SOCIAL SECURITY & OUTDATED JOB DATA

 

SOCIAL SECURITY & OUTDATED JOB DATA

Before approving your disability claim, Social Security must decide whether there are any jobs in America that you might still be able to perform.

To get job information, Social Security relies on The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and other sources.

At the final decision-making step, Social Security must decide whether the claimant can perform even unskilled sedentary or "sit-down" type of work.  If so, they must deny the claim.

This is where it gets really frustrating.  There are several  sedentary (sit-down) jobs in the DOT that no longer exist.

The DOT was written in the 1930s during the Great Depression.  It was last updated around 1990.  So, at best, it is almost more than 30 years out of date.

Here is an example of a job in the DOT that no longer exists: Telegraph-service rater, DOT Code 214.587-010.  It's a real job according to the DOT.

However, the last telegraph in the United States was sent on July 14, 2006, almost 20 years ago! After that, Western Union closed its telegraph operations forever.

It's important that a claimant who goes to a hearing have a representative who can cross examine the vocational expert about his or her testimony concerning jobs that may exist in the national economy.  It is the attorney or representative's job to point out flaws in the DOT and mitigate the vocational expert's testimony.  The case very well may hinge on it; in fact, it usually does.\
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