Degenerative Disc Disease & Severe Mental Depression

“Plaintiff challenges the Administrative Law Judge’s decision to exclude his mental impairments from the [residual functional capacity] determination. He argues that although the ALJ provided an explanation for why he omitted Plaintiff’s mental conditions from the RFC determination, his reasoning for doing so relies upon significant mischaracterizations of the record.”


“The ALJ is responsible for determining a claimant’s RFC. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1546(c). When determining the RFC, the ALJ must review all of the relevant evidence and consider each of the claimant's medically determinable impairments whether or not severe. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1545(a)(1), (2).”

“The ALJ did not consider Plaintiff’s mental impairments in the RFC determination. Rather, the record suggests that the ALJ considered Plaintiff’s physical condition to the exclusion of his mental condition in the steps following step two of the analysis.”

The court also found that the ALJ mischaracterized the evidence.  The court remanded the case.

COMMENT

The ALJ must include non-severe impairments in determining the claimant’s residual functional capacity.  Therefore, in completing Social Security forms, the claimant must detail all his impairments, even if some of them, considered separately, may appear “non-severe” in terms of affecting his ability to work.

Aumann v. Commissioner of  Social Security, C. A. No. 13-10304 (D. E.D. Mich., S. Div., Jan. 9, 2014).  Available at: http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8853887695780749313&q=social+security&hl=en&as_sdt=40000003&as_ylo=2014