Social Security disability provides Americans with relief when confronted with a disability that prevents them from engaging in sustained work. Workers pay taxes and, when they do, they pay into a government system that provides a form of insurance coverage for income replacement if they later become disabled and cannot work. Past work performed provides coverage for protection against loss of income due to a future disability.
Let’s say that again – you have worked hard, paid into the system, and have a right to Social Security disability coverage if you show you qualify.
The Importance of Past Work Performed and “Past Relevant Work”
We have discussed the five-step sequential evaluation used by Social Security in our paper “The Social Security Mystery: How Does Social Security Decide Disability Claims?” At step four, Social Security evaluates whether the claimant can perform “Past Relevant Work.” If they can, then Social Security deems the claimant unqualified for disability benefits.
It’s important to know what work will be considered “Past Relevant Work” by Social Security. But what work is “relevant” to what a person can do now, if any work at all? What past work should be considered irrelevant?
Work Requirements Change
Our world changes quickly. Jobs we performed a handful of years ago are no longer done in the same way. Technology changes how work is done. Some jobs that required one skill set now require an entirely different set of skills. These changes have real world consequences for people struggling with a disability.
Previously, Social Security considered work performed in the prior fifteen years as relevant at step four of the sequential evaluation. Take, for example, a claimant who worked years ago as a maintenance technician for a specific type of equipment. This claimant had not worked as a maintenance technician for over ten years. The equipment has changed, it’s now automated with computer technology, and the skills required to do the work changed. However, Social Security would have considered the job as a maintenance technician to be past relevant work for the claimant.
Thankfully, Social Security has recognized this problem. Effective June 8, 2024, past relevant work will be reduced from fifteen years to five years. Also, work that is not performed for at least 30 calendar days will not be considered past relevant work. This commonsense approach recognizes that a worker most often cannot have learned and mastered the skills necessary to perform a job if they held it for less than 30 calendar days.
Impact on Medical-Vocational Grid Rule Decisions
Changing past relevant work from fifteen years to the past five years should have a significant effect on claimants’ ability to navigate the five-step sequential evaluation. The change is not limited to what’s decided at step-four. At step-five, Social Security evaluates whether certain claimants “grid out” under Medical-Vocational rules. The vocational component includes a determination of whether the claimant has transferrable skills from past relevant work to other work. Under the new rule, skills acquired from jobs performed more than five years ago should not be considered as those jobs are no longer considered “past relevant work.” Again, this makes sense given the fast-paced changes we have all seen in vocational requirements for jobs across the country.
Viewing past relevant work as work performed during the last fifteen years may have made sense at one time. However, changing the time to period to the last five years makes sense and reflects the realities of the working world we now live in. We hope that this change has a positive impact on the claims made by many disabled claimants.