Compassionate Allowances List Fast-Tracks Disability

Important: We updated this article on 8/28/2023 to include 12 new conditions added to the CAL list on August 9, 2023. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a program to help those with serious medical issues get benefits approved significantly faster. This program, the CAL initiative, consists only of conditions that automatically meet the SSA’s definition of disability. See if your impairment falls on the compassionate allowances list for fast-tracking your disability claim below.

How Does the Compassionate Allowances List Help Speed Up Claim Reviews?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) established the compassionate allowances list (CAL initiative) in 2008. They did this in order to help Americans with severe medical conditions get approved for Social Security disability benefits faster. Anyone whose condition forces them to stop working at least one year may qualify for SSD benefits. But the claims review process and five-month mandatory wait period are especially hard for people with terminal and rare conditions. For this reason, the compassionate allowances list speeds up claim reviews for people who clearly meet the SSA’s definition of “disabled.”

Do Claimants Get Paid Faster for Conditions On the Compassionate Allowances List?

The CAL program’s helped at least 700,000 people with severe medical conditions get claims approved faster. The compassionate allowances list now includes 278 different conditions. However, the SSA adds more approved CAL conditions every year. This helps ensure Americans suffering from dire medical issues receive SSD benefits as soon as possible. As much as 95% of claimants applying with a CAL condition get their claims approved in 10-14 days.

Quick approvals under the compassionate allowances list means you’ll need to submit thorough medical records. The SSA must review all supporting medical documents in order to approve your SSD claim. If the SSA denies your claim (which isn’t always for medical reasons), you then have 60 days to appeal. Unfortunately, you won’t qualify for more money each month just because your condition’s on the compassionate allowances list.

What Conditions Are Currently On the Compassionate Allowances List?

Periodically, the SSA adds new medical conditions to its compassionate allowances list. According to the SSA, these conditions are determined using information from public outreach hearings, comments from the Social Security and Disability Determination Services communities, counsel of medical and scientific experts as well as research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The medical conditions listed below all fall under the compassionate allowances list to speed up SSD claims. We’ve broken out this conditions list by alphabetical order, so you can quickly scan for the first letter your condition starts with below.

A-D CAL List Conditions:

• 1p36 deletion syndrome (added 8/9/2023)
• Acute leukemia
• Adrenal cancer with either distant metastases or tumors which are inoperable, unresectable or recurrent in nature
• Adult non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• Adult-onset Huntington’s disease
• Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome
• Alexander disease (ALX) – both neonatal and infantile
• Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome
• Alobar holoprosencephaly
• Alpers disease
• Alpha-mannosidosis (both type II and III)
• ALS/Parkinsonism dementia complex (i.e., ALS-PDC)
• Alström syndrome
• Alveolar soft part sarcoma (ASPS)
• Amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease
• Anaplastic adrenal cancer (either with distant metastases, or with tumors that are inoperable, unresectable, or recurrent)
• Anaplastic ependymoma (added 8/9/2023)
• Angelman syndrome
• Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL)
• Angiosarcoma
• Aortic atresia
• Aplastic anemia
• Astrocytoma (both grade III and IV)
• Ataxia-telangiectasia
• Atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor
• Batten disease
• Beta thalassemia major
• Bilateral optic atrophy (infantile)
• Bilateral retinoblastoma
• Bladder cancer (with either distant, inoperable, or unresectable metastases)
• Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (i.e., a rare type of bone marrow and blood cancer)
• Breast cancer (with either distant, inoperable, or unresectable metastases)
• Canavan disease (CD)
• CACH – vanishing white matter disease (both infantile and childhood-onset forms)
• Calciphylaxis (added 8/9/2023)
• Carcinoma of unknown primary site
• Cardiac amyloidosis (AL type)
• Caudal regression syndrome (both types III and IV)
• CDKL5 deficiency disorder
• Cerebro-oculo-facio-skeletal (COFS) syndrome
• Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis
• Charlevoix-Saguenay spastic ataxia
• Child lymphoma as well as child lymphoblastic lymphoma
• Child neuroblastoma (with either distant or recurrent metastases)
• Choliangiocarcinoma (added 8/9/2023)
• Chondrosarcoma (with multimodal therapy)
• Choroid plexus carcinoma
• Chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudo-obstruction
• Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) – blast phase
• CIC-rearranged sarcoma
• Coffin-Lowry syndrome
• Congenital lymphedema
• Congenital myotonic dystrophy
• Cornelia de Lange syndrome (classic form)
• Corticobasal degeneration
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) – adult
• Cri-du-chat syndrome
• Degos disease (systemic)
• DeSanctis-Cacchione syndrome
• Desmoplastic mesothelioma
• Desmoplastic small round-cell tumor
• Dravet syndrome
• Duchenne muscular dystrophy, adult version (also known as Duchenne syndrome)

