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Home :: FAQ :: Issues - Social Security Disability Hearing

What is the role of the vocational expert at my social security disability hearing?

While medical factors alone may justify a finding that the claimant is or is not disabled, it is necessary in some cases to consider vocational factors in order to determine whether or not the claimant is able to engage in any substantial gainful hearing, with respect to the claimant's residual functional capacity. The expert will not be expected to testify as to whether or not the claimant is under a disability, since he does not have the responsibility for deciding this ultimate legal issue. The expert will not express any opinion regarding the impairments involved and their effects on residual activity. A vocational expert may be called by the Social Security Administration to testify about your employability. Two basis questions will be presented at your hearing as follows:

The first question pertains to the kind of work, if any, the claimant can do in light of prior work activity and residual functional capacity considering age, education, training and work experience, as well as physical and mental restrictions. The expert's testimony will be predicated on various assumptions, posed at the  functional capacity, since these are medical matters. The expert will be requested to furnish a rationale and complete explanation for his or her opinions. In forming the expert's judgment as to whether or not the claimant could transfer vocational skills to any other type or work, the expert will be requested to consider only work which the claimant could perform after a normal period of training, usually given to new employees, rather than after extended vocational rehabilitation.

The second question is whether any work a claimant could do exists in the "national economy"; i.e., whether it exists in significant numbers either in the region where the claimant lives or in several other regions of the country. The expert should be prepared to testify from personal knowledge gained from vocational surveys of businesses and

industries (whether such surveys were made by the vocational expert or by the other vocational experts) and from other current vocational resource materials.

Questions may also be asked of the expert by the claimant or representative who will be entitled to cross-examine the vocational expert.