Social Security must consider age and are required to do so. As people get older, many become less flexible, having difficulties switching to different jobs in order to cope with health problems. For example: a severe foot injury which causes a 30-year-old to switch jobs where he or she can sit down during an 8-hour day is considered differently than a 60-year-old who cannot not make the adjustment to a different type of work. It is good to remember, Social Security does not consider a person’s ability to adjust to work solely based on age. However, SSA considers advancing age which can increase the limited amount of adjustment one must do in a work setting.
According to Social Security, if you are a younger person (under age 50), they generally do not consider that your age will seriously affect your ability to adjust to other work. However, in some circumstances, they consider that persons age 45-49 are more limited in their ability to adjust to other work than persons who have not attained age 45. See Rule 201.17 in appendix 2. If you are closely approaching advanced age (age 50-54), they will consider that your age along with a severe impairment and limited work experience may seriously affect your ability to adjust to other work. Social Security considers that at advanced age (age 55 or older) age significantly affects your ability to adjust to other work. There are special rules for persons in this category who are closely approaching retirement age (age 60 and above).
Social Security provides tables of rules which are used as guides to evaluate how age, education and work experience affect your remaining capacity for work. In order to evaluate skills and to help determine the existence in the national economy of work a person is able to do, occupations are classified as unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled. To classifying occupations, SSA uses materials published by the Department of Labor. SSA makes disability determinations under this classification.
