How Important are Age and Education in SSDI Claims?

How Important are Age and
Education in my SSDI Claim?


	How Do Age and Education Impact a Social Security Disability Decision?

Social Security does not make it easy for claimants to win disability benefits. Social Security’s definition of “disability” requires a medical or mental health diagnosis and it looks for a long term problem - a medical condition that has lasted or is expected to last a year or result in death.

Persons with some capacity to return to the work force will not be approved for disability. For example, an individual who cannot stand more than four hours in a day would be unable to perform a construction job, but that person might be able to perform a simple, sit down job such as a textile inspector, a small parts assembler or a surveillance system monitor.

Frequently, I meet with honest, hardworking claimants who have worked in one occupation their entire life and consider themselves disabled because they cannot perform that job any more. Social Security looks at more than a claimant’s capacity to perform past work - instead, we have to prove that you cannot perform any work.

Social Security does give something of a break to claimants age 50 and older who have limited skills and a limited education. Social Security recognizes that workers age 50 and older will have a much more difficult time finding an “entry level” simple, sit down type of job. There is a special set of rules called the “grids” that apply to claimants over age 50 who have limited skills and a high school or less education.

For Social Security purposes, a claimant who is less than 50 years old is considered a "younger individual" and is not entitled to any specific consideration due to age. At age 50 and again at age 55, special rules making it easier to qualify are put into place for claimants with physical impairments who have limited schooling.

If you are 50 or older, I can advise you if these special rules, called the "grid rules," apply to you. Under the grids, if you are 50 years or older, your impairment is a physical problem and you have a limited formal education or no significant work skills, you can be found disabled even if there are some “sit-down” or “light” jobs you can still do. If you are age 50 or over, please ask me if you want to know whether the grids apply to you.

I think that in general, claimants with limited reading and writing skills have less capacity to transition into other jobs, and often this type of claimant has performed physical labor in past work. Most disability judges will recognize the difficulty that an unskilled worker with limited reading and writing skills and a serious medical problem will have getting back into the work force regardless of age.


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How Do Age and Education Impact a Social Security Disability Decision?

How Do Age and Education Impact a
Social Security Disability Decision?