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Video Blog – SS Sequential Eval – Step 5

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Natalia Jofre:Welcome to the Hill and Ponton Social Security Disability Blog. I’m Natalia Jofre. I’m the director for our social security section here at Hill and Ponton.
Shelly Mark:I’m Shelly Mark. I am the senior social security attorney here.
Natalia Jofre:Today, we’re going to be talking about step 5 of the sequential evaluation process. We’ve talked about this before, where it’s basically the process social security looks through to see if a person can qualify for disability benefits or not. Step 5’s pretty important because it’s the final determining factor.
Shelly Mark:That’s correct.
Natalia Jofre:You want to explain what that is and how it’s applied?
Shelly Mark:Sure. Okay, so after social security has determined whether or not you could perform your past work, they’re going to go to step 5 and see if you would be able to perform any other work. This is going to get a little bit more in depth as we’ll go over in the future, as far as whether they’re transferrable skills. The most important factor at step five is someone’s age.
Natalia Jofre:Okay, so then you have the different age groups, and then based on their age they’re going to look at whether they have transferrable skills or not because if they’re under age 55 it’s a huge deal. If they’re over age 55 it’s pretty much irrelevant.
Shelly Mark:Right, that’s correct. There are three different age groups. Younger individuals are defined as up to 49 years old.
Natalia Jofre:I’m still a younger individual, whoo!
Shelly Mark:Then the next classification are going to be closely approaching advanced age, and that’s individuals from age 50 to 54. Then the next will be advanced aged individuals, so 55 to around 62-ish. Then over that age is going to be really be retirement age.
Natalia Jofre:Yeah, because there’s a closely approaching retirement age, right?
Shelly Mark:Right.
Natalia Jofre:There’s two gray areas. The gray is closely approaching advanced age, which is 50 to 54. Then we have what we call the magic number in social security which is age 55.
Shelly Mark:That’s correct.
Natalia Jofre:That is what really relates back to what we’re talking about in terms of transferrable skills. Can you do any of your prior work? Pretty much, if you can prove that you aren’t able to do any of your prior work, which are the 15 years prior to your disability, then you should be found disabled.
Shelly Mark:You should be, that’s correct.
Natalia Jofre:Should and are, two totally different things in the social security world. I mean, that’s why a lot of people contact us. Technically speaking, if you can prove that the person is over age 55, or 55 or older and can no longer do any of the type of work they’ve done in the 15 years prior to their disability, they should be found disabled.
Shelly Mark:They should be, that is correct. The age groups, what happens is depending on which category the individual falls in, that determines the rules that are applied or the statutes that can be applied to evaluate what kind of work they could be retrained to do or could not.
Natalia Jofre:Obviously if a person is younger, much harder case because not only are you looking at, can they do the type of work they did in their past, but also can they be trained to do some other type of work? That’s where you start getting into those skill levels and transferrable skills or not. The 50 to 54 is a pretty big gray area, too.
Shelly Mark:It is a gray area, and what happens is, if you’re in that age category, which we’ll talk about in another video, but it gets very technical as far as, what exertion level can this person perform? What skill level? Is there any transferability there?
Natalia Jofre:Are you good, then? Is there anything else you wanted to say? I mean, I guess the only other thing that I would say is, the older you are, the easier it gets. Unfortunately, a lot of people that are over age 55 and even over age 60, they do still get denied.
Shelly Mark:That’s correct.
Natalia Jofre:They get denied.
Shelly Mark:People that are in younger age categories do get approved, as well. Don’t let that be a completely discouraging factor for someone that is disabled. It is overcome-able.
Natalia Jofre:Right, it just takes a little bit more work and knowledge and all that good stuff, all the know-how.
Shelly Mark:Right.
Natalia Jofre:That’s where you come in with your high skill level. Okay, great. Well, thanks for joining us. If you have any questions or want additional information or are interested to see if you could apply for disability benefits, feel free to call our office or visit our website, hillandponton.com. Otherwise, we’ll see you next time.
Shelly Mark:Thank you.
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Shelly Mark, Senior Attorney

Shelly was born in Pensacola, Florida. After graduating from Florida State University, she worked for an HIV-AIDS non-profit organization in Tallahassee assisting individuals suffering from HIV – AIDS with obtaining medical treatment, healthcare insurance, mental and substance abuse counseling, and housing. Shelly is a member and serves as Secretary of the Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless. Shelly also volunteers with and serves as Legal advisor to IDignity DeLand, a non-profit organization that assists low income and homeless individuals with obtaining identification or other required documentation at no cost. Shelly lives in Deltona and enjoys spending time with friends and family.

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