Social Security Evaluates Your Application for Disability or Application for SSI Using 5 StepsSocial Security evaluates every disability application - both SSDI and SSI - using a 5-step process:
Step 1: If you are working, Social Security looks at your gross income. If you make over $940 a month in 2008 (after certain expenses related to your disability are deducted), SSA denies your claim. If you are not working, or you are not earning over $940, go to step 2. Tip: Working part-time is ok (under that dollar amount) if that is all you can do because of medical problems. Step 2: You must have at least one “severe” impairment. An "impairment" is an injury, illness, or medical condition. A “severe” impairment causes more than a mild limitation on your ability to function and work. If you don’t have any severe impairments, SSA denies your claim. If you have one or more severe (more than mild) problems, your claim goes to step 3 of the 5-steps. Tip: Almost any medical problem is severe. Step 3: Is your medical condition found in Social Security’s Listing of Impairments. The Listings are mental and physical conditions defined by specific medical criteria. SSA considers these conditions to be disabling enough to prevent most people from working regularly. If your condition matches ("meets"), or closely matches ("equals"), a Listing, SSA should find you medically disabled. If SSA does not, go to Step 4. At Step 4 in the 5-step process Social Security decides if you can do "Past Relevant Work," which is work you did in the 15 years prior to becoming disabled. SSA first determines your "residual functional capacity," or RFC. To do this SSA considers your physical and mental functional abilities, using the medical and dsaily activity information supplied by you, your doctors and any hospitals. Combining the physical and mental functional abilities results in an RFC. Your RFC should show the MOST work activity you can do on a sustained basis in an 8-hour work day, 5 days a week, week after week. Social Security then compares your RFC to descriptions of physical and/or mental abilities required for your past relevant work. SSA decides if you can still do those jobs, using two huge books with 27,000+ occupations and thousands of pages of regulations. If you can still do an old job despite your current limitations, SSA denies your case. If you can’t do those jobs, go to Step 5. Step 5: SSA considers your RFC and your age, education and any skills you gained during your last 15 years of employment. If you can’t do your old jobs, can you do any other work? Did you learn skills that can be transferred - used - in a new job? Can you do less physically or mentally strenuous work than you did before? If yes, depending on your age, you may or may not be disabled. Don't assume you are not disabled without consulting an expert. But, SSA must find that you can work at a competitive pace and consistently: 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, week after week, with no unusual amount of sick leave. Remember the Turtle? Just keep climbing the 5-steps.
What Weight Does Social Security Give to Your Age, Education and Acquired Skills?SSA says someone under fifty years old has a greater prhysical and mental ability to learn new jobs than someone age 50+. So, getting to 50 is a big help in winning a case. BUT IF YOU ARE UNDER 50 AND CAN'T WORK, DON'T GIVE UP. Most of my clients are under 50.By contrast, education makes a surprisingly small difference (please don't tell my kids.) SSA divides it into 4 groups: High School graduate, less than HS graduate, limited and illiterate. If you are reading this, you're not illiterate and probably not limited.) Tip: If you didn't finish High School, please don't say you did. This is the 5-step process for all SSI or Social Security disability applications.
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