How You Qualify to Receive Social Security for Colorectal Cancer

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, and feeling sick can make working difficult and challenging. You may have trouble getting out of bed, let alone going to your job for eight hours a day. Because you aren’t independently wealthy, you need a job to survive financially. But when you’re too sick to work, what can you do?

Colorectal cancer—the cancer of the both the colon and the rectum—is the third-most diagnosed form of cancer today. A majority of the tumors are adenocarcinomas, but they can be squamous cell carcinomas, or even lymphomas or melanomas as well.

Getting the Help You Need

If you have colorectal cancer, Social Security benefits are available if you meet certain qualifications. The benefits can supplement the income you’ve lost because of your illness. However, you must meet certain criteria to receive the help. Social Security lists colorectal cancer as cancer of the large intestine. The Social Security Administration generally approves those who have this type of cancer automatically if the cancer has advanced beyond a simple, operative tumor. Additionally, you can receive the benefits if:

• Your tumor is an adenocarcinoma that is recurrent, inoperable, or unresectable.
• Your colorectal cancer has spread beyond the lymph nodes closest to the original tumor.
• Your tumor is a squamous cell carcinoma of the anus that has returned after surgery.

If You Don’t Qualify

If you don’t qualify for the benefits under the impairment listing, don’t give up hope. There may still be a way to receive them. The Social Security Administration can measure your ability to work—or your residual functional capacity. Based on your medical treatments and how you are feeling, the Administration will decide if you are able to work at all, and if you are, what type of duties you are capable of.

We Want to Help

The attorneys of Johnson and Gilbert are experienced in helping those in the Daytona Beach area receive the Social Security they need. We may be able to do the same for you. Contact us today at 800.556.8890 to learn how.