The US Social Security Administration has recently excluded a range of obsolete job options from being considered as potential employment opportunities for those seeking disability benefits.
When evaluating a claimant’s eligibility for social security disability benefits, the administration takes into account their medical history and ability to work. If the claimant is unable to perform their previous job, their age, education, and work experience are taken into consideration to determine if they are capable of performing other types of work.
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The list of so-called unskilled jobs that the administration claims people with disabilities can perform includes outdated occupations such as pneumatic tube operator, microfilm processor, and nut sorter. However, this list has not been updated since 1991, leading to the inclusion of positions that are no longer relevant in today’s job market. Despite this, the government continues to use this outdated list to deny benefits to those who apply for disability.
The US government’s labor department created the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) back in 1938 to define various types of work. This publication consists of tens of thousands of job titles. However, the department stopped using this volume over thirty years ago and adopted a new system instead.
According to the labor department, social security disability adjudications still employ the use of the DOT.
According to a recent investigation by The Washington Post in 2022, the list provided by the DOT prevented numerous individuals with disabilities from receiving the benefits they were entitled to.
The administration is currently working on a fresh approach to assess disability eligibility. This new method relies on the Occupational Information System (OIS).
According to the administration, the Occupational Information System (OIS) aims to offer current and comprehensive occupational information by providing a broad description of the requirements for various occupations in the national economy. Additionally, the system will highlight the ranges in which workers within each occupation carry out the critical tasks associated with their job functions.
After several fiscal years of development, the OIS has incurred a cost of around $239 million for pre-production testing and data collection from 2012 to 2022. However, despite this investment, the system is still waiting to be implemented.
