Publisher's Synopsis
The Guide to Becoming a Vocational Expert with the Social Security Administration is written from the viewpoint of the vocational expert. The authors are practicing VE's under contract with the Social Security Administration to provide consulting services. The content of this book is meant to provide an understanding of what it is like to be a vocational expert in Social Security hearings. The 2nd edition of the Guide to Becoming a Vocational Expert with the Social Security Administration lists and explains some of the changes taking place in the Social Security Administration over the past three years, since the publication of the first edition, that affect the disability adjudication process, and, in particular, changes that affect the vocational expert. But the main difference between the first edition and this second edition is the expanded number of examples of functional limitations ALJ's may direct to a VE's in hypothetical form of questioning. These examples, mostly taken from actual hearings, provide an analysis of the source, or how these limitations might develop from the evidence, and give suggestions of occupations and jobs that a vocational expert may use to address specific limitations in function. In this book you will be carried through the 5-step process the administrative law judge uses to determine disability; you will meet the persons who normally participate in disability hearings, including the administrative law judge, the hearing reporter, the medical expert(s), the claimant representative, and, most important, the claimant; you will follow the hearing process used to evaluate a claimant's disability; you will see how the VE evaluates a claimant's past work, with examples taken from real situations; you will see ways VE's use the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and other research to evaluate the past work of claimants; you will examine the criteria that makes up the hypothetical questions asked by the administrative law judge; you will see how vocational experts respond to questions from attorneys during cross-examination; you will be presented with selective hypothetical questions and the kinds of responses typically given by vocational experts; and you will see, by example, some of the jobs and occupations VE's cite to address specific client limitations.
