NEW YORK UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE - HEARINGS AND APPEALS - CAPABILITY OF EMPLOYMENT - CASE NO. 6

More on the "SSDI disability" test from the Social Security website - this is the FAQ on Step 5 as set forth in the August 25, 2011 blog:

"What do you consider when you decide if I can adjust to other work?

If we decide you cannot do the work you did before, we consider your remaining ability to do other work considering your age, education and work experience. We assess these factors with your capacity to work to determine if you can be expected to adjust to other work that exists in the national economy.

How do you consider education?

We consider how many years of school you have completed and whether you have completed any type of special job training, trade or vocational school when we assess your ability to adjust to other work. However, absence of formal education does not necessarily mean you are uneducated or limited in your ability to adjust to work. We will consider strong evidence that your educational achievement is higher or lower than the last grade you completed.

We generally consider illiteracy and inability to communicate in English as an educational factor that limits an individual’s ability to adjust to other work.

How do you consider age?

We consider your chronological age in combination with your residual functional capacity, education, and work experience. We will not consider your ability to adjust to other work on the basis of your age alone. In determining the extent to which age affects your ability to adjust to other work, we consider advancing age to be an increasingly limiting factor in your ability to make an adjustment to other work.

If you are a younger person (under age 50), we generally do not consider that your age will seriously affect your ability to adjust to other work. However, in some circumstances, we consider that persons aged 45-49 are more limited in their ability to adjust to other work than persons who have not attained age 45.

If you are closely approaching advanced age (age 50-54), we will consider that your age along with a severe impairment and limited work experience may seriously affect your ability to adjust to other work.

We consider that at advanced age (age 55 or older) age significantly affects your ability to adjust to other work. We have special rules for persons in this category who are closely approaching retirement age (age 60 and above).

How do you consider my work experience?

When we consider your ability to adjust to work you have not done before, we consider your vocational factors of residual functional capacity, age, educational and past work experience.

For example, you may not be able to do the lifting required by your past work as an automobile mechanic. However, you may have the ability to adjust to other less strenuous work based on your residual functional capacity, age, education and past work experience. We may find that you could use your skills to be a carburetor mechanic, which is a less strenuous occupation.

How do you evaluate recent education that provides me skills I can use?

If you recently and successfully completed education or training that allows you to enter into a specific skilled or semiskilled occupation that you are physically and mentally able to do, we will find you are not disabled. For example, if you recently completed a formal program in which you gained the skills to become a chef and you are physically and mentally able to do that kind of work, we will find that you are not disabled.

How do you evaluate the effect of my age, education and work experience on my remaining capacity to work?

In our regulations, we have tables of rules that we use as guides to evaluate how your age, education and work experience affect your remaining capacity for work.

For example, a person with the following vocational profile would be found disabled according to our tables of medical-vocational guidelines:

Capacity for work:

•Can lift no more than 20 pounds for up to 1/3 of an 8-hour workday, and
•Can lift up to 10 pounds for 2/3 of an 8-hour workday, and
•Can stand and/or walk for about 6 or more hours in an 8-hour workday and
•Has no other limitations

Age: 57

Education: High school education

Work Experience: No skills that can be transferred to work he is physically able to do.

However, if this individual had skills that could be used for work that is within his capacity and that exists in significant numbers in the national economy, we would find him not disabled."