How Does Age Affect a Disability Claim?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) considers several factors to establish an individual’s entitlement to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability, and age is one of those criteria. If you are 50 years old or older when applying for Social Security disability, it may be easier for you to get approved for disability benefits than it is for a younger person. This is because the SSA knows it can be harder for an older person to learn a new job skill or to make the transition into a new work place. The SSA refers to this as making a “vocational adjustment.”

To account for the difficulty older claimants may have making vocational adjustments, the SSA has something called the “grid rules” it uses to decide some disability claims. The grid rules are one way you can get approved for disability benefits through a medical-vocational allowance. Social Security generally uses the grid rules only after it has determined that you can’t do the jobs you’ve done in the recent past.

These grid rules use the following factors to determine whether an applicant is disabled:

• applicant’s age
• applicant’s education level
• the skill level of the applicant’s past work
• whether the applicant learned any skills that can be used in a different job, and
• the applicant’s residual functional capacity (RFC).

For the purposes of the grids, the SSA divides applicants into the following age groups:

• younger individuals (18 through 49)
• closely approaching advanced age (50 to 54)
• advanced age (55 and over), and
• closely approaching retirement age (60 and over).

The older you are, the less likely you are to have transferable skills into other occupations. For example, if an individual is 55 or older and is limited even to light work, or less than a full range of medium work, they may be approved for disability even if they have a high school education and their prior work was unskilled or their skills are not transferable. This is because Social Security expects a worker to take on very little vocational adjustment at this age.

Contact our office today if you or anyone you know would like to learn more about qualifying for Social Security Disability benefits.

See the Grids here: https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-app-p02.htm

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC®

Happy 4th of July from Premier!

Premier Disability Services would like to wish everyone a safe and happy 4^th of July weekend! Before you fire off a bunch of bottle rockets this weekend, spare a thought for your fingers, toes and other extremities. Injuries from fireworks send thousands of Americans to the emergency room around this time of year, new data shows. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were an estimated 9,100 fireworks-related injuries treated in U.S. emergency rooms in 2018; and of these, about 5,600 occurred in the one-month period around July 4^th (from June 22 to July 22).

If you have suffered a hand injury, whether from a firework accident or otherwise, and it prevents you from working, then you may be entitled to Social Security Disability benefits.

Nearly every job requires full and complete use of the hands. Anyone who has “manipulative limitations” caused by injury or pain needs to be aware that this can be an important component of a disability claim. While more obvious in situations involving a condition such as carpal tunnel syndrome or a specific hand injury, this limitation can also be important even when it is not the major disabling condition.

Social Security law says that in order to do even unskilled, sedentary work a person must have good use of both hands and the fingers – this is called “bilateral manual dexterity” in the regulations. Any significant limitation in a person’s ability to handle, pick up and finger small objects is important in the disability decision. Many claimants have conditions that restrict the amount of lifting they can do. Anyone person who can lift and carry even 10 pounds for most of the day may still be found capable of sedentary work, under Social Security regulations. The addition of a manipulative limitation, particularly of the dominant hand, can be enough to tip the scale in favor of the claimant.

Contact our office today if you or anyone you know would like to learn more about qualifying for Social Security Disability benefits.

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC®

GAO to Investigate Disability Consultant Doctors

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) plans to investigate the Social Security Administration’s use of consultant doctors to review claims, a congressman announced Monday. The announcement follows a Tennessean report that found some doctors in Tennessee were denying a high rate of applicants while reaping large sums in fees.

In states across the country, doctors are paid on a per-case basis to review disability claims, providing a financial incentive that rewards speed. Facing Social Security’s case backlog, and pressure to protect taxpayer funds, some doctors wrongfully deny low-income people unable to work. The rejections also often lead to a loss of health insurance.

“Since learning about the Tennessean’s investigation, I have been very concerned about this,” U.S. Rep. John B. Larson, D-Connecticut, said in a statement. “Many states’ Disability Determination Service agencies contract to outside doctors to help make disability determinations and little is known about these practices.”

Larson chairs the Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee. Earlier this month, he asked the GAO to examine the system of using contracted doctors, known as medical consultants. The GAO responded June 19 by approving the request. It will take about six months until the appropriate experts are available to begin the investigation, according to a letter from Orice Brown, the GAO congressional liaison.

Larson asked the GAO, the congressional watchdog, to examine how widespread the practice of paying contract doctors is among states and report on how much doctors are compensated. He also requested the GAO report on what qualifications and performance measures are required of these physicians. Larson has also asked for an analysis of the quality of disability decisions.

Full article: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/06/24/disability-claims-doctors-consultants-gao-investigate-social-security/1546986001/

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC®