Transferability of Skills Analysis

• Author: David Traver
• Pages: 128-162

18-1

Chapter Eighteen

Transferability of Skills Analysis

§1800 Introduction

§1801 Transferability: Historical Origins and Reliability

§1801.1 Practice Tip: Transferability — Statutory and Regulatory Origins

§1802 Transferability — Statutory and Regulatory Origins

§1803 Step-Four Issues

§1804 Classifying a Claimant’s Previous Work Experience as Past Relevant Work (PRW)

§1805 Assigning SVP Levels to Past Relevant Work

§1805.1 Sources of Specific Vocational Preparation

§1805.1.1 Practice Tip: Blurred SVP Levels and Unsupported Findings of Skill Levels

§1805.2 Assigning SVP Levels to PRW “As Performed” and “As Usually Performed”

§1805.3 Example: Assigning SVP Levels to PRW “As Performed” and “As Usually Performed”

§1805.4 Classifying PRW as Unskilled, Semi-Skilled, and Skilled

§1805.5 Transferable Skills Versus Skills Acquired in Recent Education

§1806 The Role of Non-Severe and Severe Mental Impairments in the Transferable Skills Analysis

§1807 Strategies to Avoid Adjudication of Past-Work Skill Levels — Non-Severe Impairments

§1808 SVP, MTEWA, and MPSMS as Tools to Defeat a Finding of Transferability

§1809 Example, Using SVP, MTEWA, and MPSMS to Defeat a Finding of Transferability

§1809.1 Machines, Tools, Processes, Raw Materials, Products, Subject Matter or Services

§1810 Using “Advanced Age” and a Sedentary RFC to Defeat a Finding of Transferability

§1811 Using “Approaching Retirement Age” and a Sedentary or Light RFC to Defeat a Finding of Transfer-

ability

§1812 Using “Approaching Retirement Age” Rules and a Medium RFC to Defeat Transferability in SSI Claims

of Individuals Aged 65 and Older

§1813 Transferability Terms of Art

§1813.1 Definitions and Technical Concepts: What Is a “Skill”?

§1813.2 Worker Traits (Aptitudes or Abilities) Distinguished From Acquired Work Skills

§1813.3 Classifying Jobs as Unskilled

18-129 Transferability of Skills Analysis

§1813.4 Classifying Jobs as Semi-Skilled

§1813.5 Documentation of Skills and Skill Levels

§1813.6 What Is “Transferability”?

§1813.7 When Transferability of Work Skills Is at Issue

§1813.8 How Is “Transferability” Applied?

§1813.9 RFC and Transferability

§1813.10 Specialized Skills and Isolated Vocational Settings

§1813.11 Special Provisions for Transferability Based on Age and RFC

§1813.12 Special Transferability Provisions — Claimants Aged 55 Through 59 Limited to Sedentary Work

§1813.13 Special Transferability Provisions — Claimants Aged 60 Through 64 Limited to Light Work

§1813.14 Transferability Provisions — Title XVI Claimants Aged 65 or Older

§1813.15 Required Findings of Fact in Determinations or Decisions Involving Transferability of Skills

§1813.16 DOT/SCO as Primary Source of Vocational Information

§1813.17 Resolution of Conflicts Between VE Testimony and DOT/SCO

§1813.18 Reasonable Explanations for Conflicts (Or Apparent Conflicts) in Occupational Information

§1813.19 Skill Level

§1813.20 Skills Do Not Transfer to Unskilled Work

§1813.21 The Responsibility to Ask About Conflicts

§1814 Sample Cross-Examination of Vocational Expert (Transferability of Skills From Low-Level, Semi-Skilled

Jobs Based on SSR 82-41 Criteria)

§1815 General Principles of Transferability

§1800 Social Security Disability Advocate’s Handbook 18-130

§1800 Introduction

Under the existing regulations, the methodology

for identifying skills and addressing their transfer-

ability has remained a relatively obscure subject, over-

shadowed by a history of misinformation on one hand

and the absence of information on the other. This has

been due in large part to SSA’s own failure to identify

the resources and clearly explain the methodology

used by the Department of Labor itself to identify

skills and address their transferability.

Moreover, the Social Security Administration

has never identified a scientific vocational theory in

a Regulation or Ruling which would support a belief

that its transferability techniques, as codified in its

Regulations and Rulings, has a scientific basis in fact,

or that it is reliable.

In recognition of the challenges presented by the

foregoing, this chapter’s objective is threefold:

1. To identify vocational resources claimants’

representatives may use to identify a claim-

ant’s acquired work skills;

2. To explain and illustrate specific techniques

for addressing the transferability of work

skills based on SSA’s regulatory criteria; and

3. To suggest strategies by which claimants’

representatives may either:

a. Avoid the issue of transferability of

skills altogether, or

b. Defeat a finding of transferability of

skills once potential occupations to

which a claimant’s skills may be trans-

ferred have been identified.

§1801 Transferability: Historical

Origins and Reliability

A 1980 study of the Social Security Administra-

tion’s use of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles

by the National Academy of Sciences reveals this

about the theoretical foundations of transferability

analysis at SSA:

The underlying principle employed in

the evaluation process is that if the dis-

ability is not incapacitating — because the

physical, mental, and skill levels of the dis-

abled individual are sufficient to meet the

physical, mental, and skill demands of his

or her previous employment — disability

benefits are not allowed. If the individual

cannot perform his or her past occupation,

a determination is made as to whether there

exist other jobs in the national economy

that the disabled person could perform

(i.e., work similar to previous employment

but perhaps requiring a lesser amount

of exertion). This determination of the

transferability of skills between past and

potential employment is made by referring

to the information on worker trait groups,

industry designation, physical demands,

working conditions, and the GED and SVP

training time specifications, all of which

are employed to develop a vocational pro-

file of the claimant. The worker function

(DATA, PEOPLE, and THINGS) scales as

well as the GED and SVP codes are used

as rough measures of the skill level of an

occupation. According to BDI [Bureau of

Disability Insurance] practice, in order for

an occupation to be recommended as al-

ternative employment to a disabled client,

it must not have a skill level higher than

the client’s previous occupation. A second

set of characteristics taken into account in

recommending alternative employment in-

cludes the physical demands and working

conditions of the job. These characteristics

of recommended jobs can be compared

with the job profiles developed for the

claimant’s previous occupation in order

to find matches at lower levels of exertion

that the individual might be able to per-

form given his or her disabilities.

Critical Review, at 69. See Chapter 14 for a discus-

sion of the Critical Review.

Insider complaints at the Social Security Admin-

istration included concerns that some job definitions

in the 3rd Edition of the DOT (SSA had not started

to use the 4th Edition because its Selected Charac-

teristics were not available) had understated physical

exertion requirements. Two examples were Nurses

Aide, which was a light job, and Motorman in a

mine, which was “light” and suspected to really be

“medium.” Critical Review, at 257.