Adverse Vocational Profiles -- The Inability to Adjust to Other Work

Is a person with a residual functional capacity for medium work ever disabled?  The answer is "yes," tell the ALJ to read the regulations.  We look at the policy changes that came about in 1975 with the advent of the SSI program -- people that don't have enough connection to the work force to have insured status. 

The statute requires consideration of age, education, and work experience in assessing the ability to engage in other work at step five of the sequential evaluation process.  This structure holds true for disability insurance benefits.  The inclusion of a federal SSI program meant that the agency would regularly decide the question of disability for people that lacked relevant work experience.  The regulations describe that adverse profile as calling for a finding of disability beginning at age 55:

If you are at least 55 years old, have no more than a limited education, and have no past relevant work experience. If you have a severe, medically determinable impairment(s) (see §§ 416.920(c), 416.921, and 416.923), are of advanced age (age 55 or older, see § 416.963), have a limited education or less (see § 416.964), and have no past relevant work experience (see § 416.965), we will find you disabled. If the evidence shows that you meet this profile, we will not need to assess your residual functional capacity or consider the rules in appendix 2 to subpart P of part 404 of this chapter.

A claimant passing that bright line of age 55, having a limited education or less, with no past relevant work experience, and having a severe impairment has an entitlement to a finding of disability.  That's it, drop the mic and walk away. 

For disability insurance purposes, it is now common for work experience to buy a quarter of coverage and not qualify as past relevant work because the amount earned does not rise to substantial gainful activity.  In 1975, the agency defined SGA as more than $200 per month.  A quarter of coverage cost $250 per month.  A person earning the minimum for SGA needed to work in each quarter of the year to earn four quarters.  In 2018, the agency defines SGA as more than $1,180 per month.  A quarter of coverage costs $1,320 in 2018.  But the person need not work in every quarter; earnings are annualized so that $5,280 earned in five months purchases four quarters of coverage.  A claimant can work at non-SGA amounts for five months a year and earn four quarters of coverage.  It is now easier to purchase insured status without every accumulating PRW.  The adverse vocational profile comes up more often now even in disability insurance benefit cases. 

The keys that unlock the doors of relevance of work experience rest in the earning as we just discussed but also in the concepts of duration and recency.  Recency represents the most common problem of PRW in SSI cases.  When we see a finding of ability to perform PRW in SSI cases, we should always comb the earnings record for earnings and recency even for unskilled work experience. Nor do we have to look very hard; the vocational profile regulation tells us where to look for that three-part test of relevance of past work. 

We need to remain vigilant for the adverse vocational profiles for claimants over the age of 55 and having not more than a limited education.  Does the claimant have relevant work experience?  If  not, a step two finding of a medically determinable severe impairment terminates the inquiry with a finding of disability.  See also the medical-vocational guidelines, rules 201.01, 202.01, 203.01, 203.02, and 203.10 that direct the same findings for the adverse profiles at step five.  For a further explanation of the adverse profile case, see the Social Security Ruling.