Using Medical-Vocational “Grid” Rules to Determine Disability
Proving you are disabled under the guidelines of the Social Security Administration (SSA) becomes easier as you get older. This is because, according to the SSA, learning a new skill or transitioning to a new workplace is more difficult for older people. If you are over the age of 50 and cannot do your past work, depending on your education and physical abilities, the SSA may not expect you to transition to a new line of work. If your impairment does not meet the severity of any medical listing, the SSA will attempt to apply one of its Medical-Vocational Rules. These are presented in a grid format, so are often referred to as the “grid rules.”

Several determinations must be made before a grid rule can be applied. Briefly, these include:

Your age
Generally, you must be over the age of 50 for the grid rules to be applied. However, in rare situations, you could be found disabled between the ages 45-49 if you have a severe physical disorder and are unable to read and write English, or at age 49 if you are within a few months of your 50th birthday and are unable to perform even sedentary work due to your lack of education and physical limitations.

Your level of education
The grids divide your highest level of education into the following categories:

• Illiterate or unable to read, write, and speak English
• Marginal education (8th grade or less)
• Limited education (11th grade or below)
• High school graduate (Hold a diploma for completing 12th grade level work)
• High school graduate with additional education or vocational training

Your residual function capacity (RFC)
RFC is an assessment by the SSA for the purpose of establishing an exertional level of work you could do based on your strength and endurance. Your RFC is the most you can do on a sustained basis.

There are five categories:

• Sedentary work
• Light work
• Medium work
• Heavy work
• Very Heavy work

These categories are further defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, which can be found at: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/416/416-0967.htm

Your past work’s skill level and physical requirements
Your past work will be classified as unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled. The Dictionary of Occupational Titles will be used to determine the skill level of all your past jobs. Your description of your duties also will be taken into consideration. If you haven’t worked fulltime in the past 15 years, this will be counted as not having any work experience. The physical requirements of your past work will be a major factor in the determination of whether you could return to that type of work.

Your skills and their transferability
Your skills and whether they could be transferred to another job will be a determining factor in the evaluation of your disability claim. The SSA will consult the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, as well as your Work History Report, in its assessment of whether you have skills that could be transferred to another job.

GRIDs for Sedentary Work

GRIDs for Light Work

GRIDs for Medium Work

Example
To illustrate how the grid rules could be applied, consider the case of a 55 year old former brick layerwith arthritis vs a 35 year old former brick layer with arthritis. Let’s assume they both have a high schooleducation and vocational training in masonry. Using the grid below, you will see that to prove disabilityunder the SSA’s Medical-Vocational Rules, the 55 year old would have to show first that his physicalimpairments precluded him from doing anything beyond sedentary work. This would be determined by areview of his medical records and a functional capacity assessment. Then, by applying grid rule 201.06,he could be found disabled. The 35 year old, on the other hand, would not have the grid rules as a tool touse in his claim of disability. The SSA would argue that he could learn another type of work.

Your representative can help you determine whether arguing a grid rule would be appropriate inattempting to prove your SSA disability claim.