The Social Security Administration (SSA) takes a number of factors under consideration when reviewing an application for Social Security Disability (SSD), including: your medical condition, the limitations it places on you, your work history, age, education, experience, and job skills, among others.

The evaluation of your skills is completed so the SSA can determine if you’re completely disabled by your medical condition, or if you may still be able to find and maintain employment in another field in which your skills will allow you to perform the essential job duties despite the limitations of your medical or psychological condition.

With job data obtained through the Department of Labor, the SSA categorizes jobs into broad classifications. The skill set required for successfully performing the work is what determines which job class a position falls under. The classes that the SSA uses are Skilled Work, Semi Skilled Work and Unskilled Work.

Unskilled work is defined as work that doesn’t require you to exercise much if any judgment in order to perform the central job duties. They may or may not require you to have physical strength, dexterity, coordination or other manual labor abilities. Unskilled jobs don’t produce transferable skills and typically require only about 30 days or less to learn to perform all the core job responsibilities successfully.

In reviewing your application for SSD benefits, the SSA will evaluate your medical or psychological condition and the limitations it places on you. The SSA also looks at the job skills you possess. Your skills are compared to the type of jobs available, and your limitations will be reviewed at the same time.

This is done in order to determine if your limitations prevent you from performing work appropriate for your skills. If they do, then you’re disabled according to SSD guidelines and would therefore be eligible for benefits. If however, your skills would allow you to gain and maintain employment, even with your limitations, then you would be denied benefits.

While an applicant for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits doesn’t need to be concerned about the amount of their financial assets, and can still qualify for disability benefits with an earned income up to a certain monthly threshold, eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) does take an applicant’s earned income, financial assets, and unearned income into account.

Unearned income is any income that is not achieved through employment or from involvement in self-employed business activities. Unearned income can include, but is not limited to:

• Money provided by someone else for paying your own expenses
• Housing, food or other essential needs that are provided by someone else
• Veterans’ benefits
• Pension or retirement benefits
• Workers’ compensation benefits
• Unemployment benefits
• Life insurance payouts and inheritance, including property and cash
• Alimony and child support payments
• Income from rental properties you own
• Union benefits

Some earned and unearned income is counted in determining your eligibility for SSI, while other income is not. Additionally, earned and unearned income can affect the amount of SSI benefits you’re entitled to receive each month if you are deemed eligible for this program.

SSI is a cash benefit available to SSD recipients who have very limited financial resources. To qualify for SSI, your income from all countable sources – earned and unearned, money and services – cannot exceed the maximum monthly SSI benefit amount for an individual with your particular living and other circumstances. Additionally, your SSI benefit amount may be reduced in proportion the countable resources, including the countable unearned income you have at your disposal.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has provisions in place for covering the widows and widowers of deceased workers with Social Security old age or retirement benefits and Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits as well.

Workers contribute to the Social Security throughout the course of their employment. Every year, four work credits can be earned, making 40 credits potentially accumulated over the course of just ten years of employment.

The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) regulations contain multiple provisions for making benefits available to certain survivors of deceased workers. Among these provisions are some that allow surviving children of deceased workers to receive benefits through the Social Security old age/retirement fund and through the Social Security Disability (SSD) fund.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) takes several factors into account when reviewing any application for Social Security Disability (SSD). The medical records contained in your application are a big part of the process, but not the only important information reviewed by the SSA.

The SSA also evaluates your work skills. This is done to determine if your medical condition truly prevents you from working entirely. By determining your skills the SSA is able to identify jobs you may be able to do even with the limitations your medical impairment may place on you.

The SSA uses job data available through the Department of Labor to categorize jobs into broad groups, based on the skill sets required to successfully perform the work. These categories include skilled work, semi-skilled work or unskilled work.

Semi-skilled work is defined as work that doesn’t encompass more complex duties. While positions in this job classification do require you to be alert and pay attention to details, like monitoring machines or processes, it doesn’t require you to have professional level knowledge, training or education in order to perform the essential job functions.

Semi-skilled jobs may include positions in which you’re expected to perform inspections by looking for errors or irregularities, or may require you to take care of or guard materials, property, or equipment. They may additionally require skills such as manual dexterity or physical coordination, like the ability to perform repetitive tasks or operate equipment or machines.

When the SSA looks at your application for SSD benefits, they will evaluate the limitations imposed by your medical or psychological condition. They will also evaluate the skills you possess, and will compare those with the limitations of your medical or psychological condition. In this way, the SSA is able to determine if you are unable to find and maintain gainful employment, which is a central component of the eligibility criteria for receiving SSD benefits.

