Justice in Aging ’s Post

Transcript

The Social Security Administration recently changed the way that they consider past relevant work. First of all, what is past relevant work and why does it matter for a Social Security disability or an SSI disability claim? Sure, so when deciding whether someone is disabled, Social Security uses a five-step process. So, first, is the person working? Second, do they have a severe medical condition? Third, does their condition meet very specific criteria that necessarily means they're disabled? So, those are usually called listings that they meet. But third, you know, fourth, if you don't meet one of those listed conditions, are you able to perform any of your past relevant work? And if Social Security decides that you can perform any of your past relevant work, then they'll declare that you are not disabled. Considering that many people have multiple jobs in their lifetime and even several jobs at once, how did SSA determine what qualified as past relevant work? So, prior to the recent change, Social Security viewed past relevant work as any work that the claimant had performed for the past 15 years that was substantially gainful and that lasted long enough for the claimant to have learned how to do it. So, in every case, the claimant, sometimes with the help of a representative, would have to fill out forms detailing all of those jobs that they had done for the past 15 years. And 15 years is actually a really long time if you think about it. So, especially if you work in retail or in a restaurant or construction, something where you might just naturally go from job to job, that's a lot of information that you're having to list and a lot of information that the agency is having to process and fill in gaps on. So, it was a real burden, both recalling the information for the individual and for processing it all for the agency. So, we've already mentioned that there was a recent change. What did SSA decide to change? So, they made two substantial changes. So, first, they changed the relevant work period from 15 years to five years, meaning that people now only need to list the jobs that they've had in the past five years. And Social Security will only consider those jobs when they're deciding whether or not you're able to perform your past work. So, that's a huge change. It knocks off a huge chunk of time. So, the second change is that they decided that work was no longer relevant if it lasted less than 30 calendar days. So, that's really helpful for people who might have had temp jobs or something, you know, jobs that they did have long enough to learn how to do, but not jobs that lasted for any substantial period of time. And when did this change take effect? So, it went into effect on June 22nd of 2024, and it's the decision date that matters for these cases. So, any case that was decided on June 22nd or after will have used and will be using that five-year past relevant work period.