Vocational Factors

Vocational factors considered by the Social Security Administration when determining a claimant's eligibility for SSI and SSDI benefits include a claimant's age, education and training and work experience.

Vocational factors are used in the SSA sequential evaluation process after the SSA determines the claimant's condition does not meet or exceed a condition on the SSA Listing of Impairments (Step 3). If the claimant's condition does not meet or equal a listing in the next two steps the SSA determines if the claimant can work a previous job or retrain for new work.

Vocational factors are considered in step 5 of the sequential evaluation process. For instance, the SSA will consider the vocational factor of age and whether it will make it difficult for the claimant to retrain for new work. For example, the SSA understands individuals over the age of 55 cannot easily adapt to a new profession, and it will be easier for older claimants to win SSDI benefits than younger claimants.