The “Red Book” is a reference resource published by the Social Security Administration (SSA) that details all of the employment-related rules and regulations associated with the Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. It is intended for use by professionals that help people with disabilities, but the Red Book can also be used directly by SSD and SSI beneficiaries who’re interested in learning more about the employment-related programs of the SSA.

There are provisions written into the SSA’s rules and regulations that support and even encourage disabled workers to find and maintain employment. These provisions are often referenced as “work incentive programs” and each available program is described in the SSA’s Red Book for anyone to review.

The Red Book is updated annually to reflect the most current information on employment supports offered through SSD and SSI. The book contains information on employment supports applicable to SSD only, SSI only, and to beneficiaries who receive both SSD and SSI.

If you wish to return to work, you should review the employment-related provisions of the SSA’s disability programs before doing so. Familiarizing yourself with the Red Book’s details will help you understand how seeking and/or gaining employment will affect your overall benefits. You’ll also learn about specific incentives that can help you seek employment without losing your benefits or decreasing the amount of your monthly disability payment.

If you’ve submitted an application for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits and the condition that’s the basis for your disability claim doesn’t precisely meet the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Bluebook definition, then you may still be found eligible to receive SSD benefits under a medical vocational allowance. In order to evaluate your condition and determine if you meet the overall disability requirements for receiving SSD, the SSA will assess your “physical residual functional capacity” (physical RFC).

As the Social Security Administration (SSA) reviews your application for Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits, your physical and/or mental limitations are examined to determine if you are able to maintain gainful employment. The SSA also looks at your education, work history, and work experience to evaluate the type of work you’ve done in the past and the kind of work you could potentially do, given your medical or psychological limitations.

The SSA categorizes jobs into basic groups according to the physical requirements and other job duties of each position. After looking into your work history, the SSA will classify your former positions of employment in this manner. They will also look at your capabilities and assign a job classification to the kind of work you may be able to perform even with your physical or mental limitations.

Medium work is among the categories of job classifications the SSA utilizes and is defined as a job that does not require the worker to lift any more than 50 pounds at any one time, but which may still require the lifting or carrying of items that weigh up to 25 pounds.

If the SSA finds that you are able to perform medium work and your traditional jobs have also been in the medium work category, then you will be found ineligible for disability benefits, as the SSA will see you as being capable of performing your pervious work even with the limitations that your medical or psychological condition may place on you.

Additionally, if the SSA finds that you are able to perform medium work, then they will also determine that you’re capable of performing light and sedentary work, which require less physical capability. Even if you are unable to perform your traditional work in the medium category, but your education, training and experience make you qualified for light or sedentary jobs, the SSA may also find you ineligible for SSD benefits. This is because they believe you should be able to find and maintain gainful employment in a light or sedentary job.

It is also possible that the SSA will require you to undergo a vocational rehabilitation training program in which you’ll learn new skills so you can get a light or sedentary job. If this is the case, you will be found eligible for SSD benefits and begin receiving payments, as you’re unable to do the medium work to which you were previously accustomed. However, your continued eligibility for SSD benefits will be contingent upon participation in the vocational rehabilitation program.

When an applicant for Social Security Disability (SSD) is found ineligible for benefits, they must file an appeal if they intend to continue pursuing benefits. Filing an appeal means the applicant must eventually appear before an administrative law judge (ALJ) whose job it is to evaluate the claim and make a final determination on the applicant’s eligibility to receive SSD benefits.

Medical Experts or MEs are commonly called to testify at appeal hearings. They may be called by the ALJ to evaluate medical records and explain the details of applicants’ medical conditions, or they can be called by the Social Security attorney of the individual applying for SSD benefits.

In either case, the medical expert who’s called is not the treating physician or the physician of record from any of the documentation in the applicant’s claim for disability benefits. Instead, the medical expert is a third party with no interest or connection to the claim or the applicant.

Medical experts who are called to testify by the ALJ in an appeal are tasked with evaluating medical documentation and testimony. A medical expert helps the ALJ determine the degree of impairment from which an applicant suffers and whether or not his or her medical condition meet SSD eligibility requirements.

When a medical expert is called by the applicant or their attorney, the role of the expert is to testify to the severity of the applicant’s medical condition, supporting the claimant’s argument that they have a qualifying disability and are therefore eligible for SSD benefits.

Medical experts can establish a claimant’s condition meets the guidelines of a listed impairment in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Bluebook, which is the manual utilized for evaluating medical records for SSD eligibility with specific diagnoses.

Additionally, a medical expert can help establish the date of onset of the claimant’s medical condition. This is crucial in determining when benefits should have commenced. The date the disability began will determine the amount of retroactive SSD benefits the applicant should receive if the ALJ finds them eligible for SSD following the appeal hearing.