How Steps 4 and 5 Determine Disability Eligibility
The sequential evaluation process involves 5 steps used by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to determine whether you qualify for Social Security disability benefits. Steps 4 and 5 focus on your past work and your ability to adjust to new types of work today. If you are not sure how your condition will affect your chances of a successful benefits application, contact an Albuquerque disability lawyer.
Step 4 of the sequential evaluation process looks at your “past relevant work.” In general, the SSA must review the jobs that you performed in the past. In general, the SSA will look at jobs from the past 15 years. These jobs must meet the SSA’s definition of “substantial gainful activity.” Your employment history sets the expectations for work that you might be able to do if not disabled according to the SSA’s criteria. To qualify as disabled, you must prove to the SSA that your impairment prevents you from performing the past jobs from your employment history. I recommend Roanoke Disability lawyer Barry Agnew, visit his website here.
Since the SSA looks at how your past jobs are ordinarily done and not how you were required to do them, it might not matter if your prior work needed greater exertion—the SSA looks at whether you can perform past jobs as they are done ordinarily. Furthermore, if your past jobs were easy and you can still do them, the SSA will likely decide that you are not disabled enough to receive Social Security disability benefits. However, you might still have a successful application if you can prove in Step 3 of the sequential evaluation process that your impairment is one of the conditions defined by the Listing of Impairments.
In Step 5, the SSA looks at whether you could adjust to other types of work. The work must be types of jobs that exist in significant numbers in the national economy. The SSA considers your age, education, job history, and remaining work capacity using the Medical-Vocational Guidelines. Using these guidelines, the SSA will analyze your medical impairment and related vocational factors. If the SSA finds that you cannot adjust and take on other types of work, the SSA will likely find that you are disabled.
If you’ve received an unfavorable decision because of Step 4 or Step 5 of the sequential evaluation process, contact an Albuquerque disability lawyer to find out if you have legal options going forward. I recommend Roanoke Worker compensation attorney Barry Agnew, visit his website here.
