Can the Sequential Evaluation Process Be Ignored?
There are three ways SSA may determine you are disabled without satisfying the usual sequential evaluation process. Contact your Texas Social Security disability attorney for the best advice on determining whether you are disabled. SSA may consider you disabled if you fit one of these three exceptions.
First, a claimant is disabled if he or she has a severe, medically determinable impairment, is 55 or older, has no more than an 11th-grade education, and has no past relevant work experience.
Second, a claimant is disabled if he or she has no more than a 6th-grade education, worked for 35 years at arduous unskilled labor, and is no longer able to do the arduous unskilled labor done in the past.
Third, a claimant is disabled if he or she is not working at substantial gainful activity level, has a lifetime commitment (30 years or more) to an unskilled field of work or is skilled or semi-skilled but with no transferable skills, can no longer perform this past work because of a severe impairment, is 60 or older, and has a limited education.
In addition, there are two ways SSA may find you are not disabled even though SSA has concluded that you are disabled through the sequential disability evaluation process. First, you are not deemed disabled if, without good reason, you do not follow the treatment prescribed by your physician. The prescribed treatment must be “clearly expected to restore” your ability to work. Second, you are not considered disabled if drug addiction or alcoholism is a material contributing factor to your disability determination.
For more advice on disability determinations, contact Texas Social Security disability attorneys at Morgan & Weisbrod.
