DISABILITY IN VOCATIONAL TERMS

I recently represented a claimant in a Social Security hearing and began to cross examine the vocational expert.  I asked her about my client's mental impairment and how that would effect his "occupational base," or ability to work in the general economy.  Her reply was, "You will have to put that in vocational language."  What she wanted was to quantify each emotional impairment into its severity, using mild, marked, serious, extreme.  Fortunately, I had a psychologist's Medical Source Statement (Form HA-1152-BK) that did exactly what the vocational expert said.  It assigned a category of severity to several aspects of the claimant's functional ability related to his mental disorder.  Some of the entries on the form included:

  • extreme limitation in understanding simple directions
  • extreme limitation in carrying out simple instructions
  • marked difficulty in responding appropriately to supervisors or coworkers
  • severe difficulty adjusting to usual work routines
  • severe limitations of concentration, persistence and pace
With these kinds of specific functional limitations verified by an examining clinical psychologist, I was able to get the vocational expert to testify that my client could not return to any of his past relevant work.  When the judge asked the vocational witness whether the claimant could perform any other work which exists in the national, regional or local economy, she responded, "No."

It cannot be over emphasized how important vocational evidence is in a Social Security disability hearing.  I am afraid that we place so much emphasis on the medical evidence that we sometimes ignore vocational evidence.  We do so to our own peril.  Some judges rely on vocational factors more than others, to be sure, but the likelihood of winning a disability case without proper vocational evidence is slim, especially at the hearing level.

The Forsythe Firm represents claimants in Alabama and southern and Middle Tennessee in Social Security disability matters, including appeals and hearings.  To visit our main website, simply click on the blue link highlighted at the beginning of this paragraph.  We charge no fee until you win and get paid.  Our firm is a member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives.


Learn more about NOSSCR

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GETTING MONEY FROM SSDI

SSDI stands for Social Security Disability Insurance .  When you first began working, the Government deducted a percentage of your wages, called a FICA tax.  This continued as long as you worked, in most cases.  This money was matched by your employer and set aside in a government trust fund to help you if you later became disabled and could not work. SSDI is a type of government sponsored insurance program, usually called "Social Security disability insurance."  To get benefits out of SSDI, you must prove  that you have a medical disability so severe that you cannot work any full-time job; that this disability has lasted, or is expected to last, for at least 12 consecutive months. That sounds simple but Social Security has made it rather difficult to prove that you are disabled.  One reason is that their definition of 'disability' is so strict.  You usually must prove that you cannot perform even simple, unskilled work at the sedentary (sitting) leve
Read more

POST HEARING EVIDENCE

Many people assume that a Social Security disability case is over when the hearing has been held.  This isn't always the case.  Often there is post hearing work that should be done to achieve the best chance of a favorable decision. Everyone at a disability hearing works under pressure.  This includes the claimant, the representative, the vocational expert and even the administrative law judge.  Hearings are generally limited to less than one hour.  The judge will ask questions that place the claimant under stress to answer correctly.  The representative or attorney will be asked to respond to procedural issues or points of law that place him or her under pressure.  The judge must constantly conduct the hearing so that it follows Social Security laws, rules and regulations.  Further, the judge must form accurate hypothetical questions for the vocational expert based on the medical and vocational evidence in the file and upon the claimant's testimony.  The vocational expert th
Read more

PARTIALLY FAVORABLE DECISIONS ON DISABILITY

You attended a hearing on your Social Security disability claim.  A few weeks later, you receive a Notice of Decision in the mail that says you have received a Partially Favorable decision.  Does this mean that you are only partially disabled, not fully disabled? ANSWER:  No.  Social Security does not make awards for partial disability.  You are either disabled or not disabled.  There is no such category as "partially disabled" within Social Security law. A "partially favorable" decision means that the administrative law judge has found you to be disabled.  However, he or she has changed some material fact in your application.  Most often, this change involves the established onset date--the date you were found to have become disabled.  For example, in your application you may have alleged that you became disabled on June 1, 2012.  After reviewing the facts of the case, the judge may have decided that you did not become disabled until September 1, 2012.  Theref
Read more