The Social Security Administration (SSA) is no longer considering a number of outdated jobs as possible work opportunities to deny those applying for disability benefits. Social security disability benefits are determined with a claimant’s medical records and ability to work in mind. If unable to perform their past job, the administration looks at the person’s age, education, and work experience to see if they can do other kinds of work. The list of unskilled jobs that people can allegedly perform with disabilities — some of which include pneumatic tube operator, microfilm processor, and nut sorter — has not been updated since 1991. So, it lists occupations that are obsolete but which the government argues can be performed by people applying for disability while denying them benefits. SSA is developing a new method to make disability eligibility determinations based on the “Occupational Information System” (OIS). The administration says the OIS will provide updated occupational information by “broadly describ[ing] the requirements of occupations in the national economy; and the ranges in which workers within occupations carry out critical tasks associated with their critical job functions.”

Read about SSA’s OIS project.