Posted on: August 3, 2020 Posted by: admin Comments: 0

What about the age of the claimant during the Disability Determination process?  Does it matter?

Last time we talked about Subpart D and introduced the concept of understanding all of these Social Security regulations.  We also intro’d how they interact and relate as an important part of what becoming a Social Security Administration Vocational Expert (SSAVE) is and that continues today with for next piece in the series on regulations.  Today we’ll focusing again on the code of federal regulations (CFR) part 404 while bringing in part H (which governs evidence). Part H also begins with an introduction and overview and governing definitions.  All of these are incredibly important to understand when you are dealing anything regarding the United States government because specificity and terminology is critical to understanding what you’re actually referencing.

No matter your vocational background…whether a vocational rehabilitation specialist, a vocational evaluation specialist, a certifier, an examiner, etc., the world that you’re entering as a Social Security Administration vocational expert or SSAVE is one that is predicated on understanding the terminology of the governmental agency that you are performing impartial witness duties for.  This is really no different than any other line of work – as every company, line of work, sport – all have different lexicons….the SSA just has one a bit more particular!

 Subpart H of the CFR part 404 also governs actual evidence and what evidence is required for claimants to submit!   The requirement for evidence is important for the SSA vocational expert to understand because they will be viewing some of these evidence documents as part of their preparation for testimony, as well as during the hearing in front of (well…virtually) administrative law judge. This particular subpart covers different levels of evidence including age, marriage, benefits of child and parents, and then other individuals.

This evidence later turns into the actual documents that the SSAVE will be able to download in the Electronic Records Express section of the Social Security Administration to perform work history analysis. At the end of the day that’s it…the SSAVE is no longer involved in going through every aspect of medical evidence to ensure that they render an opinion on what a climate should do to reenter the workforce or to prepare themselves to live with their disability. The new role of the SSA VE is to examine the claimant work history and get ready for the administrative law judge questions on hypothetical limitations. More on that later!