospitalizations.
- The disease damages lung tissue over time, causing progressive breathing difficulties.
- Many people with cystic fibrosis have very low BMI despite trying to maintain weight, which shows the disease affects multiple body systems.
- Frequent medical treatments including daily breathing treatments, medications, and doctor visits make regular work attendance impossible.
Learn more about cystic fibrosis and Social Security disability
Chronic Respiratory Failure and SSDI
Respiratory failure means your lungs can’t get enough oxygen into your blood or remove carbon dioxide effectively.
- Chronic respiratory failure requires ongoing oxygen therapy or mechanical ventilation support.
- Your blood gas tests show dangerously low oxygen levels or high carbon dioxide levels even at rest.
- This is typically the end stage of other lung diseases like COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, or severe asthma.
- Respiratory failure is one of the most serious lung conditions and usually qualifies for disability if well-documented.
Learn more about chronic respiratory failure and SSDI
How Social Security Evaluates Respiratory Disorders
Social Security doesn’t just look at your diagnosis. They evaluate how much your lung condition limits what you can do. Two people with the same respiratory disease might get different decisions based on their test results and symptoms.
Medical Evidence Is Critical for Respiratory Disorders Disability Claims
Social Security requires objective medical evidence from tests, not just your description of breathing problems.
Key test results can include:
- Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) measuring FEV1, FVC, and DLCO to show how well your lungs work
- Pulse oximetry and arterial blood gas tests showing your oxygen and carbon dioxide levels
- Exercise testing or six-minute walk tests demonstrating how far you can walk before severe shortness of breath
- Chest X-rays and CT scans showing lung damage, scarring, or other abnormalities
- Sleep studies documenting sleep apnea severity
- Records of emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and how often you need oral steroids
Your symptoms matter too:
- How far can you walk before you’re too short of breath to continue?
- Do you need to use oxygen during activities or all the time?
- How often do you have breathing attacks or exacerbations?
- Do you wake up at night unable to breathe?
- How many days per month are you too sick to function normally?
Treatment Compliance Shows Severity
Social Security wants to see that you’re following your doctor’s orders but still can’t work.
- Taking all prescribed inhalers, medications, and oxygen consistently shows you’re trying to improve.
- Attending pulmonary rehabilitation or following your treatment plan demonstrates compliance.
- If your symptoms continue despite following all treatments, this helps show that your condition is severe.
- Not following treatment without a good reason (like bad medication side effects) can result in denial.
The Blue Book Listings
Social Security has specific criteria for respiratory disorders in Section 3.00 of their Listing of Impairments. If your condition meets all the requirements in a listing, you’ll be approved.
- The listings include specific numbers for FEV1, DLCO, and oxygen saturation levels.
- For asthma, you need at least six hospitalizations or emergency visits per year.
- Listing requirements are very technical. Most people don’t meet them exactly.
- Even if you don’t meet a listing perfectly, you can still get approved through other ways.
Medical-Vocational Allowances
If you don’t meet a listing exactly, Social Security looks at whether you can do any job, not just your old job.
- They consider your age, education, work history, and how your lung condition limits you.
- If you’re over 50 and performed physical work, you have a much better chance of approval.
- Your need for oxygen, breathing treatments, and frequent medical appointments matters too.
If You’re Under 50 with Respiratory Problems
Younger people with lung conditions face stricter standards but can still get approved.
- You need strong medical evidence showing you can’t do any work, including desk jobs.
- Document all side effects from your respiratory medications. Steroids cause weight gain, mood changes, and difficulty concentrating.
- Frequent medical appointments and unpredictable bad days make you unreliable even for sedentary work.
- Having multiple conditions (lung disease plus heart problems, obesity, or depression) strengthens your claim.
Learn more about disability benefits under age 50
Your Work History Makes a Difference
What kind of work you did before your respiratory condition matters greatly to your claim.
Physical Work History
If you performed physically demanding work, lung disease may prevent you from continuing that type of work.
- Construction, manufacturing, warehouse work, and labor jobs require sustained physical activity your lungs cannot support.
- Being around dust, fumes, chemicals, or poor air quality can trigger breathing problems and exacerbations.
- Social Security recognizes you can’t suddenly learn a completely new type of work, especially if you’re older.
- Combine physical work history with age over 50, and you have a strong case even without the most severe test results.
Learn more about physical work and disability
Even Sedentary Work Can Be Impossible
Social Security may say you can do desk work, but respiratory problems often prevent even sitting jobs.
- Extreme fatigue from poor oxygen levels makes it impossible to concentrate for eight hours.
- Medications for lung disease cause side effects like shakiness, anxiety, and difficulty focusing.
- Frequent breathing treatments throughout the day interrupt your ability to work.
- Unpredictable breathing attacks or bad days make you unreliable even if some days are better than others.
- Oxygen equipment and tubing create safety hazards and mobility limitations in any work environment.
Respiratory Disorders Combined With Other Health Conditions
Most people with serious lung disease have other medical conditions too. These combinations are often more disabling than respiratory disease alone.
Lung Disease Plus Heart Problems
Heart and lung disease frequently occur together, especially in people with COPD or sleep apnea.
- Lung disease forces your heart to work harder, which can lead to right-sided heart failure (cor pulmonale).
- Low oxygen levels from lung disease strain your entire cardiovascular system.
- Both conditions cause extreme shortness of breath and fatigue, making even minimal activity impossible.
- When both your heart and lungs are compromised, you clearly cannot work.
Learn more about disability for heart problems
Respiratory Disease Plus Obesity
Obesity and lung disease create a vicious cycle where each condition worsens the other.
- Extra weight makes breathing more difficult by putting pressure on your lungs and diaphragm.
- Poor oxygen levels and breathing problems make exercise nearly impossible, which makes weight loss extremely difficult.
- Many respiratory medications like steroids cause weight gain as a side effect.
- The combination of breathing limitations and mobility problems from obesity prevents any type of work.
Lung Disease Plus Diabetes
Diabetes and respiratory disorders commonly occur together and complicate treatment of both conditions.
- Steroid medications used for lung disease raise blood sugar levels, making diabetes harder to control.
- Poorly controlled diabetes increases your risk of infections, which are especially dangerous when you have lung disease.
- Both conditions require extensive medication management and frequent doctor visits.
- The combination creates compounding fatigue and limitations.
Learn more about diabetes and disability
Respiratory Disorders Plus Depression or Anxiety
Living with serious breathing problems causes enormous emotional stress.
- Constant shortness of breath and fear of suffocating create severe anxiety and even panic attacks.
- Depression from losing your ability to work and be active is extremely common with chronic lung disease.
- Anxiety and panic can worsen breathing symptoms, creating a difficult cycle.
- Mental health problems make it even harder to manage your lung condition and keep up with treatments.
- The combination of physical and mental limitations prevents any type of work.
Get Help With Your Respiratory Disorders Disability Claim
If you have a serious lung or breathing condition preventing you from working, you may qualify for disability benefits. The medical evidence requirements are complex, and most respiratory claims require at least one appeal before approval.
Free Consultation
We offer a free consultation to review your respiratory disorder and medical evidence.
- We’ll tell you honestly whether you likely qualify for disability benefits.
- We’ll assess your age and work history to determine your best path to approval.
- There’s no cost and no obligation.
Call us today at 888-966-6566 to discuss your respiratory disorders disability claim.
We understand how frightening and limiting serious breathing problems can be. We’re here to help you get the disability benefits you need and deserve.
