How does my age affect my Tennessee Social Security disability case?
When our Kingsport, Tennessee disability claimants ask us if age is a factor in their disability case, we tell them that an older disability claimant has a better chance of being awarded Tennessee disability benefits than a younger disability claimant. Age 50 is an important dividing line for claimants applying for Tennessee Social Security disability benefits or disability benefits anywhere in the Southeast. If there are two claimants with nearly identical disabilities and backgrounds and only one of them is older than 50, the 50-plus claimant is more likely to receive benefits than the under-50 claimant. Claimants under 50 simply have a harder burden to overcome to win disability benefits, but it is not impossible.
Your age is a factor in determining whether you have the ability to adjust to other work
The Social Security Administration applies a five-step sequential evaluation process to analyze whether you are disabled and qualify for disability benefits. For more information about the sequential evaluation process, see The Sequential Evaluation Process.
If your impairment does not meet or equal an impairment described in the Listing of Impairments (step 3), you may only qualify for disability benefits if you must meet all the other requirements of the sequential evaluation process culminating at step 5. Social Security law requires the Social Security Administration to consider age as part of step 5 of the sequential evaluation process.
At step 5, the Social Security Administration considers if you can perform other work that exists in significant numbers in the national economy. This requires adaptability on the part of the individual. This is the most complicated step in the evaluation process. At this step, the Social Security Administration will look at your age, education, work experience, and remaining capacity for work, and determine if you have any transferable work skills that enable you to work despite your disability.
If you have transferable work skills that allow you to make an adjustment to perform other work that exists in significant numbers in the economy, you will not be found disabled (even if you cannot perform substantially all sedentary work). If you do not have transferable work skills and cannot do any other generally available jobs, you will be found disabled and will be eligible for Tennessee disability benefits. Step 5 is where your age really plays a role – the older you are, the easier it becomes to satisfy this step.
Qualifying for Tennessee Social Security disability benefits if you are over 50
If you are over 50 and can no longer do the sort of work you have done in the past, the Social Security Administration’s rules require that your age be taken into account when considering whether or not you can do other work. These rules are embodied in the Medical-Vocational Guidelines, which are used by the Social Security Administration to determine disability at Step 5. The guidelines, popularly known as the “grids” or “grid system,” can be complicated, but generally result in making it makes it easier for people over age 50 and especially those over age 55 to meet the definition of disability.
If you are between 50 and 54, the Social Security Administration will consider that your age, along with a severe impairment and limited work experience, may seriously affect your ability to adjust to other work; and you will most likely be found disabled if:
- you are physically limited to sedentary work;
- your education level is less than a high school diploma; and
- the work you performed in the past 15 years is unskilled or semi-skilled (or skilled in ways that do not transfer to other work).
If you are 55 or older, the Social Security Administration believes that your age significantly affects your ability to adjust to other work, and you have even a better chance of being awarded disability benefits; and you will most likely be found disabled if:
- you are physically limited to sedentary or light work;
- your education level is less than a high school diploma; and
- the work you performed in the past 15 years is unskilled or semi-skilled (or skilled in ways that do not transfer to other work).
For people over age 50 and those over age 55, you may also be considered disabled by the Social Security Administration if you have your high school diploma or have a higher degree of education, but your education doesn’t provide for direct entry into other skilled work.
Once you are over age 60, if, due to your disability, you are unable to perform any of the jobs you performed in the last 15 years, regardless of what type of work you are physically limited to, the Social Security Administration will likely find you disabled.
Qualifying for Tennessee Social Security disability benefits if you are under 50
If you are under age 50, the Social Security Administration generally does not believe that your age will seriously affect your ability to adjust to other work. If you are over 50 years old and are limited to unskilled sedentary work, the Social Security Administration will presume that you are unable to transition to other work due to your age. However, if you are under 50, the Administration will not make this presumption. This can make a big difference in a Tennessee disability case. An individual who is limited to unskilled sedentary work may lose his claim for Tennessee disability benefits at age 48, but will win it at age 50.
There is an exception for persons aged 45 to 49 who are either illiterate or unable to communicate in the English language. Those individuals will most likely be found disabled if
they are restricted to sedentary work, unskilled or have no transferable skills, and have no relevant past work experience or can no longer perform vocationally relevant past work.
However, if you are under age 45, age is usually not a significant factor in limiting such an individual’s ability to make a vocational adjustment, even an adjustment to unskilled sedentary work, and even where the individual is illiterate or unable to communicate in English.
Building a Social Security disability case for a Kingsport, Tennessee disability claimant under age 50
To qualify for Social Security disability benefits, most claimants under age 50 will need to show they cannot do a wide range of sedentary work. Sedentary work is defined by the Social Security Administration, and these terms are used as part of step 5’s determination of the physical exertion requirements of work in the national economy.
Sedentary work involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and occasionally lifting or carrying articles like docket files, ledgers, and small tools. Although a sedentary job is defined as one which involves sitting, a certain amount of walking and standing is often necessary in carrying out job duties. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required occasionally and other sedentary criteria are met. Standing and walking should total no more than two hours per eight-hour workday, while sitting would total about six hours per eight-hour workday. In addition, most unskilled sedentary jobs demand good manual dexterity for repetitive hand and finger motions.
