How to Use the Grid Rules to Win Your SSDI or SSI Case | Beacon Disability

You may have heard about the grid rules in the context of your Social Security Disability case, and you may be wondering how they can be used to win your Social Security disability benefits.

My name is Kaitlin Wildoner, and I’m an attorney who helps disabled individuals obtain their Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits as quickly as possible so they can focus on getting better.

Today we’re going to talk about the Social Security grid rules and how you may be able to use them for your own SSDI or SSI case.

Using the Social Security Grid Rules

The first thing that’s important to note is the grid rules are mostly for claimants age 50 and older. This is because they take into account your age, your education, your past work, and your residual functional capacity to make a determination on whether or not you should be found disabled.

The grid rules become more advantageous as you get older, for example, once you hit 50, they start to become a little advantageous to you. Once you hit 55, even more so, and once you’ve hit 60, again, even more so. As you age up, your transferable skills are evaluated differently. Your transferable skills are skills that you have obtained from your past work. The grid rules change in how advantageous they are in part due to your residual functional capacity and the difference in evaluation of your transferable skills.

For those who are 55 and up and are limited to sedentary work, in order for your skills from your past relevant work to be considered transferable, there must be very little, if any, vocational adjustment made to a new job. That’s in terms of tools, work processes, work settings for the industry.

Again, if you’re 49 or younger, the grid rules are not a huge factor in your disability case. If you are age 50 or older, if your doctor has limited you to sedentary work, make sure that that’s in your chart. Similarly, if you’re 55 or older and your doctor has limited you to either sedentary or light work, make sure those restrictions are in your chart. If restrictions are not put in your chart and in your medical records, Social Security really has no idea that they exist. You can tell Social Security that your doctor has put these limitations on you, but then when Social Security looks at your medical records, if those limitations aren’t in the records, Social Security has difficulty finding you disabled based on the hearsay from your doctor.

Therefore, if your doctor has given you limitations that would be helpful, especially if you’re 55 and older, or 50 and older limited to sedentary, you want to make sure it’s in your medical notes from the doctor.

Help with the Social Security Grid Rules

If you are disabled and unable to work, click the link below or call the phone number on the screen for a free consultation where we can discuss what I can do to help you in your disability case.