E-K CAL List Conditions:

• Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease
• Edwards syndrome (i.e., Trisomy 18)
• Effusion lymphoma (i.e., primary central nervous system lymphoma)
• Eisenmenger syndrome
• Endometrial stromal sarcoma
• Endomyocardial fibrosis
• Ependymoblastoma (i.e., child brain cancer)
• Erdheim-Chester disease
• Esophageal cancer
• Esthesioneuroblastoma
• Ewing sarcoma
• Farber’s disease (FD) – infantile
• Fatal familial insomnia
• Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva
• Fibrolamellar cancer
• Follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (either metastatic or recurrent)
• FOXG1 syndrome (added 8/9/2023)
• Friedreich’s ataxia (i.e., FRDA)
• Frontotemporal dementia (FTD), Pick’s disease – type A – adult 
• Fryns syndrome
• Fucosidosis (type 1)
• Fukuyama congenital muscular dystrophy
• Fulminant giant cell myocarditis
• Galactosialidosis – early as well as late infantile types
• Gallbladder cancer
• Gaucher disease (GD) – type 2
• Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease
• Giant axonal neuropathy
• Glioblastoma multiforme (i.e., brain cancer)
• Glioma (both grade III and IV)
• Glutaric acidemia (type II)
• GM1 gangliodosis – both infantile and juvenile forms (i.e., Landing disease)
• Head and neck cancers (with distant metastases or which are either inoperable or unresectable)
• Heart transplant graft failure
• Heart transplant wait list (1A/1B)
• Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) – familial type
• Hepatoblastoma
• Hepatopulmonary syndrome
• Hepatorenal syndrome
• Histiocytosis syndrome
• Hoyeraal-Hreidarsson syndrome (HHS)
• Hunter syndrome (i.e., Mucopolysaccharidosis Type 2, or MPS II)
• Hurler syndrome (i.e., Mucopolysaccharidosis Type 1, or MPS I)
• Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome
• Hydranencephaly
• Hypocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis syndrome
• Hypophosphatasia (perinatal/lethal as well as infantile onset types)
• Hypoplastic left heart syndrome
• I-cell disease
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy (i.e., INAD)
• Infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses
• Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC)
• Intracranial hemangiopericytoma
• ISSD, also known as infantile free sialic acid storage disease
• Jervell and Lange-Nielsen syndrome
• Joubert syndrome
• Junctional epidermolysis bullosa (lethal type)
• Juvenile-onset Huntington’s disease
• Kidney cancer (if it’s either inoperable or unresectable)
• Kleefstra syndrome
• Krabbe disease (KD) – infantile
• Kufs disease (both Type A and B)

L-O CAL List Conditions:

