Video Blog - Sequential Evaluation Process Overview

Natalia:	Welcome to the Hill & Ponton Social Security Disability Blog. I’m Natalia Jofre, I am the Social Security Section Director for our law firm.
Shelly:	Hi, I’m Shelly Campbell. I am the Senior Social Security Attorney with the firm.
Natalia:	Today, we’re going to be talking about the sequential evaluation process. What is it? What does it mean? And, basically, it is the set of questions that Social Security asks to determine if a person can qualify for disability benefits.
Shelly:	That is correct, Natalia. It’s a series of questions that Social Security uses to determine whether an individual is going to be eligible for disability benefits.
Natalia:	What would the first question be?
Shelly:	The first question that Social Security is going to ask is, “Whether the individual is currently working?” If not, they’re going to want to know if the person has been out of work for 12 consecutive months, or if they plan to be out of work for 12 consecutive months?
Natalia:	Okay, and then the next step?
Shelly:	The next step they’re going to look at is whether or not the individual has a severe medical condition that prevents them from working?
Natalia:	Severe, such a wide range, right?
Shelly:	Yes.
Natalia:	We’ve literally had clients call us because they had a stubbed-toe, they don’t know when they’re going to be able to go back to work. Obviously, there’s a wide range between stubbed-toe and terminal cancer, so?
Shelly:	That is correct, Natalia. Social Security, we use a process to determine whether the medical condition is actually severe, and by severe, it means that it has to actually affect your ability to work in sustained, gainful employment.
Natalia:	Okay, so then the next step would be?
Shelly:	The next step is to determine whether or not the condition is so severe that it meets what’s called a listing.
Natalia:	I know that listings are a set of rules that you have to meet Social Security’s exact criteria in order to be found disabled under that rule, different conditions have different rules, right?
Shelly:	That’s correct. Each medical condition has a listing, and if the condition is so severe that it meets or equals that listing, then the evaluation from Social Security stops, and the person is determined to be disabled.
Natalia:	All right, and then the next thing they’re going to look at is work?
Shelly:	That’s correct. If the individual does not meet a listing, the next thing they’re going to look at is the type of work that the individual did over the past 15 years.
Natalia:	They look at that pretty specifically. I know that we’re going to be talking about that some more. I do want to go back really quick to when we were talking about working, because I do think it’s important for us to just mention that there is an exception made for people that are legally blind. We’re going to be dedicating an entire blog to just that, because there’s a lot involved regarding that, but I do want to just mention that exception, so going back. Step four is work, work for the past 15 years, basically looking at is there any type of work you’ve done in the last 15 years that you can still do, right?
Shelly:	That’s basically it. They’re going to be looking at the work that you’ve completed in the past 15 years. Whether you’re able to return to that work? If not, whether you would be able to perform some different type of work, or whether the individual could be retrained to perform different work?
Natalia:	That pretty much encompasses the step five.
Shelly:	Right.
Natalia:	Can you be retrained to do any other type of work, right?
Shelly:	That is correct.
Natalia:	Okay, great. Well, if you have any questions regarding the sequential evaluation process or whether you could qualify for disability benefits, and you’d like to talk to us, feel free to call our office or visit our website, hillandponton.com. For now, that’s all we’ve got. We thank you for watching and we’ll see you next time.
Shelly:	Thank you.