Can You Get Disability for Bipolar Disorder?

People with bipolar disorder who are unable to work or make a substantial wage may qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSDI. You must meet several Social Security Administration’s criteria, and your condition must be totally disabling. SSDI benefits are not available for temporary or partial disabilities.

In some instances, you can still get disability for bipolar disorder even if you don’t meet the specified medical requirements. A claims examiner may grant you a Medical Vocational Allowance, or MVA, entitling you to disability benefits based on the totality of your circumstances and your inability to work. If you do not qualify for SSDI, there are other options for disability compensation.

Can I Receive Disability Benefits for Bipolar?

You can receive SSDI benefits for bipolar disorder, but having a diagnosis isn’t enough to qualify. You must meet specific SSDI medical eligibility criteria and previous work requirements. The Social Security Administration, or SSA, publishes a listing of medically qualifying conditions, also called the Blue Book, which provides the eligibility criteria for disabling impairments. Bipolar disorder is listed as a disability under Section 12.04.

Meeting the SSA’s listed eligibility criteria for mental health disorders can be particularly difficult. Claims examiners must rely on more subjective determinations than those for physical disabilities. You must have evidence from mental health professionals to support every aspect of your claim.

SSDI Bipolar Medical Criteria

For an examiner to approve your disability claim through Blue Book criteria, your evidence must meet the requirements of Section A and that of either Section B or Section C. The criteria for each section are as follows:

Section A

Your symptoms must include three or more of the following:

Pressured speech
Flight of ideas
Inflated self-esteem
Decreased need for sleep
Distractibility
Involvement in activities that have a high probability of painful consequences that are not recognized
Increase in goal-directed activity or psychomotor agitation

Section B

You must have an extreme limitation of one or marked limitation of two mental functions, including:

Understand, remember, or apply information
Interact with others
Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace
Adapt or manage oneself

Section C

You’ve had serious and persistent bipolar disorder for at least two years, and evidence of both of the following:

Ongoing treatment that diminishes signs and symptoms
A minimal capacity to adapt to changes or new demands in daily life

SSDI Work Requirements

To qualify for SSDI, you must have accrued a minimum number of earned work credits. This means you must have paid enough into the Social Security system through payroll deductions to be considered “fully insured” by the SSA.

In 2024, you earn one work credit for each $1,730 in wages or self-employment income on which you paid Social Security taxes. The required wages for one credit will rise to $1,810 in 2025. You can earn a maximum of four credits per year.

The number of work credits you need to be eligible for SSDI depends on your age. You must also meet recency and duration criteria. Generally, you need 40 work credits, with 20 earned in the last 10 years. Younger workers need fewer credits.

Even if you meet these work credit requirements, you still must demonstrate that you can no longer earn a substantial income due to your disability. You must show you are incapable of performing jobs you’ve had in the past or any new type of job. The SSA determines your current ability to work based on factors such as your age, training, and the effects of your disability.

I Qualify for SSDI, Now What?

You must gather all of the documentation you need to prove your disability and inability to work before applying for SSDI. The SSA only approved about 20 percent of initial SSDI claims between 2013 and 2022. Most denials were for technical reasons, not medical ones.

Use the Blue Book criteria for bipolar disorder to determine if you have medical evidence supporting Sections A and B or C. Compile your previous work history, including the names of your employers and the dates worked. Detail any other benefits you receive, such as workers’ compensation, as they can affect your SSDI benefits. View a more in-depth list of the information you need on our Applying for Social Security Disability Benefits page.

Once you have your documentation, you can apply online, by mail, or in person. Use the SSA locator tool to find the regional office nearest you. You can estimate how much disability you can get for bipolar disorder by using our SSDI calculator. How long it takes to get on disability for bipolar depends on factors such as how complex your claim is and whether you provided sufficient evidence with your initial application.

What If I Don’t Qualify for SSDI?

If your condition doesn’t meet the Blue Book criteria alone, a claims examiner can still approve your application by considering the totality of your bipolar disorder symptoms and their effects on your ability to work. You may also qualify for Supplemental Security Income, or SSI.

Medical Vocational Allowance

The Medical Vocational Allowance, or MVA, provides an alternative path for SSDI applicants to qualify for disability benefits. Not everyone qualifies based on the strict requirements in the SSA Blue Book. For example, someone with bipolar disorder may only have two symptoms. However, if an examiner determines that the overall impact of those symptoms results in an inability to work, they can grant disability through a medical vocational allowance.

You will likely have to undergo a consultive exam if the examiner decides you don’t meet the Blue Book criteria. The SSA arranges this exam, in which the consulting mental health professional gauges the effects of your bipolar symptoms on your ability to work.

Mental RFC

When considering whether to grant an MVA, an examiner determines your ability to work based on your residual functional capacity, or RFC. It measures the most you can still do despite your disability. The Mental RFC Assessment contains a series of questions with ratings for understanding and memory, sustained concentration and persistence, social interaction, and adaptation. The goal of the assessment is to determine if you can sustain work activity for a normal workday or week on an ongoing basis.

An SSA claims examiner may require you to undergo a mental health exam to complete your assessment. You can also go to your doctor independently and ask them to complete a Mental RFC. Having one can help examiners make an initial eligibility ruling or make a decision during an appeal.

SSI

SSI may be an option if you don’t qualify for SSDI because of the work requirements. SSI is a needs-based program, so you must also have a limited income and resources to qualify. You need not have paid a certain amount of credits into the Social Security system to qualify for benefits.

To qualify, you must have little to no income. As of 2024, individuals must make less than a certain monthly threshold. Unless your state provides otherwise, this amount is typically the federal benefit rate. The federal benefit rate in 2024 is $943 per month for individuals and will rise to $969 in 2025. You must also have less than $2,000 in resources to qualify. These limits are higher for couples and parents applying on behalf of their children.

The medical evidence you must provide to qualify for SSI is the same as for SSDI. You must provide objective medical documentation from acceptable sources to establish your disability and its impact on your ability to work. You might have to undergo additional mental health evaluations to get an SSI determination.