Functional limitations that limit a disability claimant’s ability to do sedentary work
The following are just some functional limitations that may lessen the amount of sedentary work you are capable of doing. To build a strong Social Security disability case for a younger claimant, we will walk through these functional limitations with you to determine if you cannot do a wide range of sedentary work, and thus arrive at the point where jobs you can do don’t exist in significant numbers.
- Sitting limitations
In order to do a full range of sedentary work, a person must have the capacity for prolonged sitting. Sedentary work typically requires sitting for approximately six hours of an eight-hour workday.
An individual may need to alternate the required sitting of sedentary work by standing (and, possibly, walking) periodically. Where this need cannot be accommodated by scheduled breaks and a lunch period, the occupational base for a full range of unskilled sedentary work will be eroded.
- Manipulative limitations
Most unskilled sedentary jobs require good use of both hands and the fingers (i.e., bilateral manual dexterity). Fine movements of small objects require use of the fingers (e.g., to pick or pinch). Any significant manipulative limitation of an individual’s ability to handle and work with small objects with both hands will result in a significant erosion of the unskilled sedentary occupational base.
Reaching, handling, fingering, and feeling require progressively finer usage of the upper extremities to perform work-related activities. Reaching (extending the hands and arms in any direction) and handling (seizing, holding, grasping, turning or otherwise working primarily with the whole hand or hands) are activities required in almost all jobs. Significant limitations of reaching or handling, therefore, may eliminate a large number of occupations a person could otherwise do.
- Standing and walking limitations
For sedentary work, a person is expected to be capable of standing and walking intermittently for a total of about two hours out of an eight hour workday. Any significant reduction of standing and walking capacity below this limited amount will reduce the sedentary occupational base. According to the Social Security Administration, the occupational base of a person who can stand and walk for only a few minutes out of the workday would be significantly eroded.
Because sedentary work requires a person to be able to obtain and return objects, and stand and walking for approximately two hours out of an eight hour working day, it follows that use of a cane would limit capacity for a full range of sedentary work. A person sometimes needs two free hands to carry some objects encountered on sedentary jobs.
The need to periodically walk around (often necessary for those with back problems) is likely a disabling limitation, depending on the frequency and duration of the need to walk around, because this takes a claimant away from the work station.
- Ability to stoop
Stooping is defined as bending “the body downward and forward by bending the spine at the waist.” The complete inability to stoop would significantly erode the unskilled sedentary occupational base and a finding that the individual is disabled would usually apply. However, because most unskilled sedentary jobs require only occasional stooping, a reduction to occasional stooping would only minimally erode the sedentary occupational base.
- Visual limitations
Most sedentary unskilled occupations require working with small objects. If a visual limitation prevents an individual from seeing the small objects involved in most sedentary unskilled work, or if an individual is not able to avoid ordinary hazards in the workplace, such as doors ajar, boxes on the floor, or approaching people or vehicles, there will be a significant erosion of the sedentary occupational base.
- Mental impairments
A substantial loss of ability to meet any one of several basic work-related activities on a sustained basis (i.e., eight hours a day, five days a week, or an equivalent work schedule), will substantially erode the unskilled sedentary occupational base and would justify a finding of disability. These mental activities are generally required by competitive, remunerative, unskilled work:
- Understanding, remembering, and carrying out simple instructions.
- Making judgments that are commensurate with the functions of unskilled work—e.g., simple work-related decisions.
- Responding appropriately to supervision, co-workers and usual work situations.
- Dealing with changes in a routine work setting.
- Additional conditions that may interfere with the ability to perform sedentary work
The following are some additional conditions that may interfere with your ability to perform sedentary work:
- Headaches.
- Pain.
- The effects of treatment including frequency of treatment, duration, and disruption to routine.
- Side effects of medication.
- Dizziness.
- Bladder or bowel problems that require frequent rest room use.
- Need to maintain a colostomy or ileostomy.
- Skin impairment.
- Seizures.
- Inability to hold the head in flexed forward position.
Experienced Tennessee disability attorneys can help
Individuals over the age of 50 face unique challenges when an injury or illness prevents them from working. The Social Security Administration recognizes this and takes age into consideration when looking their ability to adjust to other work and in understanding that they may no longer be able to perform the physically demanding jobs they have always held.
Literate claimants under 50 face their own challenges in seeking Social Security disability, but disability benefits are not impossible to win. Skilled assistance is essential.
We are well-respected and experienced advocates for clients seeking Social Security disability benefits in Tennessee and throughout the Southeast. If you are not already represented by a Tennessee Social Security disability attorney and you want our evaluation, please give us a brief description of your claim using the form to the right. Or you may contact us at:
Smith and Cockett
Tennessee disability lawyers
E-mail us
Mountain City office:
247 West Main Street
Mountain City, Tennessee 37683
Local: 423-727-7913
Toll-free: 877-302-8665
Kingsport office:
224 Colonial Heights Road
Kingsport, Tennessee 37663
Local: 423-392-0100
Toll-free: 877-302-8665
