Social Security Administration Announces Major Change to Disability Evaluation Rules
The Social Security Administration recently announced a huge change to the way it will analyze Social Security disability claims.
My name is Kaitlin Wildoner, and I’m an attorney who helps disabled clients obtain their disability benefits as quickly as possible so they can focus on getting better.
New Regulation Set to Take Effect in June 2024
Under the new regulations, which are slated to take effect here in June 2024, the Social Security Administration will reduce the relevant past work period from 15 years to 5 years.
Currently, when applying for Social Security disability — whether it’s SSDI or SSI benefits — the Social Security Administration considers work an individual has performed in the past 15 years to be past relevant work.
What Is Past Relevant Work and Why Does It Matter?
The Social Security Administration uses past relevant work at step four in the sequential evaluation process, at which point the agency is considering whether the claimant can perform any of their past relevant work.
The agency compares the claimant’s residual functional capacity — which is their ability to work despite impairments — to the physical and mental demands of their past relevant work.
If the Social Security Administration finds that the claimant can still perform the actual functional demands and job duties of a particular past job, or the functional demands of the occupation as generally performed, the claimant is typically considered not disabled.
What Will the 2024 Rule Change?
By reducing the past relevant work period from 15 years to 5 years, only the most recent jobs will be considered relevant in an application for SSDI or SSI benefits.
This change will:
- Allow individuals to focus on the most current and relevant information about their past work
- Better reflect evidence on worker skill decay and changes in job responsibilities over time
- Reduce processing time and improve customer service
- Reduce the reporting burden on individuals — from remembering 15 years of work experience to just the last five
Why the SSA Is Making This Change
The rationale behind this proposed change is that an individual’s skills, knowledge, and job responsibilities can significantly evolve after 5 years, making work performed beyond that time frame less relevant by assessing their current abilities.
By shortening the past relevant work period to 5 years, the Social Security Administration intends to make disability determinations more accurate and efficient.
What This Means for SSDI and SSI Applicants
This has the potential to have a huge impact on approvals and denials of SSDI and SSI claims, as jobs that were performed more than 5 years ago will no longer be considered past relevant work for Social Security purposes. Therefore, the Social Security Administration would not be able to say a claimant can return to those jobs if their demands fall within the claimant’s residual functional capacity.
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