For as long as I have represented clients in social security disability (SSDI and SSI) claims, the Social Security Administration (SSA) would look at a claimant’s 15-year work history as part of its disability evaluation. Then, in June 2024, SSA changed this rule and drastically reduced this look-back period from 15 to just 5 years.
The new rule, titled “Intermediate Improvement to the Disability Adjudication Process, Including How We Consider Past Work,” took effect June 22, 2024, and is not just a procedural tweak. This was a much-needed change and offers significant benefits not just to claimants, but also to SSA staff.
From my attorney’s desk, this change brings multiple advantages. First, it has alleviated what was perhaps the biggest administrative burden in processing disability cases. Claimants no longer have to recall details about long-forgotten jobs, and SSA staff no longer have to chase claimants over incomplete or inaccurate work histories. As noted, the new rule “will lessen the burden and time our applicants face…making it easier to focus on the most current and relevant details about their past work.”
This change has also helped me as a claimant’s attorney. Whereas I once had to spend an inordinate amount of time reviewing a client’s work history with him or her. I can now use that time preparing clients to testify about things that matter to prove their disability rather than being distracted with the details of some briefly held, remote job. Further, most disability hearings last only about 45 minutes. Prior to this rule change, much of that hearing time was eaten away going through the details of the client’s 15-year work history. Now, clients have more time at the hearing to testify about their actual disability.
But more than streamlining the process, I have seen this rule directly result in awards of benefits in cases that would have been denied before the change. Imagine being a 51-year-old woman with neuropathic leg pain and weakness who needs to use a cane to stand and walk. In the past five years, before her disability hearing, she only worked as a package handler at an online retailer. But ten years ago, she spent five months working as a receptionist at her sister’s business. Before the rule change, this receptionist position would have complicated her case and made it very difficult to get her approved for benefits.
Now picture a 58-year-old man with a torn right shoulder who had spent 10 years building and installing cabinets. However, because he worked as a part-time security guard prior to becoming a cabinet maker, he also stood a good chance of being denied despite the fact that he can clearly no longer hang cabinets.
In sum, this change was long overdue and, while I am happy to see it, as I reflect back on my years of practice and the thousands of clients I have represented in disability claims, I cannot help but wonder how many of those individuals were denied benefits because of the old 15-year rule. Skills decay over time, and jobs continue to modernize at a rate much faster than they did 50 years ago. Social Security’s new rule now reflects this, and applicants for disability can expect a fairer and more trustworthy process that more closely reflects the realities of the job market.
