13.00: Cancer (Malignant Neoplastic Diseases)

What actually decides a claim under 13.00

Some cancers meet a listing on the pathology alone — by site, stage and behaviour — and a number appear on the Compassionate Allowances list, which flags a claim for expedited handling. Others meet no listing, and the claim turns instead on treatment effects: the fatigue, neuropathy and cognitive difficulty that follow chemotherapy and radiation, which SSA evaluates as it would any other impairment. Those effects have to be told to the treating oncologist to exist in the file.

Conditions evaluated under 13.00

• CancerHow SSA evaluates it, the evidence that decides it, and why claims are denied

Frequently asked questions

Do you have to meet 13.00 to be approved?

No. Meeting a listing is one route to approval and not the most common one. Most awards are made on residual functional capacity — what SSA concludes you can still do across a full working week, given your age, education and past work. A claim that falls short of 13.00 can still be approved that way, which is why a denial citing this listing is not the end of the matter.

What if my records do not meet 13.00 exactly?

Two things can still happen. SSA can find your condition medically equals the listing — equal in severity and duration without matching every criterion — or it can move on to the functional assessment described above. What sinks these claims is usually a gap in the file rather than a gap in the criteria: a limitation you live with that no doctor wrote down.

Which conditions are evaluated under 13.00?

Cancer. The criteria are the same; what differs is the evidence each condition needs to satisfy them.