The Social Security Administration Announces Changes To How They Assess Past Relevant Work

The Social Security Administration (SSA”) announced welcomed news that they are changing how they assess past relevant work (“PRW”) when it comes to Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) and Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) claims. Currently, PRW is work that a claimant has performed over the last 15 years. However, starting on June 8, 2024, SSA will only consider work performed in the last five years to be PRW.

 Why is this important to disability assessments? Current law states that you cannot be found disabled if your disability doesn’t prevent you from performing any job that you held over the last 15 years, or if disability doesn’t prevent you from performing any job that you have held over the last 15 years that you have transferrable skills to. There are exceptions. For instance, if a claimant performed a job for less than 30 days, it generally cannot be counted against the claimant. This is because it is likely that an individual who performed a job for less than 30 days wasn’t at the job long enough to learn the job.

However, if an individual was at the job long enough to learn the skillset required to perform the job requirements, and the work was performed in the last 15 years, SSA will consider that job to be PRW.

 This has been a problematic way to categorize work because rapid changes in technology have made jobs performed today radically different than jobs performed 15 years ago. Take for example the teaching industry. While computers were naturally prevalent in the classroom 15 years ago, platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams were not. Teachers of today contend with a variety of options to conduct their classes by. They can hold classes or office hours virtually. They can break courses into online modules for students to learn at their own pace. Teachers must be aware of technology that students are using to cut corners like utilizing artificial intelligence to write papers. These were not issues that teachers from 15 years ago had to address. Modern day teachers must be much more technologically savvy than the teachers from 15 years ago.

 I recognize this sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo but let me give you a real-life example. I had a client who had been a painter for the last 15 years. He is in his late 50’s and had a cervical fusion which prevented him from returning to his painting position. The problem was that this client had worked as a telemarketer 13 years ago. His cervical injury did not necessarily prevent him from performing his telemarketing job. The telemarketing industry may have changed substantially over the last 15 years, but my client’s former position as a telemarketer was a job that SSA could consider as a potential position that my client could perform now despite his cervical fusion. SSA’s decision to change PRW to a 5-year window would have helped my client establish that he could not work.

 Keep in mind that changing the PRW categorization from 15 to five years does not help claimants under the age of 50. If you are under 50, SSA will not consider you disabled if you could perform any work in the nationally economy despite your physical or mental disability. SSA does keep in mind an individual’s skill level and education when assessing one’s ability to work. SSA won’t say that a person with an 8^th grade education can be a doctor, but if you are under the age of 50 and have the physical and mental ability to perform an unskilled job, then SSA expects you to work.

SSA only starts looking at transferable skills when a claimant is over the age of 50. This is because the older we get, the harder it can be to adjust to other work. Also, the government doesn’t expect that someone in their late 50’s who held a sedentary position for most of her life would adapt to a heavier job, like one found in the construction industry.

Got a question about SSDI or SSI that you need us to answer? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We try to provide you with helpful information on our website that will allow you to successfully navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to email me your questions at megan@westcoastdisability.com or call me at (800) 459-3017 x 101.