The closer to retirement age you are, the easier it may be to get disability benefits. This is because the Social Security Administration (SSA) considers that older people may be less likely to fully recover from a serious medical condition and be able to return to work in a previous job. It may also be harder for them to learn new skills.
Why Is It Easier to Get Disability Benefits After Age 55?
If you can no longer work in your normal occupation due to a disabling condition and you are over 55, then it may be more difficult to learn a new trade, making it far easier to get disability benefits. In addition to these reasons, most people of an older age will have accumulated sufficient work credits to qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits (SSDI).
If you become disabled in your forties, you may require 22-28 work credits to qualify for SSDI. If you become disabled when in your fifties, you will require up to 38 credits. If you are 62 or older, you are required to have 40 credits. In most cases, 50 percent of those work credits should have been earned in the last 10 years of your working life.
Medical Vocational Allowance After Age 55
The SSA may use a medical vocational allowance, grouping adults 55+ as “advance-age adults.” If the SSA decides that none of your medical conditions can be found in their Blue Book lists, the agency will evaluate your medical record to determine whether you have any functional limitations.
Functional limitations are defined as problems that you may encounter taking part in any activities, such as being able to undertake basic movements or tasks, due to your physical or mental impairments. Not being able to put on a sweater because you are suffering from a torn rotator cuff or having extreme difficulty completing a puzzle because you have ADHD are considered to be examples of functional limitations.
The SSA will use a residual functional capacity (RFC) assessment which highlights what you can and can’t do in a work environment. For example, someone with a torn rotator cuff may be restricted from jobs which involve reaching overhead reaching, while somebody with ADHD may be restricted to simple, routine and repetitive job tasks.
The SSA acknowledges that as people reach closer to the retirement age, learning new job skills or changing career paths is not easy to do. So applicants for SSDI who are over 50 years of age and older, the SSA uses a grid that sets out the rules that decide whether an applicant they will receive a medical-vocational allowance.
The grid rules uses the applicant’s RFC, age, education, and any job skills they have. If you're older than 55 years and your RFC indicates that you can do light work, and you don't possess any transferable skills, the SSA is unlikely to expect you to learn new job skills, so you may be awarded social security benefits under a medical vocational allowance.
Get Help With Your Disability Claim
Work credits are an important part of qualifying for disability benefits. If you contact an attorney, they may be able to help you get the disability benefits you deserve by calculating your accumulated work credits and determine if you have sufficient number to qualify.
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