• Large intestine cancer (with either distant metastases or which is inoperable, unresectable or recurrent in nature)
• Late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses
• Leber congenital amaurosis (added 8/9/2023)
• Leigh’s disease/syndrome (also known as subacute necrotizing encephalomyelopathy)
• Leiomyosarcoma
• Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis
• Lesch-Nyhan syndrome (LNS)
• Lewy body dementia (LBD)
• Liposarcoma – either metastatic or recurrent
• Lissencephaly
• Liver cancer
• Lowe syndrome (i.e., Oculocerebrorenal syndrome)
• Lung cancer (small cell only)
• Lymphomatoid granulomatosis (grade III)
• Malignant brain stem gliomas (childhood)
• MEM (i.e., malignant ectomesenchymoma)
• Malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumor
• Malignant germ cell tumor
• Mantle cell lymphoma (MCL)
• Maple syrup urine disease
• Marshall-Smith syndrome
• Mastocytosis (type IV)
• MECP2 duplication syndrome
• Medulloblastoma (with metastases)
• Megacystis microcolon intestinal hypoperistalsis syndrome
• Megalencephaly capillary malformation syndrome
• Menkes disease (either classic or infantile onset forms)
• MERFF syndrome (i.e., myoclonic epilepsy with ragged red fibers syndrome)
• Merkel cell carcinoma (with metastases)
• Merosin-deficient congenital muscular dystrophy (i.e., MDC1A)
• Metachromatic leukodystrophy (either MLD or Arylsufatase A deficiency) – late infantile
• Metastatic endometrial adenocarcinoma (added 8/9/2023)
• Microvillus inclusion disease (MVID) – child, also known as congenital or familial enteropathy
• Mitral valve atresia
• Mixed dementias
• Mowat-Wilson syndrome (MWS)
• Mucosal malignant melanoma
• Multicentric Castleman disease
• Multiple sclerosis (must be malignant)
• Multiple system atrophy
• Myelodysplastic syndrome with excess blasts (MDS-EB)
• Neonatal adrenoleukodystrophy
• Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis
• Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (both types 1 and 2)
• NFU-1 mitochondrial disease
• Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome (NCBRS)
• Niemann-Pick disease (NPD) – both types A and C
• Nonketotic hyperglycinemia
• Non-small cell lung cancer
• NUT carcinoma, also known as NUT midline carcinoma (NMC)
• Obliterative bronchiolitis
• Ohtahara syndrome
• Oligodendroglioma brain cancer (grade III)
• Ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) deficiency
• Orthochromatic leukodystrophy with pigmented glia
• Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) – type II
• Osteosarcoma, also known as bone cancer (with distant metastases or which is inoperable or unresectable in nature)
• Ovarian cancer (with either distant metastases or which is inoperable or unresectable in nature)

P-S CAL List Conditions:

• Pallister-Killian syndrome
• Pancreatic cancer
• Paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration (added 8/9/2023)
• Paraneoplastic pemphigus
• Patau syndrome (i.e., Trisomy 13)
• Pearson syndrome
• Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD) – both connatal and classic forms
• Pericardial mesothelioma
• Peripheral nerve cancer (either metastatic or recurrent)
• Peritoneal mesothelioma
• Peritoneal mucinous carcinomatosis
• Perry syndrome
• Pfeiffer syndrome, types II and III
• Phelan-McDermid syndrome (i.e., 22q13 deletion syndrome)
• Pineoblastoma – childhood (added 8/9/2023)
• Pitt-Hopkins syndrome
• Pleural mesothelioma
• Pompe disease (infantile)
• Pontocerebellar hypoplasia
• Posterior cortical atrophy
• Primary omental cancer (added 8/9/2023)
• Primary peritoneal cancer
• PPA, also known as primary progressive aphasia
• Progressive bulbar palsy
• Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML)
• Prostate cancer – either with hormone refractory disease or visceral metastases
• Pulmonary atresia
• Pulmonary Kaposi’s sarcoma
• Refractory Hodgkin lymphoma
• Renal amyloidosis (AL type)
• Renal rhabdoid tumor (malignant only)
• Renpenning syndrome (also known as Golabi-Ito-Hall syndrome)
• Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) – stage V
• Rett (RTT) syndrome
• Revesz syndrome
• Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS)
• Rhizomelic chondrodysplasia punctata
• Richter syndrome
• Roberts syndrome
• Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome (RTS)

S-T CAL List Conditions:

