Social Security Disability Grid Rules by Age

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Gavel and Scales

If a disability applicant doesn't meet a medical impairment listing, Social Security uses a grid of rules that sets out when an applicant is disabled, based on age, RFC level (sedentary, light, medium, or heavy work), education level, and work history and skills. However, even if the grids say you should be found "not disabled," there are ways to counter this presumption (for example, if you can't even do sedentary work, if you have non-exertional impairments, if you can't use your prior job skills, if you have multiple conditions that lower your RFC, if you fit into a "special vocational profile" (such as having done 35 years of arduous labor), or if you are almost in the next age group). Note that if your impairments not exertional in nature, but wholly mental or psychological, the grids will not apply.