Medical-Vocational Guidelines

The Medical-Vocational Guidelines which will be used by the administrative law judge in the hearing stage to determine whether you qualify as disabled address two questions:

• Whether jobs exist in significant numbers for certain combinations of age, education, work experience, and residual functional capacity (RFC).
• What are the parameters for assessing the impact of age, education and work experience in cases where there is no formula-based conclusion as to disability.

If you are under age 50 (or under age 45 and illiterate or unable to communicate in English), a vocational expert will determine how many jobs you are capable of performing given your residual functional capacity. If the expert finds that you can perform a “significant number” of jobs, then you will not be found “disabled.” Age, education, and work experience are not taken into account in this determination. Whether the “significant number” really is significant is up to the decision-maker, such as an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).

According to the Medical-Vocational Guidelines, a claimant of the same age, education level, and work experience will be found disabled if he or she can only perform sedentary work, but if he or she is can perform a full range of light work, there will no finding of disability.

An ALJ will also consult a vocational expert “where the extent of the erosion of the occupational base is not clear” and the claimant’s exertional capacity falls in a gray area between two rules in the Medical-Vocational Guidelines that would lead to different conclusions.

The recent trend is that, when the Medical-Vocational Guidelines do not squarely apply, the vocational expert assessment of claimants over age 50 consists of offering an opinion about the number of jobs in the economy that the claimant is capable of performing. The ALJ next determines whether this is a “significant number.” Although ALJs appear to think that “I know a significant number when I see one,” the regulations require that they give”full consideration to all relevant facts in accordance with the definitions and discussions under vocational considerations,” and “full consideration must be given to all of the relevant facts in the case in accordance with the definitions and discussions of each factor in the appropriate sections of the regulations, which will provide insight into the adjudicative weight to be accorded each factor.”

For more information about how the Medical-Vocational Guidelines or vocational experts affect your case, contact Columbus, MO Social Security disability attorneys Weller Steele Miller, LLC.