• Salivary cancers
• Sandhoff disease (i.e., Sandhoff-Jatzkewitz disease)
• Sanfilippo syndrome (i.e., Mucopolysaccharidosis Type 3, or MPS III)
• Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the lung, stages 2-4 (added 8/9/2023)
• Sarcomatoid mesothelioma, also known as spindle cell mesothelioma
• Schindler disease (type 1)
• SCN8A-related epilepsy with encephalopathy (i.e., early infantile epileptic encephalopathy 13)
• Secondary adenocarcinoma of the brain
• Seckel syndrome
• Severe combined immunodeficiency (childhood)
• Single ventricle heart defect
• Sinonasal cancer
• Sjogren-Larsson syndrome
• Skin malignant melanoma with metastases
• Small cell cancer (i.e., female genital tract, large intestine, prostate, or thymus)
• Small intestine cancer (either with distant metastases or which is inoperable, unresectable or recurrent in nature)
• Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS)
• Soft tissue sarcoma – with either distant metastases or recurrent
• Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) – both types 0 and 1
• Spinal nerve root cancer (either metastatic or recurrent)
• Spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA)
• Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome (i.e., progressive supranuclear palsy)
• Stiff person syndrome (SPS)
• Stomach cancer (with either distant metastases or which is inoperable, unresectable or recurrent in nature)
• Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE)
• Superficial siderosis of the central nervous system
• SYNGAP1-related NSID (i.e., non-syndromic intellectual disability)
• Tabes dorsalis
• Tay-Sachs disease (infantile type)
• Taybi-Linder syndrome
• Tetrasomy 18p
• Thanatophoric dysplasia (type 1)
• Thyroid cancer
• Transplant coronary artery vasculopathy
• Tricuspid atresia
• Trisomy 9 (added 8/9/2023)

U-Z CAL List Conditions:

• Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy
• Ureter cancer (with either distant metastases or which is inoperable, unresectable or recurrent in nature)
• Usher syndrome (type I)
• Ventricular assist device recipient (either left, right, or biventricular)
• Walker Warburg syndrome (WWS)
• Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS)
• Wolman disease
• X-linked lymphoproliferative disease
• X-linked myotubular myopathy
• Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP)
• Zellweger syndrome (i.e., cerebrohepatorenal syndrome)
• Zika virus disease (i.e., congenital Zika syndrome)

How to File Your Claim Under the Compassionate Allowances List Initiative

File your claim the way you normally would for SSD benefits. However, make sure to note you qualify for expediting under the compassionate allowances list on your application. Claim-processing software will automatically flag your application for a QDD through the SSA’s review process. Once your claim’s approved, you’ll start receiving SSDI payments in as little as two weeks.

It’s important to make sure you prepare well before you apply, however. First, gather all medical evidence proving your health limits you from holding a job. Your evidence must clearly show – without further medical testing – that your issue is very serious. Your health problem must also last at least one year or result in death to qualify for SSD benefits. All conditions on the compassionate allowances list should qualify, but you still need to prove your poor health exists.

When To Apply for Disability Benefits If You Have a Condition On the CAL List

Of course, the best time to file your claim under the CAL initiative is right after your diagnosis. Your doctors should send your medical records to the SSA as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the SSA won’t notify you when they speed up your claim review under this particular program. However, you’ll receive a letter in the mail saying whether they approve or deny you benefits. If your claim doesn’t include any compassionate allowances list conditions, then the review process takes about 3-5 months.

How to Get Free Expert Claim Help Now

Not sure which medical records can help speed up your benefits? A lawyer can give you free help that applies to your specific claim over the phone. You’ll also pay nothing now for help filing your claim under the compassionate allowances list. In fact, having a lawyer file your application makes you almost 3x more likely to get benefits.

Not sure either where or how to find expert help free of charge? Social Security attorneys always work on contingency. They won’t take on your case unless they believe you qualify for SSD benefits. In addition, that means you owe $0 unless the SSA awards you cash payments. And if you win, then you’ll only pay one small fee.

Want to speak to a nearby expert for free about your claim? Click the button below now to start your free online benefits quiz and see if you may qualify:

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