Grid Rules are published as part of the 20 Code of Federal Regulations and are also called Medical-Vocational Guidelines. The grids combine your age, education, past work skills and residual functional capacity to form a guide to determine if you are disabled.
If you combine all the above factors and the grids point to "disabled," you should qualify for benefits. However, you may still qualify even if the grids do not point that way. You could still qualify by proving that a combination of all your impairments make you unable to perform any work available in the local, regional or national economy.
Many advocates and attorneys will refer to the grids before deciding whether to take a case. I prefer to dig a little deeper than the grids. One example of where the grids are of no help is a case involving mental impairments. Mental impairments are not measured by "exertion levels" and, therefore, the grid rules do not apply.
For strictly physical impairments, such as back trouble or torn rotator cuff, the grids may be very helpful. These grid rules are intended to be used by experienced professionals as indicators of how strong a disability case is based solely on physical or exertional factors.
If you combine all the above factors and the grids point to "disabled," you should qualify for benefits. However, you may still qualify even if the grids do not point that way. You could still qualify by proving that a combination of all your impairments make you unable to perform any work available in the local, regional or national economy.
Many advocates and attorneys will refer to the grids before deciding whether to take a case. I prefer to dig a little deeper than the grids. One example of where the grids are of no help is a case involving mental impairments. Mental impairments are not measured by "exertion levels" and, therefore, the grid rules do not apply.
For strictly physical impairments, such as back trouble or torn rotator cuff, the grids may be very helpful. These grid rules are intended to be used by experienced professionals as indicators of how strong a disability case is based solely on physical or exertional factors.
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