GETTING DISABILITY BENEFITS: YOUR BEST BET

If you need Social Security disability benefits (monthly income + Medicare), your best bet may lie in the grid rules. They are also called the Medical-Vocational Guidelines.

These guidelines form a "grid" combining your age, education, past work experience and exertion restrictions to determine whether you are disabled according to Social Security's rules. I estimate that 75 percent of the cases I win are based on the grid rules. They can work for you.

To qualify under the grids, however, a claimant must be 50 or older and have "exertional" restrictions--i.e., restrictions in things like walking, standing, bending, lifting, reaching or carrying. The guidelines do not work for psychological or mental limitations. So, claimants whose impairments result strictly from depression, anxiety, PTSD or other psychologically based illnesses won't benefit from the grids.

Individuals who are 50 or over and have never worked "sedentary" jobs are most likely to benefit from the grids. A sedentary job is one where an individual sits most of the day and lifts no more than about 10 pounds occasionally. Individuals with this type of work history are more difficult to get approved.

Grid rules are complicated. The first time I say them years ago, I said, "Does anyone understand this?" But after using the grids thousands of times to win disability cases, they have become my best friends. They are also my client's best hope!

https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-app-p02.htm