Ssa grids for sedentary work7/10/2023 ![]() ![]() Since he is over age 50 and has no transferable skills, he would grid “disabled” at sedentary, and would then receive disability benefits. I use these medical opinions to try to persuade SSA that the claimant’s true RFC is at the sedentary exertional level. Here is a plan to win a case like this with the help of the grids:įirst, obtain a medical source statement from the claimant’s doctors to get their assessment of his RFC. However, at step 5 Social Security used Rule 202.14 of Medical-Vocational Guidelines to determine that the claimant was not disabled. ![]() As a result, Social Security found that the claimant could no longer perform his past work at step 4 of the sequential evaluation process. He has a high school education and past relevant work as a painter, which is a medium exertional job.ĭue to the claimant’s physical impairments, Social Security assessed a residual functional capacity (RFC) at the light exertional level. Let’s look at an example to see how the grids operate.Ĭonsider a worker was 53 years old as of his alleged onset date. At age 55, that same claimant grids “disabled” at the light exertional level. The SSA presumes that the transition to unskilled sedentary work is too difficult for these claimants. Once you reach the age of 50 (and have no transferable skills nor education that allows direct entry into skilled work), the grids direct a finding of “disabled” at the sedentary exertional level. However, the grids can benefit disability claimants. In fact, every claimant loses under the grids until age 50 (or age 45 if unable to communicate in English). In general, the grids are not where you want to be as a claimant, because the grids direct a finding of “not disabled” in most situations. The purpose of the guidelines is to allow the SSA to decide thousands and thousands of claims without resorting to individualized vocational evidence for each one. Depending upon these medical-vocational factors, the SSA determines that a person is either disabled or not disabled. The guidelines, or the “grids,” consider a claimant’s exertional level (that’s the medical part) and the claimant’s age, education and work history (the vocational factors). The Medical-Vocational Guidelines are used by Social Security to determine disability due to exertional impairments at step 5 of the sequential evaluation process. ![]()
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