A WBTV Investigation into social security shows thousands of people are denied disability claims every year because of jobs that are out-of-date.
The Social Security Administration uses a guide called the Dictionary of Occupational Titles that hasn’t been updated since 1991, even as technological advancements have made many of the jobs described in the book obsolete.
The impact that it’s had can be felt by people like Gray Hogan. ...
Hogan applied for disability. He’s been unable to work a forty-hour week for years because of the pain.
But Hogan was denied twice. When social security denies a claimant, the person can often file an appeal in court with an administrative law judge. That process has numerous steps and the last one is for social security to determine if there are any jobs a claimant could work. That’s when Hogan was told there were jobs that were suited for him. But none of them were from the 21st Century.
“Document preparer, addresser and (envelope) stuffer,” Hogan said.
“Common sense would tell you that job doesn’t exist as it’s described,” attorney George Piemonte told WBTV. ...
“Over the millions of claims that they’re reviewing, you’re still talking about hundreds of thousands of people being denied based on these nonexistent jobs,” Piemonte said. ...
Jun 21, 2021
Why Is Social Security Still Using The DOT?
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19 comments:
I'm still getting the surveillance system monitor occasionally. We get the tube operator frequently even though SSA in a publication has admitted it doesn't exist in significant numbers anymore. Some VEs insist that the job of a Call Out Operator (person who sits at a computer and looks up and relays credit info) has only occasional handling and fingering requirements. The VE stuff is really just a game. Can anyone tell me any other legal proceeding where an expert who relies on information that is decades old would be taken seriously?
9:09, the DOT is badly outdated, but it cuts both ways. It's also hard to justify an administrative presumption that people magically stop being able to do unskilled sedentary work on their 50th birthday, but here we are.
Wouldn't an update have to include work at home options, so being able to sit/stand at will, take frequent breaks, have a flex schedule and even non-traditional shifting and even online gig jobs? Those types of things would make work even more accessible than ever.
Which publication said Tube Operator doesn't exist in substantial numbers anymore?
The DOT is an SSA embarrassment.
Used to get the surveillance system monitor job. When I got this from a VE, I knew it was bogus. Now, they are coming up with bench assembler. This is also very suspect. They are also woefully behind with tech jobs. Most VEs will admit these are outdated.
The DOT needs to be updated.
So why isn’t anyone hounding the Department of Labor to update the DOT?
11:48. You're right. While I sympathize that the DOT is hideously out of date, reps should be careful what they wish for, with more computer jobs and more WFH jobs.
But on the flip side, have the "unskilled" jobs become more scarce as well, with increased automation etc.?
New book on this topic: https://nyupress.org/9781479811014/social-security-disability-law-and-the-american-labor-market/
I agree the inaccuracy cuts both ways but makes step 5 seem quite the farce.
@7:10pm, The Department of Labor abandoned the DOT a long time ago and has a new resource, O*Net, which works well for many purposes, but was never designed for use in disability hearings. SSA has been working with the Bureau of Labor Statistics for almost a decade to replace the DOT with an updated database for disability adjudications. https://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/occupational_info_systems.html
My dad says that I have a "gift for stating the obvious..." Why? Because it allows SSA to deny people they otherwise would have to pay! Members of Congress (with a few exceptions) PRETEND to care about the disabled...but, clearly care more about the money. As a claimant, I dealt with the staff of multiple members of Congress. They gave you lip service, but complained "they agency doesn't care about our attempts to help our constituents." My response, Senator X or Congressman Y can rewrite the law that that an ALJs or SSA decisions have to be supported by the preponderance of the evidence, not merely "substantial evidence." Clearly, this process is about limiting awards, not about truth.
@ 11:48
Work from home jobs are going to be skilled. There are no work from home jobs for someone with an IQ of 75, a marginal education, or severe mental impairments. The ridiculous unskilled jobs that are used in denials are surveillance system monitor, call out operator, photo copier, bench assembler etc. None of these are work from home jobs.
10:09 how many 75 IQ people you get in a year? Only 5.5% of all Americans have a score 75 or lower.
Relying on 30+ year old job descriptions from the DOT to deny disability claims? That's embarrassing. SSA could begin to re-establish credibility to the process by publishing a list of DOT job descriptions that are known are obsolete and forbidding their use to deny disability claims at step five of the disability process.
11:38 A lot. 5.5% of all Americans equates to over 18 million people. Common sense says those 18 million are going to be more likely to apply for disability when their bodies break down physically.
It’ll be interesting when SSA comes up with its own system to replace the DOT and eliminates the need for VE testimony. When ALJs don’t need to ask hypos at the hearing and everything becomes as efficient as a child’s case. Or when SSA simply eliminates step 4/5 and it’s meet, equal, or denied.
It’s odd that we’re so concerned with the reality of the DOT (or surreality of using something 30 years old) but have no issue engaging in the fiction that someone in their early 50s with a high school education and no severe mental impairment can’t do a variety of sedentary SVP 3 or 4 jobs.
Actually 902 the real fiction is relying solely on the mechanical functions of a job and not whether claimants are capable of sustaining competitive work, can even function to apply for a job. Someone who is chronically homeless for example. Someone who prefers to isolate and live in the woods has clear evidence of a mental impairment. However, they don't seek treatment because of the very mental illness that causes them to engage in severe isolation. No treatment, no benefits. Next! It is shameful what our disability system does. So if you want to talk fictions within the system, then address all of them.
@9:02 - I believe the issue involved there is not whether older workers can do those jobs but how hard it is for older workers to transition to other types of work. Some of us have discovered that the older we get, the harder it is to learn new things. You may discover that yourself one day.
Or is it a matter of the older you get the less inclined to learn new things gets.
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