Which Conditions Are on the Compassionate Allowances List?

By SS Answers Editorial Team Updated

Compassionate Allowances is Social Security’s fast track for disability claims involving conditions so severe that they clearly meet its definition of disability, mostly aggressive cancers, adult brain disorders such as ALS, and rare disorders that affect children. The list has 314 conditions after 14 were added on August 11, 2026, and Social Security says more than 1.2 million people have been approved through it.

It is not a separate benefit and not an automatic approval. A claim flagged as a compassionate allowance is decided by the same rules for SSDI or SSI, with the same work credit, income and evidence requirements, and the usual five-month waiting period before SSDI payments start. What changes is speed: the claim is identified early and handled by specially trained examiners as an expedited case.

Search tool

Compassionate Allowances Conditions

All 314 conditions on Social Security’s list, updated August 2026. Search by any name, including other names for the same condition.

Each condition links to Social Security’s official summary, which lists other names, how it is diagnosed and the medical evidence examiners look for.

314 conditions
No condition on the list matches that search. Try a shorter word or another name for the condition. A condition that is not on the list can still be approved through the normal process.

How a claim is flagged

You do not file a special application. When you apply for disability, Social Security’s selection software reads the conditions you list on the disability report and flags the claim if one matches a condition on the list by name, synonym or abbreviation. That makes the exact wording matter. Write the diagnosis the way your doctor and records state it, such as “glioblastoma” or “metastatic breast cancer,” not only a symptom such as “headaches” or “a lump.” If you have cancer, include the type and the stage, because many cancers qualify only when they have spread, recurred or cannot be removed.

A claim can also be flagged by hand. If the diagnosis is made after you apply, or the software misses it, tell Social Security; staff can add the compassionate allowance designation at the initial level, at reconsideration, at a hearing or at the Appeals Council. The fast track does not apply to continuing disability reviews of people already receiving benefits.

What evidence is needed

Each condition has a summary in Social Security’s operations manual listing alternate names, how it is diagnosed and the medical evidence an examiner should look for. The search tool above links every condition to that summary, and it also finds conditions by their other names, so a search for “Lou Gehrig” finds ALS. For many conditions the requirement is short. For pancreatic cancer, for example, the manual says a pathology report showing the cancer is the only evidence needed to decide the claim. For others it may be a genetic test, an imaging study or a specialist’s diagnosis.

The flag only works if that evidence reaches the examiner. Give Social Security the names and addresses of every treating doctor and hospital, and if you have the pathology report, biopsy result or test that confirms the diagnosis, mention it. Social Security increasingly receives records electronically from health systems, but not in every case.

What the fast track does not change

The non-medical rules still apply in full. For SSDI you need enough recent work credits, and your disability must have begun on or before your date last insured. For SSI, your income and savings must be within the limits. Many people approved quickly on the medical side then wait while the field office finishes this review, and a claim that fails it is denied for non-medical reasons regardless of the diagnosis.

The five-month SSDI waiting period also applies. It is counted from the month your disability began, not from the approval, so someone whose disability began well before applying may have already served it. People with ALS are the exception and have no waiting period.

Watch out: Being on the list does not guarantee approval. Claims are denied when the records do not confirm the diagnosis or the required stage, or when the work or income rules are not met. If that happens, appeal within 60 days and send the missing evidence; the compassionate allowance designation can be added again on appeal.

How fast decisions are

Social Security does not publish a set timeline for compassionate allowance decisions. People in condition support groups often report medical approvals within a few weeks to about a month, compared with many months for typical claims, but the overall wait also depends on how quickly records arrive and how long the non-medical review takes. Payments then follow the usual schedule: SSDI is paid starting the sixth full month after onset, and SSI from the month after you apply.

If you are applying for SSI and your condition is clearly severe, Social Security can also pay up to six months of SSI before the final decision under presumptive disability, without repayment if the claim is later denied on medical grounds.

If your condition is not on the list

Other fast tracks may still apply. Social Security treats a claim as a terminal illness case when records show a condition that is untreatable and expected to result in death, including any cancer that has spread, is stage IV, has come back after treatment or cannot be removed, and people receiving hospice care or awaiting certain organ transplants. Those claims are expedited at every step. A computer model also picks out other claims likely to be approved quickly at the first level.

Most people who qualify are not on any list at all. The conditions that most often qualify are approved by meeting a listing in the Blue Book or through the full medical and vocational review of the five-step disability process. Anyone can also ask Social Security to consider adding a condition through the compassionate allowances website, and the application is the same either way.

The 14 conditions added in August 2026

Social Security added these conditions on August 11, 2026: Adenylosuccinate Lyase Deficiency (neonatal form and type 1), Aicardi Syndrome, Baraitser-Winter Syndrome, Beare-Stevenson Cutis Gyrata Syndrome, Bohring-Opitz Syndrome, CASK-Related Gene Disorders, Hepatosplenic T-Cell Lymphoma, Lafora Disease, Malignant Migrating Partial Seizures of Infancy, OPHN1 Syndrome, Primary Cardiac Sarcoma, Primary Intracranial Malignant Melanoma, Uveal Melanoma with metastases, and Warburg Micro Syndrome. They are marked “New Aug 2026” in the search tool above.

Frequently Asked Questions

No condition qualifies automatically, but the 314 Compassionate Allowances conditions come closest: when the diagnosis is confirmed by the right evidence, they meet Social Security’s medical standard and are decided quickly. You still have to meet the work or income rules.

Apply for SSDI or SSI in the usual way and list your exact diagnosis on the disability report. Social Security’s software flags matching conditions automatically; there is no separate application.

The same as any other approval. SSDI depends on your lifetime earnings and SSI on the federal benefit rate minus countable income; being on the list does not change the amount.

Yes, unless you have ALS. The waiting period runs from the month your disability began, so if you applied some time after onset, part or all of it may already be over when you are approved.

Yes, if the medical records do not confirm the condition at the required stage or severity, or if you do not meet the non-medical requirements. You can appeal and submit the missing evidence.

Social Security adds conditions periodically, most recently 14 on August 11, 2026 and 13 in August 2025. The list now has 314 conditions.

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