WHAT THE VOCATIONAL EXPERT (VE) DOES AT YOUR HEARING

Social Security always calls a vocational expert to testify at disability hearings when the claimant is an adult.  This is because work--past, present and future--is a vital part of the disability decision making process.

The vocational witness has 3 major roles in the hearing, involving past work and future work.

PAST WORK

The judge will ask the vocational exert (VE) to describe and classify each job the claimant as held within the 15 year period prior to filing a disability claim.  The VE will classify each job as to its skill level:  skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled.  He/she will also classify each past job as to its exertion:  sedentary, light, medium, heavy or very heavy exertion.

The judge will set forth a series of hypothetical scenarios involving different levels of exertion and with a different set of work related restrictions.  The VE will then be asked whether, based on these scenarios, the claimant is able to perform any of the past relevant work.  

OTHER OR FUTURE WORK

If the claimant has been determined able to perform any of his/her past work, then the claim is denied.  If the VE testifies that no past relevant work remains available, the case moves to Step 5, the final step in the hearing process.  The question here is:  "Based on this same set of restrictions and hypothetical scenarios, can the claimant perform ANY OTHER work which exists in the national economy?" 
  
 In more cases than not, the VE will testify that while the claimant cannot perform any past work, he or she can still perform certain other jobs.  For instance, all the past work was performed at the medium exertion level, which required lifting up to 50 pounds occasionally.  However, there are millions of jobs available in the Light exertion level, where the most weight that has to be lifted is 20 pounds occasionally. So, the VE might testify that claimant could perform such Light Exertion jobs as:

• Marker, DOT Code 788.584-014.  SVP 2,* meaning that no formal training is needed (See footnote).

• Hand Packager, DOT Code 559.687-074, also SVP 2 (little or no training required).

• Carbonation Tester, DOT Code 522.587-010.  SVP 2 (Little training needed)

Or, if the judge poses a hypothetical question which leaves the claimant only able to perform sedentary work (done from a seated position most of the time), the VE might offer the following sedentary jobs:

• Food and Beverage Order Clerk, DOT Code 209.567-014.  SVP 2 (Little training needed).

• Cutter and Poster of Press Clippings, DOT Code 249-587-014.  SVP 2, can be learned in a few minutes).

• Surveillance System Monistor, DOT Code 379.367-010.  SVP 2.

Here is the trickiest part of the vocational expert's role.  He or she will estimate how many of these jobs exist in the national economy.  How these job numbers are arrived at is a closely guarded secret. Most of the time the vocational expert can't tell you in any detail how she arrived at the numbers.  Often, they won't even try.  But in most cases, the VE will claim that there are hundreds of thousands of each job in the economy.

The best hope the claimant has is to have a representative present who can question the VE and use the medical evidence to cast doubt on his or her testimony.  Remember, if the judge believes the claimant can perform even 1 of his or her past jobs, the claim is denied.  If the claimant is under age 50, and the judge believes that he or she can perform some other work that is being done in the national economy, the claim will be denied.  So, the vocational testimony is critical to the outcome of the case.
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SVP stands for "Specific Vocational Preparation," and refers to the amount of training required to perform a certain type of job.  The higher the number, the more skilled the job is and the more education and training are required.  For example an SVP of 2 requires no more than a brief demonstration--something that you could learn in a few minutes or maybe a couple of hours.  An SVP of 8 would require several years of college or post graduate education, such as a doctor, lawyer or engineer would require.