The Social SecurityAdministration (SSA) recently announced 52 new Compassionate Allowances conditions, primarily involving neurological disorders, cancers and rare diseases. The Compassionate Allowances program fast-tracks disability decisions to ensure that Americans with the most serious disabilities receive their benefit decisions within days instead of months or years. With this announcement, the list of Compassionate Allowances increases 113 to 165. The conditions will not be effective until August 13, 2012. Individual rules apply to each condition, often imposing specific symptoms or test results that must be present in order to qualify.