Effective Saturday, June 22, 2024, the Social Security Administration took a baby step toward eliminating obsolete jobs in its disability determination.
Social Security has two disability programs, Supplemental Security Income Disability (which has an income and asset test) and Social Security Insurance Disability (which requires prior work under Social Security).
If claimants satisfy income and assets or insured status tests, Social Security has a five-part sequential determination:
1. There is a limit on what claimants can earn at the time they are applying for disability.
2. Social Security must find that the claimants have a severe impairment or a combination of impairments, and, if so:
3. Claimants are approved if their impairments “meet” or “equal” certain Social Security “listed impairments.”
4. But if claimants do not “meet” or “equal” certain Social Security “listed impairments,” they are denied if they can work in their past jobs.*
5 But if claimants cannot work in their past jobs, claimants are denied if they can do other work which exists in significant numbers in the national economy. But claimants are approved if they cannot do other work which exists in significant numbers in the national economy.
According to the Washington Post, Social Security can no longer cite some 114 occupations in the 1977 Dictionary of Occupational Titles (US Dept. of Labor) as jobs that “exist in significant numbers.” So those obsolete jobs cannot be used to deny disability benefits. Additionally, Social Security has identified 13 job titles that will require particular scrutiny before denial of benefits.
Social Security routinely uses “vocational experts” in its hearings, and those experts base their testimony in large part on the 1977 Dictionary of Occupational Titles.
The Post article noted that Social Security will still rely on 3127 unskilled job listings in the 1977 Dictionary of Occupational Titles, which has approximately 12,700 total listings, both unskilled and skilled. Since 2012 and at a cost of $300 million, Social Security has been studying an updated system from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (US Dept. of Labor).
*See my posts regarding obsolete jobs at step 4, past work:
https://disabilitydisability.blogspot.com/2016/08/overturn-thomas-decision.html
https://disabilitydisability.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-grammatical-rule-of-last-antecedent.html
See Charles T. Hall blog: https://socsecnews.blogspot.com/
See Social Security: https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/reference.nsf/links/06212024022159PM
https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/reference.nsf/links/06212024021759PM
See my post:
https://disabilitydisability.blogspot.com/2023/01/another-way-benefits-are-denied.html
