The National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE) has posted its most recent newsletter. NADE members make determinations on disability claims for Social Security at the initial and reconsideration level. Here’s an excerpt from a write up on a talk by Gina Clemons, Social Security’s Associate Commissioner for Disability Policy:
... Gina also updated the NADE audience on work underway in the agency’s Vocational Regulations Modernization (VRM) and Occupational Information Systems (OIS) projects. These companion projects have been ongoing for several years. Key to the OIS project is an ongoing effort (since 2012) with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to collect updated occupational information through the Occupational Requirements Survey (ORS) that we will use in adjudication. The good news here is that, after three years of testing and three years of data collection, BLS will publish a complete data set documenting requirements of work in the U.S. economy sometime this winter. BLS is committed to regularly updating occupational information moving forward on a 5-year refresh cycle and has already started collecting updated occupational data to refresh the ORS data set by 2024. BLS will document some of the basic mental demands of jobs in the 2024 ORS refreshed data.
The ORS data set will replace the Dictionary of Occupational Titles in adjudication. SSA has adopted an evidence-based, data-driven approach to modernizing the vocational regulations. The scope of the VRM project includes policy considerations in step 4 and 5 of the sequential evaluation process. Gina explained that several internal teams involving representatives from across SSA have been working on policy development for VRM.
11 comments:
Should be a welcome replacement for the oft criticized DOT/SCO. Hope they raise the VE pay and the ME pay, which has languished.
Oh yeah I see pay raises for everyone in our future! Hopefully the Koch brothers will show us a little largesse and noblese oblige!
VE pay was just increased - for the work that they do, seems to me that they are paid very generously. Not sure why VEs receive higher pay for remands?
hmmmmm........if the VRM is done correctly - more than half of the vocational rules will be eliminated........and the question will be how many cases will actually need any VE input.
isn't there a question of whether the VEs in many areas are actually fully qualified anyway?
What is the VE pay? Just curious.
VE pay...varies by VE, currently not standardized. Roughly $75-$125 per hearing in my office. Hearings canceled with 24 hour notice, no pay.
Remand hearings tend to be longer - reps want to win because the $6K fee cap no longer applies, and reps can earn a real jackpot. So VE cross exam on an unfavorable ALJ hypo becomes much more vigorous. Also some remands hinge on arcane vocational issues that require more research than the same old 30-year-old list of jobs that haven't existed in 20 years. Hence the higher VE pay on remands.
Be careful what you wish for, when the new jobs show that people are able to work you will not have the excuses any longer.
Many jobs listed in the DOT that VEs like to cite as unskilled are now semi-skilled or skilled due to tech changes. I would predict that reliance on more current data would result in it being easier to win for people limited to unskilled work.
VE pay is standardized under the BPA with Social Security. It does NOT depend on the VE.
Tonight we’re gonna party
Like its 1991
The last date the DOT was updated
We can still deny claimants for fun
By ruling that they cannot do
Job descriptions so obsolete
They were last updated when disco was cool
And Jimmy Carter was our chief
Updating, a step in the right direction
To try and cure the legal fiction
And the moral duty dereliction
Of denying claims based on false depiction
How many disabled on the street today
Or laid to rest in paupers graves
Based on testimony
Of obsolete jobs that a VE gave
“Consistent with the DOT”
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