Chart with age, education, and work experience combinations.
By Thomas E. Bush
Excerpted from Social Security Disability Practice
The following chart is a composite of information from the three grids in the Medical-Vocational Guidelines. The chart focuses on those rules that result in a claimant being found disabled. It shows different combinations of age, education and work experience with the maximum exertional residual functional capacity that a claimant may have and still be found disabled. Thus, the chart shows what you have to prove when, for example, a 55-year old high school graduate with an unskilled work background comes to your office to discuss heart impairment: the claimant must have an RFC for light work or less in order to win the case.
Age | Education | Previous work experience | Max. RFC | Rule |
60-64 | 6th grade or less | Unskilled | Medium | 203.01 |
7th to 11th grade | Unskilled | Light | 202.01 | |
11th grade or less | None | Medium | 203.02 | |
11th grade or less | Skilled or semiskilled—skills not transferable | Light | 202.02 | |
High school graduate or more— does not provide for direct entry into skilled work | Unskilled or none | Light | 202.04 | |
High school graduate or more— does not provide for direct entry into skilled work | Skilled or semiskilled—skills not transferable | Light | 202.06 | |
55-59 | 11th grade or less | None | Medium | 203.10 |
11th grade or less | Unskilled | Light | 202.01 | |
11th grade or less | Skilled or semiskilled—skills not transferable | Light | 202.02 | |
High school graduate or more— does not provide for direct entry into skilled work | Unskilled or none | Light | 202.04 | |
High school graduate or more— does not provide for direct entry into skilled work | Skilled or semiskilled–skills not transferable | Light | 202.06 | |
50-54 | Illiterate or unable to communicate in English | Unskilled or none | Light | 202.09 |
11th grade or less— at least literate and able to communicate in English | Unskilled or none | Sedentary | 201.09 | |
High school graduate or more— does not provide for direct entry into skilled work | Unskilled or none | Sedentary | 201.12 | |
High school graduate or more— does not provide for direct entry into skilled work | Skilled or semiskilled— skills not transferable | Sedentary | 201.14 | |
Illiterate or unable to communicate in English | Unskilled or none | Sedentary | 201.17 | |
All educational levels— at least literate and able to communicate in English | Unskilled, none, or skilled or semiskilled— skills not transferable | Sedentary occupational base must be significantly compromised |
201.00(h) | |
18-44 | All educational levels including illiterate or unable to communicate in English | Unskilled, none, or skilled or semiskilled— skills not transferable | Sedentary occupational base must be significantly compromised |
201.00(h) |
Thomas E. Bush has devoted his practice to Social Security disability issues since 1977. He was elected to NOSSCR’s Board of Directors in 1988, and was President of NOSSCR for the 1997-98 term. He is the author of Social Security Disability Practice, from which this article is excerpted.